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The JUNE email builder put to the test

There are plenty of drag-and-drop email builders out there. JUNE from the Hamburg-based software company of the same name wants to overcome the limitations of established email editors and thus stand out from the crowd: The editor should not only enable email marketing managers to easily design newsletters, but also offer real added value. As an email templating and production solution, JUNE is an integral module of the JUNE multichannel marketing automation platform. However, the email builder can also be used standalone. An astonishing list of well-known companies that send their marketing emails via Salesforce Marketing Cloud or SAP Marketing Cloud, for example, is using JUNE in this way. Reason enough for us to put JUNE's integrated email editor to the test and find out whether the solution really can do more than the other kits we've tested. JUNE also offers a landing page editor, which we did not look at in detail for this test.

Email creation with the JUNE editor

More flexibility, more freedom

Anyone who has ever “built” an email newsletter or landing page with a builder knows that almost every modular system sooner or later reaches its limits and requires either design compromises or complex custom coding. JUNE actually offers more flexibility and freedom here than any other solution known to us and scores points with many convenient features.

Drag-and-drop editor focused on CI compliance

The web-based JUNE editor works (like almost all editors now) using the drag-and-drop principle. It offers ready-made templates, which are sorted into different categories. These templates can be adapted and saved in accordance with your own CI and style sheets (colors, fonts, spacing, button styles). Alternatively, you can start with an empty template and let your creative creativity run wild. Elements and blocks can be moved, copied and adapted flexibly, as you would expect from editors of this type. In addition (and not many editors allow this), elements within a block can also be repositioned, moved, and hidden. A decisive advantage in everyday business: With JUNE, designed and filled elements can be saved as favorites and reused for other mailings or projects.

Mobile first and fine-tuning

Every editor now generates responsive emails — what sets JUNE apart from the competition is more options for “fine-tuning” the layouts. This makes it possible to define the distances between the elements and to the edge of the email or to choose between different (CI-compliant) button designs — in other editors, you usually have to create several blocks for different designs.

Another advantage of JUNE is that blocks and elements can be hidden or shown on the go in the drag-and-drop editor. Spacing and font sizes can be adjusted individually or globally for the mobile version of the newsletter. This means that anyone who wants to design their marketing emails “mobile first” is sure to get their money's worth at JUNE.

You can tell from the tool that a lot of practical experience has gone into the development. JUNE has therefore considered and avoided many things that would “shoot up” an e-mail in production. Images scale themselves when inserted into the editor. You can insert formatted text with or without formatting (many other editors require cumbersome intermediate steps to remove formatting). And if you've made a mistake when filling out an email or a colleague has overwritten something that you want to get back: There is a back button and a history that shows the previous processing status of all users who worked on the email, so that you can also restore an old version.

When previewing emails, you can switch between different preview modes such as desktop, tablet or mobile phone. In this way, email producers can ensure that the email looks good on a wide variety of devices with their different screen sizes and resolutions.

Useful features

If you use JUNE not only as an external email editor, but also as an email marketing platform, your own communication can be controlled very conveniently based on the recipient's click behavior via several initiatives: Text links, buttons or images are provided with a click tag and a click score, which can be specifically evaluated and used for behavioral and interest-based communication.

To add variety to email marketing communication, JUNE also offers dynamic and interactive elements in the email builder: slideshows, image carousels, countdowns and interactive forms, e.g. to submit reviews directly in emails. Unfortunately, the cross-platform and cross-client support for dynamic (“kinetic”) elements is still not in good shape (more about this in our blog post Moving Email Newsletters) — many recipients will only see the fallback variants. But it is still a big advantage that JUNE offers these elements “out of the box” and that you don't have to program them separately or rely on third-party providers. The countdown timer element is very simple and doesn't include any elaborate background designs and effects. But for anyone who wants to include a countdown ad hoc in a time-limited campaign, it's a good option that doesn't entail any additional costs per opening.

Another advantage of us is that JUNE also shows you directly in the editor itself whether the linked page actually exists or not. Great support for the quality assurance of the newsletter! However, a person must continue to check whether the link target also matches the content...

