The system provides an advanced Email Template Builder which can help to reduce the time and effort needed to create high quality and flexible email messages and campaign content. The template builder will help you to create sophisticated templates with editable text or html "regions" which can be duplicated if required and also regions which are linked with each other, all with a minimal knowledge of programming or html coding required.
In this section we will learn how to create new templates and manage existing templates in your account.
Email templates are pre-defined html content files which can be customized and modified when you create a new Email Marketing Campaign or message. These templates can help you quickly put your email message content and other related information into a nicely formatted and visually appealing message.
If possible, you should have your html code and other related content for your email template design ready before you begin the template creation process. It is possible to build the template code "on the fly" during the creation process although if the basic structure of the template is ready the process of customizing your code and adding the editable regions and other parameters to it will be much quicker.
Once you go to the Create New Template menu the system will allow you to configure preferences of your email template such as the name, description and a thumbnail picture on the first tab.
On the Email Contents tab and screen you will need to add your email content such as Subject, HTML and Text based content where applicable.
Template Preferences Screen
Once you have com plated this step you can click on the "Proceed To Template Builder". This will open up the template builder interface as shown in the screenshot below.
As in the above screenshot you will see that the html code provided on the previous screen under the Email Contents tab has been rendered into a properly formatted html layout. This example is a generic layout and the template builder interface can be used to customize it and define the various editable regions and other types of regions in the template as required.
In order to make a certain html block editable you need to click on that particular block and the bottom of the screen will display the structure of the nested table's or div tags. This way you know what part of the template you are editing. When you click on any of the html blocks contained in the template you will see a dotted or solid line surrounding the block.
The highlighted sections in the above screen example demonstrate that you when you click on the element the bottom bar shows you the html tags which are built around the element. In order to make a selected region into a dynamic (editable or duplicatable) one click on the "View properties" button at the bottom.
There are several options as shown in the above screenshot which can be applied to this particular element.
Make this element editable
Single line Tick this option to make the element editable with single line editing.
Plain text multi line Tick this option to create a plain text editable element with multi line support.
Rich text multi line Tick this option to create a rich text multi line editable element. This option will allow you to add rich text to the element.
For this example will make the selected element editable as well duplicatable. Once you have made the necessary changes click on the "Test Drive" button at the top of the template builder screen in order to see how your template will look and function.
When you test drive the template you should see the rendered output of the template itself and when you click on an element which you configured as editable or duplicatable a selectable menu associated with these functions as shown in the above screen example will appear.
On selecting the "Edit" option for a block which has been made editable in rich text multi line mode an edit screen will appear at the bottom of the test drive screen which will allow you to test the editing functions on selected block.
After testing the various elements once you are satisfied click on the "Back To Template Builder" link where you can save the template.
Templates you have created using the Template Builder will also be available for selection in the Template Gallery during the campaign creation process or when editing an existing campaign.
Managing Tags