First up is a look at the newest templates in our library: Christmas-themed templates from MailChimp-certified Experts, Creative Media Farm. This month these fine folks delivered quite a selection, with styles ranging from modern:

To designs like this one, which veers in a more traditional direction:

Overall, the folks at Creative Media Farm made sure that there plenty of templates for you to choose from:

The Christmas templates above are only part of the number of holiday designs we’ve got within the pre-designed library. You can also find various designs from MailChimp itself, with a number of designs that are whimsical:

Or more traditional:

And it’s not just Christmas that we cover. You can also find a few Hanukkah templates. And if those designs don’t pique your interest, the majority of our ‘holiday’ templates are flexible in their use, and could work well for Festivus, Saturnalia (if you happen to be an ancient Roman), or whatever it is you happen to celebrate.

As always, these and any other pre-designed templates can be found once you create an email campaign and, on step 3 of campaign creation (template selection), navigate to the ‘pre-designed’ template category. You’ll find Christmas, Hanukkah, and the rest of our holiday-themed templates within the ‘Holiday’ subcategory. Just pick your desired template and edit away: many are quite flexible in their designs, and allow for a high degree of customization through our template style editor.

Enjoy. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

In preparation, I’ll take a moment to highlight some templates and tools that can help you capitalize on the biggest consumer day of the year, and I’ll start with some templates.

First, a template styled specifically to this task:

You can find this template when you create a campaign and, on step 3 (template selection), navigating to ‘pre-designed’, then to ‘ecommerce’, where you’ll find the ‘Black Friday Sale’ template. You can then use the style editor to tweak the design to suit your needs, or just drop in your content and send away.

Maybe your users need a little more than just a product highlight, however. You can always sweeten the deal by sending out some coupons, using our selection of coupon templates:

You can find these guys in the same way: on step 3 of campaign creation, just navigate to ‘pre-designed’, and then selection ‘coupons’. You can use the style editor to customize the design however you’d like, and each coupon template also includes an example of our QR Code merge tag, which you can include to give users a simple way to redeem the coupon’s value using the Pyow! app.

Perhaps you’re looking for a template that’s a little more ‘seasonal’. If that’s the case, we’ve got you covered with our tons of holiday-themed templates:

The holiday season is ramping up right now (or it’s running full-bore, if my local Target’s decorations are any indication), and we have lots of template choices available. We’ve also got a great selection of Christmas templates on the way, courtesy of our friends (and certified MailChimp Experts) at Creative Media Farm. Here’s a taste of what we’ve got coming from them:

Selling stockings from your shop on Etsy? A book on Amazon? Maybe your band has released its latest album of death metal covers of classic Christmas carols on iTunes, perhaps? You can use our Autoconnect templates, which automatically pull your data from these services, saving you some work and letting you send campaigns quickly and easily.

Armed with this arsenal, you can take advantage of the Black Friday frenzy, but be sure you’ve set up adequate defenses. Sandbag walls, trenches, and an anti-aircraft gun or two usually does the trick. You know how people can get.

Here’s the rundown:

• Photography: 11
• Real Estate: 5
• Mobile-friendly: 8
• Holiday / Seasonal: 16
• Halloween (by Creative Media Farm): 10

With Holidays on the horizon, we’ve expanded our offerings for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, and we’ll keep on going through November and December.

For October, we’ve added a number of Halloween-related templates. Some of them come from our in-house designers,

but the majority come from our talented friends (and MailChimp experts) at Creative Media Farm, in A Coruña, Spain:

Add these up with our existing Halloween templates, and I think we’ve got most of the paranormal bestiary covered.

It’s not just Halloween we’ve added; there’s also a smattering of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and fall- and winter-themed templates. There are even a couple of templates specifically made for that most riotous of days, Black Friday.

Perhaps you don’t want to send anything holiday related. Maybe you, like me, see all of this Christmas Creep and you despair. Worry not. I’ve got some interesting stuff for you as well, like the new ‘Photography’ templates:

These templates are built for one thing: displaying an array of images. Text is very secondary, and generally reserved for captions and short descriptions. If it’s visually appealing, and you want to show it off, these templates are for you. In fact, you could even use them alongside our new Real Estate templates:

Rounding out the additions for this month are what we’re calling “Mobile-friendly” templates. These templates are built to a 320px width, and are limited to single-column layouts, both properties well-suited to mobile screens:

These templates come at a time when mobile email readership is booming, but they’re just one way to send to mobile devices. We’re working on adding support for media queries, so those of you who are handy with HTML and CSS will have the option of adding mobile-specific styling to your templates. We’re still researching and experimenting, but I’ll blog more about media queries once our support for the feature is finalized and implemented.

