In this article you can find details on how to manage the content in your email campaigns.
For details on creating, testing and launching the email, see: Email Campaigns.
Contents:
The email creation workflow
Emarsys offers a very intuitive workflow for creating email campaigns. These are presented in the form of a wizard with the following steps (visible at the bottom of the page):
- Email Settings - Here you define the campaign settings for the email, including name, category, recipient source, and so on.
- Content Creation - Here you add the content blocks to your email, including text, images, links and personalzation.
- Deliverability Advisor - Here you check that your email settings and content are compliant with our standards to ensure optimal deliverability.
- Scheduling - Here you define the launch schedule for the campaign.
In this article we concentrate on the Content Creation step.
The editor
The email editor is split into three sections, from left to right:
- Tabs
- Tools
- Live editor
Selecting a tab displays the controls for that tab on the left, while the live preview is always visible on the right.
Email Basics tab
The first tab in the Content Creation step of the wizard is the Email Basics. Here you define the content that the recipient will first see in their mail client or in a lock-screen notification on a mobile device.
- The Subject line, From (name) and From (email address) are all mandatory. Personalization and conditional content are available in the Subject line and the From (name) fields, while Incentive Recommendations as well as emojis are available in the Subject line.
- If you do not want to use your own From (email address) , you can choose to Use Emarsys reply mail management.
- Preview text (also known as preheader) will be shown in some mail client inboxes, or on the lock screen of a smart phone. Choosing the right preview text can be really helpful in increasing the open rate of your emails.
- Insert "Unsubscribe" link will activate the Emarsys unsubscribe feature and add this to your email.
- Insert "Show online version" link will add this link to your email.
Please note that online version generation can be disabled on campaign-level, please contact Emarsys Support for more info. Please also note, however, that this has the following effects:
- we will not generate the online version, consequently we do not store any related data.
- automatic insertion of online version link will be disabled, for the given campaign and for any copies of it.
- serving the URL will not work (even if the link is deducted from previous examples of it).
Blocks tab
Content blocks are what make up the body of your email. The blocks are created when you design your template and are typically filled with placeholder images and text. Building an email should be nothing more than arranging the blocks in the right order and pasting in their content.
Please note that you can always check the template used for a campaign, by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner of your screen.
Adding content blocks
To add a block to the email, click it. You can now see all the places in the email where you can insert it. Click Insert or drag here to place the block.
Alternatively, drag it over onto the preview and drop it where you want. If you drag it, the preview will only show one location at a time for you to drop it into.
Working with blocks
Each block has a toolbar, which becomes visible when you hover your mouse over it.
The following functions are available in this toolbar:
Please note that Block targeting can be used 30 times maximum per email.
Optional content
If a block contains elements with the e-optional attribute in the template, you can choose whether to use them or not by clicking the Manage optional content icon.
All the attribute names are listed in the pop-up. Use the toggle switch to enable or disable the elements.
Then block will now only show those elements which have been enabled.
Editable content
To see exactly which parts of the content blocks can be edited, use the Highlight editables switch. This will identify all the parts of the template that have the e-editable attribute.
Email content: text
Your template and blocks should already be set up so that all text content is automatically in the style and format that you want, so you only need to paste in the words. However, you do still have a formatting toolbar available in all blocks that contain editable text.
You can use this toolbar to format the text, personalize it, and add conditional text and links. The Clear formatting icon can be used to remove any formatting that might have been included with text that has been copied and pasted from another editor or website.
Although emojis are supported in the subject line of an email, they are not supported in the body text of a content block.
Email content: images
As with your text content, your email template should have placeholder images of the right dimensions in the content blocks. You can replace the images by simply dragging and dropping them over the block.
It is possible to drop images into text blocks, but this is not recommended for the following reasons:
- If you drop an image into a text block, it will be treated as if it were a special character and all the text formatting options (e.g. linking it) are available. Some browsers will also render this as the image URL, rather than downloading and displaying the image itself.
- If you drop an image into an image block, you will be able to edit it using the image properties.
Image properties
To display the Image Properties window, click on any image and select Image properties.
In the Image Properties window, you can specify the settings of your image.
- Desktop image URL - If you are hosting your own images, this is the path to that server. You can swap images by entering a new URL here. The size of the image is stated.
- Image alternative text - This is displayed if the image is unavailable for download.
- Container width and height - Clear instructions on the size of the image to be uploaded.
- Mobile tab - Here you define what happens on mobile devices - whether the image is shown, hidden or replaced with a dedicated mobile version.
Entering an Image alternative text will help you in better deliverability, as email providers often categorize images without such text as spam.
Using the Media Database
The Media Database is where you can store and manage your content files (images, MS Word, and PDF documents, HTML files, etc.). You can create and name folders for these files, thus having your own free online document archive hosted on Emarsys servers.
Executable files (.exe) cannot be uploaded to the Media Database.
The Media Database window has a toolbar with five options:
Please note that folder names can contain only standard English alphanumeric characters (a-z, 0-9) and the underscore and dash (_, -). Blank spaces are not allowed.
The actual permitted size of the files may vary based on your account settings.
Images should only be uploaded in the following formats, as they are supported by all standard email clients: .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff.
- Do not extract zip file - This keeps your zip file compressed.
