First off, I’m not advocating email spam. Most Mac and Windows PC users get enough of that scourge already (I’m up to about 300 unsolicited email messages a day; made bearable thanks to Spam Sieve). Second, I have to acknowledge that there are legitimate uses for mass email for businesses, friends and family, and civic organizations with a cultivated opt-in email list to manage.
So, with a bit of reluctance I point out the advantages of Mail Designer 2, a Mac app which lets you create attractive, professional looking email messages which you can blast to everyone and anyone on your list with little more than a few clicks.
Think page layout app meets email. That’s Mail Designer 2, which comes with visual tools to help you build customized email messages without knowing a lick of HTML or CSS or JavaScript, but if you can point and click you’re good to go. Oh, you’ll need some money, too.
Start by selecting from dozens of custom templates, add your own photos, images, logos, and content, then attach to your email address list.
Mail Designer comes with all the graphic design bells and whistles you’ll need; plenty of layout elements, buttons, clipart, graphics, text, and places to drop in headers and badges, social media buttons, as well as support for animated GIFs, YouTube and Vimeo videos.
That’s just for starters.
Email messages can be multiple columns, newsletters, or just a promotional message loaded with photos, images or videos.
Sending email messages from your Mac is easy, too. Mail Designer 2 works with professional systems including MailChimp and Campaign Monitor but can also be delivered straight from your own email account on your Mac. The email message you create can also be exported as HTML to be a complete website page, ready for viewing.
All the templates, and there are many, are fully editable, so it takes only minutes to find one that matches your needs, and customization is simple from then on.
The only caveat for me is the price. Mail Designer itself is priced about right, but the in-app purchases for additional templates can send the total price five times beyond the cost of the app itself. Of course, you’re not likely to need every template package, but just as it is with fonts and clipart, you can never have too much.
It’s just a bit scary how easy it is to create professional level spam messages these days.