A Complete Guide on Introductions to Email Creation Platforms, features, pricing, reviews to look for

Intro

But isn’t “Email Creation” just “Email Marketing”?

If email marketing is the unsung hero of the marketing organization, email creation is the most overlooked component of email marketing processes.

If you’re wondering if email creation is just another term for email marketing, the short answer is no.

Email marketing involves every aspect of your email marketing program, but email creation refers specifically to the steps you take to create an email asset.

Research shows that 71 percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. And 76 percent get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Ratcheting up the pressure on companies, if consumers don’t like the experience they receive, it’s easier than ever for them to choose something different. Three-quarters of consumers switched to a new store, product, or buying method during the pandemic.

What is an Email Creation Platform?

An email creation platform is used by marketing and design teams to create marketing emails. It is a magic bullet for teams stuck in inefficient and ineffective creation processes.

By bringing everyone together in a single, collaborative environment, an email creation platform streamlines the overall process, powering more efficient workflows and faster production cycles.

Effective email creation platforms come with a comprehensive suite of features that add speed to the production, review, and approval process.

This is a key difference between email creation platforms and traditional ESPs or MAPs like Gmail or even mailchimp.

What makes a robust email creation platform: The necessary features

While there are many bells and whistles, to be truly agile, an email creation platform should include a core set of functionality that enables a collaborative work environment and streamlines the entire process.

Modules and templates

A sophisticated email creation platform offers users both modules and templates to create campaigns.

A module is simply a component piece of a template: a header or footer element or a paragraph of text and the link. Users can stack modules like legos to create a template layout.

As modules or templates are essentially a wireframe, or skeleton layout, of an email, users can start from the layout of their choice and then enter their desired content into each content area without having to recreate the wheel and building a new HTML file from scratch each time.

Having both modules and templates offers differing levels of design flexibility while taking advantage of reusable pieces.

Brand and compliance guardrails

An HTML code editor or ESP builder allows you to use templates or modules, but the best email creation platforms add a very important layer on top: granular brand guardrails.

These guardrails allow admins to define specific brand guidelines for elements like fonts, formatting, color palettes, and even things like character or line counts, all of which prevent an end user from going out of bounds as they enter their content.

A great email creation platform will enable the setting of these guardrails in a way to perfectly enforce your brand standards, along with regulatory and compliance rules.

By setting brand guidelines and compliance rules at an admin level, creative teams can guarantee every email is on-brand, automatically, regardless of the person creating it.

Integrated content sources

An email creation platform should integrate with your existing marketing technology stack, including your digital asset management platforms (DAMs), allowing teams to easily access pre-approved brand logos, images and creative assets.

By integrating your content sources, anyone who has access can easily pull approved content from existing sources without having to leave the platform.

Sophisticated platforms will allow you to set advanced permissions around these creative assets, for example ensuring users only choose from logos for the logo spot, and headshots for the headshot spot.

Your marketing emails will remain consistently on-brand when users can only choose from pre-approved imagery and logos.

Review and approval features

One of the most time-consuming aspects of email creation is the review and approval process. In many companies, a user sends a proof to themselves, then hits forward to five to ten people with a cover note “what do you think?” and then all the recipients reply asynchronously.

In others, the email is turned into a PDF and passed around for comment. Pre-pandemic, some companies would print out each email, put it in a folder and pass it around the office for review.

Whichever way your company does review and approvals, there’s likely room for significant efficiency gains. Any email creation platform you consider should come with native functionality for commenting and approvals.

The email creator should be able to collect comments and approvals in a single collaborative work environment that is accessible to all stakeholders.

By streamlining reviews in the most effective way possible, an email creation platform brings reviews and approvals inside the creation process, removing the need for inefficient email threads and multiple chat conversations.

Email export services

Integration is a key component of any successful email marketing stack and an email creation platform is no different. In addition to integrating with your DAMs, an email creation platform must also integrate with the ESP or MAP that you use, sometimes multiple ESPs or MAPs.

This enables the finished html assets to be passed via secure API connection directly into the proper place in your deployment platform, saving users from having to download and re-upload finished files.

