Writing beautiful emails, right in Gmail
Post date: Dec 07, 2014 7:36:28 PM
To improve Yet Another Mail Merge, I mainly look at 2 things: Feature requests from users and Available features in existing mail merge tools, like MailChimp. Then I try to find the best way to make new features that will fit perfectly in the Google Apps environment.
A lot of mail merge tools offer advanced ways to build pretty emails, based on existing templates and WYSIWYG editors. In Gmail, it is kind of the opposite. Google is pushing to focus on content when writing emails and leaves very limited options regarding formatting.
In another tool, Newsletter creator, I let people write their emails using a Google Sites page, which gives a lot more formatting options. So my first thought was to merge both tools, YAMM and Newsletter Creator. But the fact is, people like YAMM because it lets them use Gmail to write their emails. So let's not forget that.
This summer, Google introduced a new Gmail API, giving us more options to interact with Gmail and specifically the ability to automatically create drafts in Gmail. So starting today, you can ask YAMM to create a pretty new draft in Gmail and then edit it like you would edit any other draft. I hope the resulting email will satisfy most people. I tried to make something simple and beautiful.
To create a new draft, simply open YAMM, click on the draft selector and you will see a new option to "use a predesigned template".
You will then be redirected to Gmail where you will be able to edit this template and put your own content.
Some examples:
(Based on the content of a few newsletters I recently received)
