Finally this spring AWeber rolled out their WYSIWYG (which decodes as what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor, also called click-and-edit editor, or drag-and-drop editor˳ Basically what it means in plain English is that now each little part of your newsletter is represented by its own editable area˳ In order to add content to an article, header, introduction, image – you click on a relevant area which opens a little editing box (with options very similar to MS Word) and create your awesome content˳ Then you can drag and drop content areas around the newsletter˳
No messing around with HTML, no worrying about accidentally deleting some template code… Sounds great, right? Well, not quite˳
We’ve done our extensive testing˳ As we were pretty excited about this development – it would have solved a lot of pain for our clients who are into Internet Marketing and for us, when we have to check and fix their newsletters before they go out˳ And we’ve uncovered there are still a few issues that will limit a lot of your Internet Marketing efforts with email marketing but overall if you use AWeber now it will probably be of some help˳
Here’s how it works˳
In order to use the editor login to your AWeber account as normal, select the list and go to Broadcast messages˳ You will see the options switched around now˳ So if you want to use the old editor and your old template – select the option below˳ Otherwise press the big button to experience the new feature˳
Next you will see the new Message Editor˳ It’s got a couple of key features:
- you can still paste your own HTML newsletter code or send a message as plain text;
- you can select from a number of pre-designed templates that have been formatted to work with the new editing features;
- you can filter templates based on colours or keywords;
- and, you can create your own template (in a separate HTML editor), use the code in the Template Editor window, add new AWeber tags, then save and use in the list˳
Once you’ve chosen and loaded your template into the editor you can start creating your newsletter˳ AWeber default templates will come with pre-defined areas for editing and some Lorem Ipsum content to show you how it will look eventually˳ You can then click on different regions on the newsletter in order to start editing˳
The downside here: you can’t edit default templates˳ Either you like them and use them as is, or you create something else yourself˳ Although you can use various content widgets within the newsletter, they will have to fit into the default structure and settings˳ Image hosting still has to be done elsewhere – your own website, Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google etc˳
You might say here: did we not have these options before? What’s changed? Well the main change is how the message editor works˳ Previously, if you worked in the Design tab and were adding or editing your newsletter content – you could actually format, add or remove HTML code in the background˳ That changed your newsletter layout and presentation˳ Now the code is protected – even if you copy content from Word, you won’t suddenly get lots of “funny styles” in the newsletter˳
You can also add the following widgets to the newsletter now:
- Headlines – big headers that will separate sections in the newsletter or act as the newsletter’s title;
- Articles – text and image combination with an optional Read More link for your website;
- Paragraph – text only option;
- Image – large image to stretch as wide as your newsletter;
- Button – image button with a call to action;
- Follow Me – adds social media (Twitter and Facebook) icons and links if you have your accounts already linked with AWeber;
- Products – slimline tall combination of image + title + description + price˳ Works best in sidebars˳
- Coupon – a little section where you can add your special offer˳ Usually bolder, without an image, centre aligned˳
- Logo – adds your logo image to the newsletter˳ You can resize it to be pretty wide and act as a newsletter header;
- Signature – your photo, name and email address section˳
You can still add attachments (at the bottom of the Message Editor), Save for later, Test & Preview˳ Autoresponder creation (Follow up message editor) works exactly the same˳
Once you are done with editing your newsletter – click next to review and edit Sharing and Archiving options, then Next again to select which Lists to send to and Schedule˳
Another major issue from our design perspective: very limited functionality for own template creation˳ Effectively you need to create a template that has a basic structure design without going into much detail per article/section˳ You will then need to add AWeber content tags which will give you 6 editable regions for your newsletter: Header, Footer, Content, Sidebar 1, Sidebar 2, Sidebar 3˳ Content tag is required (where you will be placing your widgets in the Message Editor), the rest are up to you if you need them˳ What this means is that you can’t define styles and formatting for Widgets reliably and when you load your template – you don’t get any Lorem Ipsum content there˳
So a solution to this issue would be to load in your custom email template, add the tags, save, create a draft newsletter with all widgets set up and configured how you will use them in what places they need to be˳ Save this draft as your TEMPLATE DRAFT and don’t edit it with actual content or send˳ Then every time you need to create a newsletter – copy this draft and populate your widgets with content to send˳
Hope that’s been helpful – feel free to comment below and ask any questions you have! For more information also refer to this blog by AWeber: new editor is here˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?AWeber:-New-Editor-for-Newsletters-and-Autoresponders&id=7135560