Drag and drop no-code functions

Today’s marketing organization is made up of professionals with varying levels of technical capabilities. Because of this, more and more marketing technology tools offer low-code and no-code drag and drop functionality, email creation platforms included.

By having a platform that takes care of the complexities and idiosyncrasies of HTML behind the scenes, you are able to free your developers to work on only the most complex campaigns, while your end users never have to worry about breaking any code.

Automatic link validation and tracking parameters

Links are a key part of any effective email marketing program. A great email creation platform will come with functionality to ensure your links work properly, as well as the ability to automatically append tracking parameters.

Link validation should include the ability to automatically detect any missing, broken, or malformed links within an email – either warning the user or preventing the email from being completed without required links.

Not only should the email creation platform be able to detect missing links, it should also ensure every link within the email has proper tracking parameters appended so that brands can effectively measure and track email performance.

These parameters, often for Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics, can be automatically configured or chosen by the user from pre-set choices, eliminating any downstream data issues or pesky tracking spreadsheets with concatenation formulas.

Even element-level parameters should be supported, such as appending something different if the link is an image vs a headline vs a CTA button.

User role optimization

The end goal of an email creation platform is to democratize access, giving users of all levels the ability to create successful, on-brand emails. But that doesn’t mean everyone should have access to every configuration option.

User role optimization levers allow admins to set permissions for various users, limiting what actions can be taken by various team members.

While an email creation platform empowers end-users to be self-serve oriented, user role optimization features give distributed teams the ability to create brand-safe emails, turning everyone into an expert-level pro.

Custom elements

While drag and drop no code module creation handles most needs for creating emails without coding or design technical skills, more complex campaigns sometimes require the ability for customization.

Custom elements allow creation teams to create their own HTML and CSS code and embed it with established granular guardrails for brand and compliance rules.

The result is the flexibility to build complex and unique modules according to design needs while enforcing brand guidelines for email creators.

One of the more common use cases for custom elements allows content to be stacked differently on mobile devices vs. desktop, realigning content based on varying needs of creation team members.

How Box was able to significantly scale the email creation process

Before using stensul, cloud content management platform Box was stuck with an outdated email creation process overrun with inefficiencies. When an email campaign was needed, a brief was submitted to the marketing operations team and then routed to an email creation team which would code the email from scratch or build the email from a predesigned template.

Any revisions to the email during the review process meant changes had to occur directly in the HTML file, causing bottlenecks in workflow routines, production errors, and delayed launch times. The email creation process lacked any ability to scale. As the company grew, Box’s email creation process became unsustainable, with marketing operations unable to keep up with email requests.

Stensul made it possible for Box to significantly scale their email creation process, building on-brand, responsive emails that got to market faster and more efficiently.

Key finding: Team agility jumped allowing them to increase email output and reduce agency spend by 60% without sacrificing quality or brand standards.

Catalent completely reinvents their email marketing program with Stensul

Catalent, a global provider of health products, was frustrated with their email creation process. The marketing team was using an email builder application attached to its marketing automation platform. With limited features and capabilities, coding email assets that rendered well across devices was a challenge.

Catalent’s marketing team needed to streamline the email creation process, while making sure they were creating mobile-responsive emails that included standardized email designs across all campaigns. By implementing Stensul, Catalent was able to completely reinvent its email marketing program, dramatically reducing the time

it took to design and code emails that included standardized design elements and on-brand messaging.

Key finding: Stensul no-code module creation meant emails render perfectly while creation time dropped by half, increasing team agility.

Other Great Market Alternatives to Stensul no-code module emails creation tool

Crystal

‍Crystal is a professional email writing tool that uses existing online data to evaluate the recipient's personality to determine the language and tone you should write the email to capture their attention.

Like many others, this email writing software based on DISC personality insights comes in the form of a browser extension.

With Crystal, you can communicate confidently as you are scientifically on the same page as the recipient.

Crystal uses a proven personality framework called DISC to reveal how prospects want to behave, communicate, and make decisions, so adaptive selling techniques can be implemented, reinforced, and scaled throughout the sales entire organization.

Predict any prospect's personality and get actionable insights into how to best communicate with your buyer.

Crystal Pricing

Crystal has not provided pricing information for this product or service. This is common practice for software sellers and service providers. Contact Crystal to obtain current pricing.