Next month’s collection of templates is already in the pipe. We’ll have more templates from Creative Media Farm, along with some of our own design.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the templates you’ll find in the latest release:

• Stationery: 6
• Coupons: 12
• Inspirational: 6
• Newsletter: 3
• Eventbrite: 3
• SurveyMonkey: 3

Use the new stationery templates to send professional letters from the head honcho or quick updates to your subscribers on projects in the works (figure 2). If you run a retail store or an ecommerce site, the new coupon templates are going to be really handy as we approach back to school and the holiday season (figure 4). These puppies have QR Code merge tags built in so you can create a discount, then use our Pyow iPhone app to handle the redemption at your store.

The color field newsletter templates are easily customized using color themes (figure 1). Pop a photo into the header and you’ve got an elegant template with very little time invested.

We’ve also updated the Eventbrite templates (figure 5). If you’re promoting events through Eventbrite, you can connect your MailChimp account to send custom emails to attendees.

Simian powers unite with this release as we’ve introduced three new autoconnect templates that let you connect your SurveyMonkey surveys to MailChimp to send fancy invitations to your surveys (figure 5). You can learn a little more about our SurveyMonkey integration over here.

We have a lot more templates in the works too. This is just the beginning. If you’re into designing and coding your own templates, don’t forget to check out our Email Blueprint project over on Github, which contains 35 layouts (including some mobile friendly templates) that have been tested in all major email clients.

These new templates help newbies and pros alike make some pretty sophisticated designs quickly. Since these templates are so useful, we’re releasing the source of all 36 of them as an open source project called Email Blueprints on GitHub. You can download them and use them as a starting point for every email you build. If you’re a coder designing and building templates for your clients or even just yourself, these starter templates will help you big time. Here’s how:

• they’re tested in all major email clients
• they use our template language to tie into the MailChimp template design interface your clients will use to customize design
• they contain all of the hooks for new MailChimp template controls like repeatable modules, hideable modules, and module variants
• they contain merge tags to generate dynamic content like archive and unsubscribe links, address, and all the CAN SPAM requirements
• the have social networking links for Facebook and Twitter built right in
• they use Facebook’s Open Graph so your campaign can be shared on Facebook more elegantly

In this set of 36 templates, we have examples of basic newsletters, sophisticated photo gallery layouts, stationary style layouts, and even mobile specific layouts among others. With all of the hard stuff already done for you, you can focus on making really great designs and writing content that’s going to get you and your clients better results from your campaigns.

Download the source or checkout the Git repository.

see all the designs »

The designers we collaborated with on this project are a veritable who’s who of web design. They include: Khoi Vinh, Matthew Smith, Mike Kus, Elliot Jay Stocks, Jon Hicks, Veerle Pieters, MetaLab, and Dan Rubin. If there were a design Olympics, this would be the dream team.

Sending your content in one of their designs is a bit like sporting an Armani suit. MailChimp users with a paid account will get to try each and every template on for size in the Premium section of the campaign designer at no extra cost. You’re going to look sharp!

They included some beautiful new holiday templates, plus some new themes like “Environment” (for all the green and earth-friendly businesses we’re seeing in MailChimp) and “Functional” for use in very specific applications, like, say, Autoresponders.

What’s cool is that since we’re using our new Template Design Language, some of the templates have some unique MailChimp features baked right in. I’ll show you what I mean…

To find them, create a campaign. When it’s time to pick your template, go to the “Gallery” tab:

You’ll notice a pulldown menu where you can sort the template by category:

Under “Holidays” you’ll notice some elegant options, like:

Mmmm, turducken (what the heck is a “turducken?“).

Under the “Functional” category, we have new templates that you can use for very specific cases, like an annual autoresponder when it’s time to come in for a checkup:

Under the “Environment” category, you’ll find this template:

Let’s take a closer look at this one.

In the right column, you’ll notice a series of tips. We’re using MailChimp’s nifty ability to create addable content blocks:

Just keep clicking the little “+” icon, to add more tips.

Yes, Style and Versatility

I know this template is called “Live Green,” but this particular template is actually versatile enough to be used for other applications.

Like, saaaay, a plumber’s newsletter.

Let’s use the iStockphoto integration in our image gallery to search for “plumber” pictures:

and plop it into the left column of our template:

After that, I can tweak the colors, fonts, and other styles to match my brand.

Exportable for Template Hackers

Here’s a power tip from Fabio (yes, that’s his real name). He’s one of the DesignLab scientists who contributed a bunch of these templates, and is working on many more.

“Most of these pre-built templates are kind of rigid, but if you’re handy with HTML/CSS, you can take any one of them and export the code in order to tweak it exactly the way you want:

Tip: You’ll want to brush up on our Email Template Language (here’s a handy video tutorial).

