When laying out what's involved in email marketing, we can break things up into three essential components: design, code, copy. Throughout the years, I've worn different hats on projects involving websites and emails and I've been a designer, developer, and writer to be able to work in all three areas. So I've come to understand what each of those areas involves while crafting effective digital communications.

If you've been following the blog, you may have noticed a recurring theme of efficiency and quality. That's because the approach behind how Blocks Edit works is based on these principles which stem from how I've come to do my work using the idea of design thinking to guide the way. And I've found that efficiency and quality don't have to be mutually exclusive.

What is design thinking?

After a few years of doing design work, you eventually learn that there's more to just how clean and simple the creative or interface looks, or how easy it is to absorb or interact with it. It's also about the process involved, the nuances of the intent behind how your design is used. This understanding comes from learning what makes a good user experience and creatively putting those elements together, and from analyzing and understanding the meaning behind it. So design thinking is essentially both creative and analytical thinking working together holistically.

"...design thinking is essentially both creative and analytical thinking working together holistically."

Design thinking in email

Here are some examples that use design thinking to putting together an email campaign that lead to both quality and efficiency at the same time:

• Campaign design - finding patterns and reusing elements saves time but also ensures consistency which makes for more user-friendly design that's on-brand
• Coding approach - you can write your code in a way that you feel comfortable and allows you to be creative, and use tools and systems to output the final code for computers to read
• Writing content - well, that's what we made Blocks Edit for: to write your content visually in an email's template and move pieces around to put it all together, so you're able to see the results of your thinking live and without requiring a designer or developer

Better collaboration with some design thinking

The Blocks Edit workflow (shown above) allows you to analyze and enhance the way you work, both on your own and with your team. And because the interface is easy to use, not only marketers and copywriters can add in content and make edits on their own, other members of the team can as well. And with the content editing centralized in one place, the editing and review process is done the same way. This means no other tools have to be used for content, no meetings have to be held for how to lay out the pieces. Design discussions and decisions are made upfront and coded into an editable template with reusable pieces. So when making edits and building out new emails, you don't have to worry about the design or continuously touching the code.

This all allows you to do your best work, with other people that can work to do their best work, for consistently better results. It's more efficient and leads to better quality. It may sound too good to be true, but what makes it work is the right design thinking behind how things can be done.

Start working with the Blocks Edit content workflow for you and your team to be more creative and efficient with your email campaigns. Sign up for free and get started with your own email.