Launching the first HogMail newsletter

[andyvan-ph]

We're at a point where we're nearly ready to launch our new newsletter, HogMail. There's a just a few oustanding items.

Target Launch Date: Friday, March 25
Draft Template: On Mailchimp (account needed to access)

To Do:

• The Needle artwork @lottiecoxon
• Max the Hedgehog avatar @lottiecoxon
• Fine tuning the template / checking Andy hasn't messed up the code @corywatilo / @smallbrownbike
• Copy and contents for the first email (will be different to current template) @andyvan-ph

Desired changes to the template

• In the intro section, Lottie is designing an avatar we'd like to have right-aligned with the copy flowed around it

• I'd like to remove the header links at the top (Learn more about PostHog) etc. for this email

• Likewise, I'd prefer not to have the dashed table borders. My preference is this should look as much as possible like a normal email, but this isn't dealbreaker particularly

[corywatilo]

I'd like to remove the header links at the top (Learn more about PostHog) etc. for this email
Likewise, I'd prefer not to have the dashed table borders. My preference is this should look as much as possible like a normal email, but this isn't dealbreaker particularly

Reasoning for these?

The header bar is designed to give it more of a webpage feel, and the dashed lines match our dashed line in our branding elsewhere. (The solid <hr>'s in this preview feel a little stock/rudimentary IMO?)

We also have a font we've been using in emails (Poppins) that seems to have gone missing here! And maybe we can center-align the title while we're at it?

[andyvan-ph]

RE: header links and table borders:

• People don't click on the header links, but they ocupy a quite prominent position at the top of the email

• The header links also break the formatting a bit on mobiles (see screenshot)

• I'd like this email to, within reason, feel a bit different from the Array while staying within our overall branding

• I want this to feel like an email someone has written, rather than a web page. I find it counterintutive to make emails look like web pages. Outside of an edge case, I can't imagine ever doing the opposite and making a web page look and feel like an email.

RE the font and other bits:

• Yes, good spot. I think there's something weird going on as the font loads in Mailchimp but doesn't in Gmail, as per below. This appears to be true of recent Array emails, too, so not sure what's going on there.

• Could we make the <hr> styling dashed? Would be a nice way to retain our branding in this context?

• Would having the email headline and logo both centre-aligned feel weird? I dunno, not really married to one of the other.

[andyvan-ph]

[andyvan-ph]

Lottie's artwork, which is fabulous.

[corywatilo]

I want this to feel like an email someone has written, rather than a web page.

Okay, I see. (I was missing this context.)

I'm going to try to revisit this next week to see if we can come up with a more personal feel that still fits within our style.

[joethreepwood]

Only feedback from me on latest version would be moving the PostHog News bit at least above the Stuff We're Reading section. Stuff We're Reading feels like a nice misc. close, while PostHog News seems more important to drive attention to.

No strong feelings though.

[andyvan-ph]

Yeah, makes sense. I'll do a switcherooo.