Introducing Drafts: A New Way to Get More out of Your Email Content
By Kristen Dunleavy August 20, 2015
Here at AWeber, we bang a gong every time we accomplish something big. We love the feeling of GSD (Getting Stuff Done), and we know you do too. That’s why we’re so excited about our newest update (and you can bet that we banged our gong extra loud, too).
We wanted to give you an easier way of managing your emails so you can get more stuff done. Meet the all-new Drafts view.
Drafts is a new feature within your AWeber account where you create your email messages. When you have an awesome idea for an email, you simply create a draft. You can then choose whether you want to add it to a follow up series or send it as a broadcast message.
All of your email drafts now live within the Drafts view. You can select any draft and see a preview of it on this page, too. No more having to open the email to view what it looks like.
Make your content go the extra mile.
One of the coolest things about Drafts is that it helps you get more mileage out of your existing email content. For example, you can now copy a broadcast message back into your Drafts view, tweak it a bit, and turn it into a follow up – or vice versa.
It’s now easier to do more with the content you already have, and that’ll help you get even more stuff done.
In the meantime, here are a few content tips to help you create AWesome emails with Drafts.
Capture your big ideas.
Have you ever had a great idea for an email, but you didn’t have time to fully think it through? First thing’s first: capture that idea before you forget it. Get your idea down in an email draft, and come back and add to it as it evolves.
Let’s say you’re a life coach and you just found an inspirational quote that you want to write an email around. As your message evolves, you realize it would be perfect for your new subscribers. You could save it as a follow up message just for them.
If you’re stuck on content for a new broadcast message, you can copy that follow up message back into Drafts, make a few changes, and bam! Now you have a new broadcast message.
Turn a broadcast into a follow up.
Ok, so how exactly do you turn broadcast content into follow up content? Broadcast emails are one-off messages that are usually time-sensitive. A weekly newsletter, an email containing your latest blog posts, a message promoting an event, upcoming sale or new product – these are all good examples of broadcast emails.
On the other hand, a follow up message is evergreen. It contains content that you can send to your new subscribers at any time.
If you already have an email announcing your latest software update, you could make it evergreen by turning it into a how-to guide that will teach your new subscribers how to use that software. If you have an email telling your subscribers about a new financial planning online course you’re teaching, you could make it evergreen by creating a short list of money-saving tips from that course.
Taking the main idea of your broadcast email and changing it just enough so you can send it as a follow up message can save you time and effort in the long run.
Turn a follow up into a broadcast.
Now let’s switch it up: You’re a realtor with a follow up message about buying tips for prospective homeowners. To get more out of this content, you can tweak some of these tips and include them in a broadcast announcing this weekend’s open houses. This gives your subscribers an update and valuable tips they can use while attending those open houses!
Here’s another example: You’re a health and wellness expert and one of your follow ups contains a case study about someone who uses your personalized fitness plan. Pull their best quotes from that message and use them with a new product announcement in a broadcast email.
That’s how the new Drafts view helps you deliver even more valuable content to your subscribers.
What’s next?
We’re excited to learn how you’re using the Drafts view to streamline your workflow and get more out of your email content. Use hashtag #aweberdrafts on Twitter and tell us what you’re drafting!
If you’re not an AWeber customer yet, you can sign up today for a free trial!
One more thing: Drafts is just the beginning. We’ll be ringing that gong a few more times before 2015 is through!
Update: August 25, 2015, 6:10 p.m. ET
One of our core values is listening to our customers’ feedback, and we’ve received a lot of really passionate feedback from you about the most recent Drafts release. We want to thank you for it. Your input plays a big part in helping us continually improve our service to you.
With every release, our intention is to improve your workflow based on user testing we regularly do along with your continuous feedback we get every day. However, we understand that this latest release had a negative impact on the workflow of some of our customers, and for that we sincerely apologize.
One of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve received deals with the inability to copy a broadcast while retaining the included/excluded lists. We’ve heard your feedback and are working on restoring this feature.
This is a top priority for us and will restore this capability this week (on or before Aug 28) as we understand this is a key feature some of you rely on for your business.
Our new Drafts feature paves the way for some big upcoming enhancements many people have been asking for to improve the way you manage subscribers, lists and your overall marketing automation practices. These enhancements will be rigorously tested both internally and with select customers to ensure they add significant value to your business and don’t negatively impact your workflow.
If you have any questions about using the Drafts feature or optimizing your email lists, please contact our Customer Solutions team. We’re here to help!