Fluint

Finish sales meetings with ready-to-ship recaps buyers can’t wait to share with their decision makers.

Increase the number of new opportunities you create by eliminating friction during your handoff to AE's.

Boost your entire team’s win rate by enabling sellers to craft highly-personalized materials for every buyer, with Fluint you are not losing deals when you are not in the room.

You probably think sales reps close deals...

...but the data’s in. Over 90% of B2B buying happens without sales reps in the room. Which means deals are won or lost when champions pitch your product to their own team — in their own words.

Equip your champions by converting their words from your sales meetings into a written, executive-level business case they can't wait to share.

Fluint complements all your favorite tools

Keep using the tools you love while adding Fluint into your sales process. Setup is easy.

Fluint Pricing

Fluint has not provided pricing information for this product or service. This is common practice for software sellers and service providers. Contact Fluint to obtain current pricing.

Mailmentor

Apps to improve email writing skills are hard to come by, but Mailmentor is one of the few email writing helpers that gives you feedback to improve your writing. All you have to do is copy and paste the email text into the app, and it will let you know the approximate reading time and the reading level.

Use the app to practice email writing and repeat the process until your message is so simple that this email correction app believes someone with a 6th-grade reading level could understand it.

You can configure the message type, desired tone, and goal to your desired specifications for every message generation. Give your AI generated messages a personal touch by uploading information about each of your contacts.

Mailmentor pricing

QuickMail

QuickMail is a free online email writing tool that can be your savior if you have a hard time landing cold emails or remembering to send follow-up emails to people you've contacted.

It integrates into your email provider or client, without disturbing your current workflow. This automatic email writing app will help you schedule the follow-up emails that you wouldn't have otherwise sent.

Overall view of your campaign stats, If you or your team are looking to build a predictable sales pipeline, reaching out to cold prospects by email in order to generate new leads, you'll love QuickMail.

Whether you are in a meeting, on the phone, or even asleep, QuickMail will stay on top of your outreach, contacting the right number of prospects each day and following up with the ones who haven’t replied.

That way, you and your team can focus on more important things, like moving engaged prospects further down the customer journey.

With QuickMail, you get to send highly personalized emails straight from your inbox while enjoying the latest technology to maximize email deliverability.

Quickmail pricing

QuickMail has 3 pricing editions, from $0 to $79. A free trial of QuickMail is also available. Look at different pricing editions below and see what edition and features meet your budget and needs.

Flowrite

Flowrite is an AI-powered email writing generator that turns short instructions into ready-to-send emails, saving you hours and hours when it comes to daily communications.

The writing software created specifically for professional and business email writing can help you be more productive and achieve more, deliver the message with the right one, overcome the blank page syndrome and communicate fluently.

Write faster by turning instructions into ready-to-send emails and messages with artificial intelligence, also Beat the blank page syndrome while it’s helps find the right words for any situation by generating unique AI-powered drafts with one click.

Flowrite Pricing

Just €15 per month to write daily emails and messages 5x faster. Save €36 per year with annual plan.

Lavender

The most helpful email assistant on the planet. Lavender helps you write better emails faster.

It’s a browser extension that combines writing AI, social data, and inbox productivity tools.

AI analyzes and helps you improve your emails and replies, social data helps you build rapport, and tools like Mobile Preview, Email Verification, GIFs, and Spam Stopper help you be awesome at email.

Recipient insights, a plethora of writing tools, mobile preview, spelling + grammar, email verification, and so much more. With Lavender, you have a complete tool kit for great email writing, Lavender touches every aspect of writing an email. Who you're writing (Recipient insights). What you're saying (Writing assistant). Writing it faster (Productivity tools).

Lavender Pricing

Lavender has 3 pricing editions, from $0 to $49. A free trial of Lavender is also available. Look at different pricing editions below and see what edition and features meet your budget and needs.

How is an email creation platform different from an ESP or MAP?

In the simplest sense, an email creation platform serves as the center of gravity for your creation process.

Unlike your Email Services Provider (ESP) or Marketing Automation Platform (MAP), an email creation platform does not deploy your campaigns, manage your email lists or bounces, or provide delivery options.