Then, re-import your custom template back into MailChimp by clicking this button:

just copy-paste your code into our template editor and hit save:

We hope you find these useful. Stay tuned, because we’ve got a lot more email template announcements to make!

Follow these best practices and you are sure to create awesome emails that your clients will love:

• Your email layout should be no wider than 600 pixels for best viewing in various email clients
• Avoid using the following CSS in your templates:
  • Floats
  • Positioning
  • Background images (doesn’t work in Outlook and Gmail)
• Use this wonderful reference created by our friends at Campaign Monitor to see what CSS is supported in major email clients http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/
• It’s a good idea to limit the number of editable spaces in the template to keep things simple
• Name all editable spaces consistently. The name you assign via mc:edit="somename" is used to create a field in the database to store the user’s content. If they switch templates after writing content, they could lose their copy if the editable space names aren’t consistent. Use the following conventions common content areas:
  • mc:edit="header – used to name the header
  • mc:edit="header_image" – used to name an editable header image
  • mc:edit="sidecolumn" – used to name an editable left or right side column
  • mc:edit="main" – used to name the main content space
  • mc:edit="footer" – used to name the footer
• Editable images should not be placed within an editable content container
• Set the @theme declaration in your CSS for the page background, header, footer and content space so templates can be quickly customized with the MailChimp color themes. See the template language docs for the correct names to be used.
• Be creative with the use of merge tags. Use the social merge tags to provide readers of your email new ways to connect with you and share your content. Use The table of contents merge tag (*|MC:TOC|*) to create an automatic list of links to the <h1> and <h2> headings in an email.
• Be sure to include the required CAN-SPAM info in the footer (*|UNSUB|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* *|LIST:ADDRESS|*)
• Include target="_blank" in links to ensure they open a new browser window or tab when emails are viewed in browser based email clients
• Include a link for users to update their subscription preferences <a href="*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*" target="_blank">change subscription preferences</a>
• Include a link to let users view the email in a browser: <a href=”*|ARCHIVE|*” target=”_blank”>view this email in a browser.</a>
• Include a link to your website: <a href=”*|LIST:URL|*” target=”_blank”>visit our website</a>
• Feature the forward to a friend link somewhere prominent <a href=”*|FORWARD|*” target=”_blank”>forward to a friend</a>. Make a cool button treatment for it where possible to encourage sharing
• Once you’ve created a template, put test it in a campaign and try customizing it by changing color, adding content, etc to make sure it will work well for others who might be using it in different situations.

We think you’ll really like using rich-text templates because they combine the aesthetic cleanliness of a text-based email (meaning no extraneous design elements) with the ability to embed URL strings.  Designers, this means you will be able to track opens and clicks while still giving your readers a more standard email experience.  You will also be able to format your text, giving you control over things like text color and font selection.

There are a couple important things to note about this new template type.  First of all, text will be left-aligned, as opposed to centered– more like the traditional one-on-one email experience that most of us are used to.  Secondly, you can insert a logo or header if you choose, but it’s completely optional.  In addition, you can now adjust the width of your email (in pixels) to make it as wide or as narrow as you’d like.  Last but not least, you can use rich-text templates with both RSS-to-Email and A/B Split campaign types.  Woo-hoo!

• Your Monthly (or Quarterly) Newsletter Template: This one goes out to the general public who opted-in for your company news. You’ll probably want it to be a 2-column layout, so you can put self-gratuitous promotions in the side column. Be sure to keep the “main” column full of useful content.
• Company Letterhead Template: Use this for rare announcements, such as pricing changes, shipping problems, billing errors, or “system is temporarily down” alerts. But read this before you send any public apologies with it.
• Special Promotions Template: Use this when you have big, splashy product photographs to promote a big sale. We recommend MailChimp’s “postcard” email template.
• Holiday E-card Template: This can be a variation of the postcard template. You’d insert a nice, beautiful graphic into the postcard image slot. Here are some free templates for your holiday e-cards.
• Event (e-vite) Template: Use this when you want to invite people to a company event.
• Event followup/Survey Template: Use this after your event has taken place, and you want to thank your attendees for coming. You might include a link to an online feedback survey (we recommend SurveyMonkey) and you might include digital photos from the event.
• Internal Newsletter Template: Use this for sending internal newsletters to your staff.

If you’re a MailChimp customer, just use our built-in HTML email template designer to go ahead and create these templates now. Save them in your templates gallery, so that when the time comes (trust me, it will), you can just pick the template, add content, and click send. Our free email templates have been tested to work in all the major email programs, and they can be customized to look like a big expensive agency designed them for you (see some examples).

If you’re not a MailChimp customer, you can customize the free HTML email template code we provide here.

If you prefer to design your own HTML email templates, here are some coding tips and tricks from MailChimp’s Email Marketing Resource Library. Just be sure to test your email designs in all the major email programs before sending.