Today, we're putting the spotlight on Ripple AI, the new kid on the block that's got its sights set on taking a slice of the email marketing space. In their own words, Ripple AI claims to "instantly generate high-quality emails" using the wizardry of artificial intelligence. But are they just talking the talk, or can they actually walk the walk? Let's find out.
What is Ripple AI?
Ripple AI is targeted at email agencies and Shopify stores, especially those using Klaviyo. The pitch? Create email templates faster and more easily. Instead of slaving over design and content, Ripple AI aims to do the heavy lifting by generating emails automatically from your prompts. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, let's break down what they offer.
Paid Plans and Pricing
Ripple AI’s pricing structure is straightforward, with only three plans to choose from. All plans come with Ripple's full set of features; there are no feature limitations for any of the plans. The cheapest plan is $99 a month, which allows you to publish up to 8 emails a month to Klaviyo. For $199 a month, you can publish unlimited emails to Klaviyo. If you're after a more hands-off approach, Ripple also offers a 'Done For You' plan which starts at $1000 a month.
Does Ripple AI Offer a Free Trial?
No, Ripple AI does not offer a free trial, which in our opinion is quite peculiar as free trials are sort of a given nowadays for software products. But don't worry, you can put that credit card away for now as we took the plunge so you don't have to. So, let's get to the juicy stuff: the pros and cons of Ripple AI.
Ripple Ai: The Good
1. Quick and Speedy Template Creation
Ripple can save you a boatload of time by generating emails quickly, leveraging AI to whip up content and layouts. Once you've configured your brand kit and linked your account to Shopify, generating email templates is a quick and easy process. There's also a wide range of content blocks you can add to your generated templates.
2. HTML Exports
You can export emails in HTML, which you can then import into your ESP (Email Service Provider). Almost every ESP supports importing HTML templates, so you don't need to worry about compatibility issues with Ripple templates.
3. Good Copy Quality
The AI does a decent job generating engaging text, better than some email copy-generating tools we've stumbled upon. You can also edit the copy to get it just right. Basic text formatting is also at your disposal, so you can make certain words bold or add a list of bullet points. Unfortunately, you can't add text links, though.
4. Klaviyo Focused Features
Ripple is built with Klaviyo users in mind and offers a couple of Klaviyo-specific features. Within the template editor, you can add a 'Klaviyo Content Block,' where you can then add a Klaviyo block once the email is loaded into your Klaviyo account. This is useful for adding Klaviyo dynamic content blocks, such as an abandoned cart block.
Ripple also allows you to schedule email campaigns directly from Ripple, so once you've made your campaign in Ripple, you can get it out to your subscribers without leaving the app. This is okay and all, but you do miss out on some Klaviyo campaign features by doing this. For instance, you can't configure A/B tests from the Ripple campaign scheduler, nor can you use batch sending or preview your email on mobile.
5. Shopify Sync
Ripple syncs with Shopify to pull in products and collections. This saves you a lot of time, and once your store is synced, Ripple can include product feeds in your templates. You can also manually add products to Ripple if needed.
6. Language Support
You can generate emails in different languages by specifying this in your prompt. However, Ripple does seem to struggle with this, so you may run into errors and need to try multiple times before you get the email in your language of choice.
Ripple Ai: The Bad
1. Limited and Repetitive Designs
Each block within the template editor has a handful of layout options that you can cycle through to find one you like. Some block types have about 5 or 6 options to choose from, whereas others have only a couple. On top of this, Ripple appears to use the same 'base template' for all generated templates, which is fine if you like the look of the base template, but it can make it tricky to match your branding. Even when varying your prompts, the resulting templates tend to look quite similar. Here's an example of a Ripple-generated abandoned cart email:
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2. One-Shot Generation
If you don’t like a generated email, you can’t regenerate it without starting over. That means typing out your whole prompt again—yowzers!
3. Perfection Isn't Possible
You will have a hard time tweaking your templates to get them looking exactly how you want. Fancy a hover effect on your buttons? Tough luck! A border around your product images? Not gonna happen. Smaller social icons? You get the idea.
4. Bugs
After using Ripple for just a few days, we became good friends with the Ripple error screen (we're even meeting up for a drink next week!). Another bug, albeit minor, is that the email generator is prone to including duplicate blocks in designs—a small issue but annoying nonetheless.
5. Customer Support
Or rather, the lack thereof. Customer support seems to be non-existent. There is no sign of a help center, a knowledge base, a contact form, or any guidance on how to structure your prompts. However, there is an AI-powered assistant that can help you generate templates and answer your questions. But outside of this, you’re basically on your own.
Ripple Ai: The Ugly
1. Mobile Unfriendly
Okay, so we all know that mobile users make up the lion's share of email opens, and designing with mobile users in mind is an absolute necessity these days. However, it seems as though Ripple hasn’t quite got the memo. For starters, you can’t preview how your emails will look on mobile within the app. You can, of course, export your template into your ESP and check the mobile preview, but that’s a bit of faffing that could easily be avoided.
Secondly, and this is a big one, emails aren’t truly responsive. Ripple-generated emails are essentially spliced-up images stitched together, not properly structured HTML. Ripple emails aren’t genuinely responsive, although they do still function on mobile. This is a huge downside, as sending image-based emails can cause a host of issues: it's very difficult to optimize your emails for dark mode, content doesn’t stack on mobile, images are sometimes blocked by inbox providers (Gmail, Outlook, etc.), and a laundry list of other problems.
Lastly, Ripple offers no way to add mobile-only content or mobile-only styling to your email designs. Your emails will look exactly the same on desktop as they do on mobile; they will just be shrunk down for mobile users.
2. A Lot of Extra Hassle
By using Ripple, you lose the convenience of drag-and-drop templates. Want to quickly correct a typo? Update an image? Change your CTA? All of these can be done quickly and easily with drag-and-drop templates. But if you're using Ripple's image-based emails, making quick updates on the fly isn’t really possible.
If you want to use Ripple, just know that seemingly simple tasks will cause a lot of extra hassle. This includes things like email optimization, A/B testing, email personalization, editing email copy, updating images, changing fonts, and utilizing dynamic content.
Not Quite Ready for Prime Time
In conclusion, Ripple AI has the right idea—an AI email template generator was bound to hit the market sooner or later. However, it feels like Ripple isn’t quite ready for the big leagues just yet. The non-existent customer support, repetitive designs, lack of real email responsiveness, and the extra hassle that comes with using Ripple templates are significant drawbacks. While it can save time, the end result may not meet the quality and flexibility you need. As with most things in life, the quickest way isn’t always the best way.
So, if you're looking for a tool to quickly generate basic email templates and don’t mind the trade-offs, give Ripple a try. But if you need more control and sophistication, you might want to stick with more established email marketing platforms like Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign.
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