Many ESPs and MAPs may include an email builder as part of their solution, but it is not core to their offering and fails to deliver the same capabilities that an email creation platform provides.

ESPs and MAPs are centered on automating various aspects of your email marketing efforts.

An email creation platform is focused on the creation process and compliments your existing ESP and MAPs, integrating with the rest of your marketing technology stack to streamline your email production.

While ESPs and MAPs may come with an email builder, email creation is not a product focus or priority for these technology platforms.

Beyond the tech: Your Success

Change is hard, especially in email creation, where many teams have been building emails the same way for years or decades.

Because email creation platforms are designed to transform the way teams work, it is important that your email creation platform offers an elevated level of customer success to ensure your success.

Great support starts with a team that can help you set up the platform and walk you through the important questions you’ll want to consider as you rethink your process, as well as setting up your modules, templates, and permissions.

Because your process is likely changing with the introduction of an email creation platform, it’s important to think about the people impact and not just the software settings.

Many email creation platforms offer self- setup capabilities, but few have a team that will step in to configure the platform and integrations, educate your team and stakeholders via live training sessions, and ensure your success.

Even after the initial onboarding process, your support and success team should remain available and alert you to any product updates or releases to ensure you are taking full advantage of the platform.

More importantly, a true success team is committed to building long-term relationships with their clients, working in tandem with your organization to optimize your email creation process, get everyone on board with the new process, and to ensure you deliver measurable outcomes and exceed your goals.

Establishing an agile email creation process takes more than simply implementing a new technology solution. Marketing operations teams must adopt a new mindset focused on speed and collaboration.

The best customer success teams are equipped to help lead your team through any change management issues that may arise as you graduate up the email marketing maturity curve.

Is it time to invest in an email creation platform?

Whether or not your marketing operations team will benefit from an email creation platform depends on your email creation maturity level.

Teams that have reached a high maturity level are able to produce more emails in less time without having to add staff or sacrifice quality. Teams that are in the early stages of the maturity curve often struggle to keep up with the influx of email requests and end up spending a majority of time on production and execution versus strategy and testing.

If your team is struggling to manage the influx of email requests, then it may be time to consider adding an email creation platform to your martech stack.

An email creation platform is key to raising your email creation maturity level. But before you implement a new platform, it is worth taking the time to audit your current processes to identify where the bottlenecks are.

If your team is struggling to manage the influx of email requests, then it may be time to consider adding an email creation platform to your martech stack.

Ten questions to help you audit your email creation process:

1. Do you often feel your team is drowning in email requests and is lacking the resources and staff to keep up?
2. Do you anticipate an increase in the number of emails that will need to be created? Either more raw requests or more versions (segments, languages, tests) could be the driver.
3. Does it take too long for your team to create emails due to bottlenecks across the creation, review and approval process?
4. Is your email creation team working across various disjointed tools that fail to integrate?
5. Do edits and revisions get lost in the creation process, causing inefficiencies that take up everyone’s time?
6. Are email campaigns deployed that fail to follow brand guidelines or include compliance issues?
7. Is your email creation team continually fixing the same problems every time it goes through the creation process?
8. When it comes to your email marketing programs, does your marketing operations team constantly have to cut corners so that it can do more with fewer resources and staff?
9. Are the quality of your email campaigns suffering?
10. Are you about to hire more team leads (designers, developers, QA, etc) to speed up your creation process?

How to justify the cost of an email creation platform

Email creation platforms enable creation teams to do a number of things, but the biggest impact they have is on the bottom line. Without an email creation platform in place, an outdated process and tools may be costing your organization hundreds of thousands of dollars at a minimum!

Teams without an effective email creation platform spend countless hours moving an email through the creation, review and approval process. Operational costs increase while opportunities are lost due to slow workflows that delay campaigns.

According to McKinsey, companies that are able to establish agile and collaborative operational practices, built on speed, can unlock anywhere from 5% to 15% of additional growth and cut marketing costs by as much as 10% to 30%.

Adding an email creation platform to your email marketing stack allows your team to accelerate launch times while reducing creation times, all without adding headcount or sacrificing performance. Not only does the email creation process become more agile, email programs see lifts in conversion rates and revenue with teams able to focus on strategy instead of execution.