Image editing directly in the email editor

JUNE is also flexible when it comes to artwork: Anyone who wants to quickly insert a few freely usable stock photos is just as well off as marketing managers who want to use, crop and interfere with their own images. This is because JUNE has directly integrated image databases with license-free stock photos, but it can also connect its own asset management system. Images can be edited directly in JUNE. This not only applies to resizing and cutting; even overlays/layers can be added without an additional graphics program. And you can also compose images, for example add a frame or Polaroid look, or add interferers to the image (such as a play button or a price tag), add headlines and add filters — all directly in the tool, which then downgrades the images to the correct resolution for email.

Dynamization and individualization

JUNE makes it possible to dynamize and individualize blocks for different target groups. Product images and information can also be retrieved dynamically via shop integration or the Google Shopping feed via item numbers (SKUs) and integrated directly into emails.

template programming

With many editors, you have to make compromises when designing templates because certain blocks or structures cannot be displayed in the kit. JUNE, on the other hand, gives knowledgeable developers/designers the opportunity to granularly design and optimize the templates even at the CSS/HTML code level within the JUNE template framework. Templates do not have a fixed structure that users have to fit into.

With its sophisticated template framework, JUNE finally ensures the correct display of the finished emails in over 50 email clients, including Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail and Yahoo! Email.

Roles and rights management

So that not everyone “tampers” with the code, there is a role and rights management system that can represent various responsibilities and competencies in the company in a team. For example, an “editor” may only fill a template with content and allow himself very little creative freedom in terms of design. A “designer” can influence the design of the newsletter and a “developer” can even edit the HTML source code and thus heavily individualize a ready-made template.

In addition, external partners such as creative agencies, copywriters or graphic artists can only be given access to the email builder in order to protect sensitive content such as personal customer data in accordance with the GDPR.

Exporting and sending emails

Completed mailings can be exported with just a few clicks and transferred to the respective mailing platform. Alternatively, you can also download the email HTML or AMP code (another feature that many other editors don't offer).

It can of course also be shipped within JUNE itself. JUNE offers a campaign overview in list and calendar form for planning shipping.

Usability

You can tell from our description: We have tested a few tools so far that offer so much freedom and options and also lots of useful features. Overall, this also applies to the operation: The editor can be adapted to the respective requirements of users. For ease of use, the editor has keyboard shortcuts, right-click context menus, a level overview and several preview views.

Should you get stuck at any point, JUNE can be contacted directly via a chat mask without having to leave the editor. On many other platforms, support chats very often link to generic help pages and only address a problem in detail after multiple requests. June developers and designers can log in directly to the customer account and help out live.

However, the variety of options can be both a curse and a blessing — JUNE is complex and comprehensive. Anyone who has worked with a simple editor so far should expect initial training costs. After that, however, there are almost countless options when it comes to newsletter design.

expenses

JUNE offers various module packages that start at 190 euros a month. Compared to pure email builders, this seems like a lot for now, but it can definitely pay off due to the ease of work that the JUNE editor offers in everyday life. In return, you not only get a powerful drag-and-drop editor, but also a multi-channel marketing automation platform with features that we otherwise only know from much more expensive enterprise platforms. With high numbers of recipients, the costs do not rise exorbitantly as with other providers and are therefore worthwhile quite quickly, especially when shipping volumes are high.

Summary and Conclusion

Plus points: The June editor...

• is highly adaptable to the respective (system) requirements of companies.
• is ideal for creating responsive emails.
• provides access to the template's source code to personalize it even more.
• guarantees the correct display of emails in 50+ email clients, including future updates.
• offers an immediate support service directly within the editor itself — with direct contact with programmers & designers.

Minuses: The JUNE newsletter tool:...

• Due to its complexity, it requires a certain amount of training and familiarization.
• In terms of cost, it is above the level of many small external “standalone” editors.

JUNE is in a league of its own — it can do much more than many editors that are integrated with shipping platforms or as external editors tested by us. In our opinion, the fact that this entails higher costs and more training is entirely justified. Anyone who has high standards for their landing pages, website and shop content should definitely take a look at JUNE.