Responsive Email Templates Are On the Way!
We’ve gotten lots of requests for responsive email templates lately, and we’re thrilled to share that your wishes are about to come true. Here’s a sneak peak into our new responsive templates!
First, a quick definition of responsive design is that your website, email or blog adjusts to the size of the window viewing it. So your email will look slightly differently if it’s on a desktop, a tablet or a mobile phone.
All of the templates in our updated system (to be released this Spring) are responsive, you can select any theme, use any images you like and your email will still adapt to the screen used to view it. Want to check out what your email is going to look like on a mobile phone? We’ve built in a preview page so you can see it before you push send; useful to know how things will look ahead of time and really, it’s kind of fun too.
To illustrate, I’ve created an email and will show you how it looks in the three different previews.
First up, and the default view, is on a desktop. This shows a good amount of the email and what it will probably look like for a lot of your readers. You can also scroll the preview image and see what the rest of the email looks like.
Next up is a mobile phone, you’ll notice the view changes quite a bit, and we put the text up front so that your mobile readers are drawn into the important part of your email first. The arrows show that you can flip the image, so you can see how it looks vertically or horizontally.
The last icon is for a tablet, and again you see both vertical and horizontal views, and what your readers will see. Since the screen is larger than that of a mobile phone you’ll see more of your email displayed here.
This brings up the point that you want the top of your email to have the most important info for your readers. This is what catches their eye first and draws them, and if they’re busy they can still see what you need them to see quickly. And don’t forget your logo, you can see in all these examples the VR logo is easy to see, you want your readers to know they have the right email, and who sent it to them.
If you want to see this in action, here’s a very short video showing the preview in action.
What do you think of responsive design? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi Beth,
Our new Salesforce integration is being tested as we speak (I’m helping to test it!). We have a sneak peek blog post today and there will be a video sneak on Friday as well if you want to see what it’s looking like. The new integration will be available soon, and though I can’t say a specific date, I will say before the summer is over you’ll have the option to use the new one.
Jill Bastian
VerticalResponse
Hi Jill,
Just reading through the comments on your article.
Are the email responsive templates available on Salesforce yet as your last response was no in November?
Thanks,
Beth
Hi Ellen,
Not yet, but we are re-working our Salesforce integration and the new version will have the responsive templates. Look for more info about this around March.
Jill Bastian
VerticalResponse
Are these responsive templates available on Salesforce yet?
Hi Liz,
The responsive templates won’t be in VR Classic, all new features are going into the new product. We’ll start moving Classic users over to the new one as the features they use are added to it. Look for emails from us soon as to what features are there and if you should move over yet.
It’s been a few months since the last post. Are the responsive templates available in classic?
Hi Liz,
For most people, just look in the top left corner of your VR account, if you see a blue VerticalResponse Classic logo, then you have Classic. If it says VerticalResponse and the account has purple highlights, you’re in the new VR. Your account is branded for WPI, but it’s a Classic account. We haven’t invited any Classic users to the new one yet, it doesn’t have all the features that Classic has, so we’re holding off. If you have a different email address you want to use, not the one you’re using now, you can go check it out if you like. Just note that you have a specific account for WPI and that will not be the case if you set up an account on your own.
Hi Jill,
Thanks for your reply, but I’m still a little confused. You say that most of your customers are using the VR Classic, but then you say that the “Classic Users” do not have access to the new system. So who are the lucky customers that have access to the 2 new templates? And how do I know if I am a “Classic User”?
Hi Liz,
We’re in the process of updating our system and so for the time being we have two, the one that most of our customers are using, called VerticalResponse Classic, and our new VerticalResponse. The responsive templates are in the new system, along with some other new features. But, because the new system doesn’t have all the features our Classic users are used to, we haven’t invited anyone over yet. We don’t want you to get in there and be disappointed if your favorite feature is missing. So we plan to invite our Classic users to the new platform when the features they like are introduced. You won’t see responsive templates in VR Classic, but you should see an invite soon to check out the new system!
This article is over 2 months old and I still don’t see the responsive templates in my Vertical Response account. Can you please let me know when these will be available? Or, if they are already available, how can I access them? I thought I would see a “Responsive” template category in the email wizard, but I haven’t seen one yet. An update on this would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Art,
We just launched an updated version of VR, but it’s still in limited use and not in Salesforce. Yet. We will be working on the SF integration that we have and updating it, so you should hopefully see the new templates there soon!
Excellent! Are the responsive design templates out now? If so, are they available from within the Salesforce app, or do we need to import them? We have many people on staff who compose VR emails, mainly from within Salesforce, and they would love to have access to these new templates as a starting point.