12/7/2012: We just rolled out some updates to the new editor. Read about them here.

I was kidnapped! All I remember is that one day I was quietly working at my desk in the UX department, and the next I was relocated to a secret office with a small, multidisciplinary team of other chimps. At first, very few people in the company even knew where we had moved to, much less that we were working on the next generation editor for MailChimp. How could anyone know when we were toiling away behind a closed door with paper taped over the glass? Printed on that sheet of paper, though, was a clue.

Code Name: Neapolitan

Like all good covert operations, we had to have a code name. We chose Neapolitan for several reasons. First off, the word comes from the Greek name for Naples (the birthplace of pizza…mmm, pizza), Neapolis, meaning “New City.” Very appropriate for a part of the app where MailChimp users spend the most time. Also, we love ice cream, and Neapolitan ice cream consists of different blocks, layered in a single container. So there you have it, a word with ties to two delicious food items that helps define the design criteria for our new editor:

1. Make the process of building emails better.
2. Provide different types of content blocks for email creators to drop in.
3. Make it simple to edit content, change design, and rearrange content blocks.
4. Update the campaign preview in real time, with every change.
5. All templates created with the new editor have to be mobile friendly, resizing down to fit phone screens in modern email clients that support media queries.

Read More

Next week, starting Monday the 29th, we’re rolling out some long-awaited upgrades to our Autoresponder feature (plus some other enhancements we think you’ll love). Here are the details.

1.) More Trigger Options:
Previously, the only thing that could “kick off” or “trigger” an Autoresponder was for someone to subscribe to a list. Now, we’ve added the following triggers:

Most notable:

• Send when a specific link in a campaign is clicked
• E-commerce360 event: when a purchase is recorded (pro tip: then, use segmentation to specify a product)
• Merge field change: if someone’s “status” (such as in a hidden field) changes, that can trigger an Autoresponder

2.) More “instant” delivery
Previously, Autoresponders only got sent no sooner than 24hrs after opt-in. But customers who wanted to use Autoresponders as “welcome emails” (instead of our built-in welcome emails) wanted faster delivery. Read More