- Keep original file name - The Copy url option (see below) copies the original file name, instead of using an internal code, so the original name is visible in links, etc.
- Always show upload settings - This displays these settings above the list of uploaded files.
Please note that not all options are available for everyone; the number of displayed options depends on your account settings.
Deleting an image in the Media Database makes it unavailable for selection, but it does not immediately delete the image from the servers. images are archived and their URLs will still point to them, so there is no danger to the campaigns that have been sent our previously.
Adding images
The image inserted is a copy of the original one. This way, the accidental deletion of the original image from the Media Database will not affect the display in an email or form. This also means that if the image is updated or overwritten in the Media Database, this will not affect the email or form either.
Editing images
Here you can set the URL of the image or select an uploaded image from your Media database. The size of the image displayed is stated and you can set an Image alternate text if your image does not appear for some reason.
We recommend the image size to be at least twice the size of the container. Emarsys can then ensure that it is displayed in high quality on all devices.
The ratio of the image and the display should also be the same for the best possible image quality.
On the Mobile tab, you can select whether the same image should be shown on mobile devices as on desktop, whether the images should be hidden on mobile devices, or whether you will use a dedicated mobile image.
Product recommendations
If you are using Predict, you can also converting any image into a recommendation.
Email content: links
After capturing your customers' attention with great layout, the main goal of every email is to get them to convert by clicking a link through to your or another website.
As well as the default links shown in the Link Overview tab, you can also link any element of your email content (providing you have allowed for this in the template design).
Please note that links are not active in the live preview and cannot be clicked. To test a link, open the Link Overview tab and hover over a link: an Open Link button appears which you can use to test the link.
You can also test links in the email by sending a Testmail.
In the Link Editor, add the target URL and give the link a title if you wish.
The Link Title is the <a href title =""> attribute. This attribute can be used to aid recipients in the following ways:
- Some browsers display the title as a tooltip when the cursor is hovered over the link, so you can give more information about where the link will direct the visitor, or if the full link text might be cut off.
- Some screen readers will read the title when this feature is activated.
If you do not define a title, the first part of the linked text will be used instead.
Note: Currently, the Link Overview page does not display link health status information, which is a feature available in the Custom HTML Editor. This functionality will be added to VCE in a future release.
Link tracking monitors which contacts clicked which links in your email, allowing you to report and segment by these responses.
This is the single most important way to understand the level of engagement of your contacts, and a critical part of getting to know your customers' behavior.
Accordingly, all valid http and https links found in your email are tracked by default.
Please note, however, that ftp and mailto links are not tracked as they are not trackable.
Check our link tracking FAQs for other exceptions.
On the Link Tracking tab, you can also find all the links in your email, this time with the following information and controls.
- Summary - At the top of the tab you can see how many links you have and how many are currently being tracked.
- Track - This switch shows whether or not the link is being tracked.
- Name in analysis - This name is used in the email reporting screens. You can give more than one link the same name (e.g. all your call to action links), to group them for easier reporting.
- Link category - This groups the links together for behavior segmentation. You create the categories in the Admin menu, Link Categories.
By default, tracked links are identified on the email reporting pages by either their display text or a URL. This may make it a bit cumbersome to recognize the links, especially when you use a lot of them in your emails. You can make your life a lot easier if you a give a name to the links and assign a category to them, which will be used to identify and group them on the reporting and segmentation pages.
You can edit links individually, or make bulk changes. To change the tracking settings of an individual link, simply toggle the Track switch, add a name or category, and save your changes.
To make a bulk change, either make multiple selections using the checkboxes, or select one of the options in the bulk edit dropdown.
Click Edit selected to open the editor and apply your changes to all the selected links.
Use the Search field at the top of the list to filter the link names. As you start typing, the list will be updated in real time. This may come in handy when you want to bulk edit links of the same kind, such as image links which are identified in the list by their URL domain.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I want to include a URL in title attribute, e.g. for SEO purposes?
If you want to add a URL to the attributes of a link tag, this will be treated as any other text and not recognized as a link. It will therefore not be tracked.
My campaign has not been launched yet, can I still add or remove link tracking?
Yes. You can turn tracking on and off for any link in your email as many times as you want until the email is launched.
Can I change the link tracking settings after launch?
No, you cannot. Once the email has been launched the tracking parameters are stored in the database and cannot be edited.
On the email reporting pages, I do not see some of the links found in the email. Why is that?
On the reporting pages, you will only see click statistics for links for which you enable tracking. Check in the campaign editor if link tracking was turned on for these links.
Also, please note that certain link types are not tracked: ftp and mailto links as well as links containing an invalid URL will not be tracked and, accordingly, will not appear on the reporting pages, either.
Some of my image links do not appear on the Link Overview or Link Tracking tabs. Why is that?
There are two cases when an image link will not appear on these tabs:
- If an image is not linked in the template but is then linked in the content editor.
- If the image is marked as editable in the template but the image link is not editable.
These links are tracked automatically, but will not appear here and tracking cannot be disabled for them.
If you want to dig deeper into link tracking you may find these articles helpful:
Read more on link tracking statistics:
Email content: attachments
The only way that you can add attachments to an email is by using Triggered Email. This functionality is not supported in our standard email editor.
Personalizing content
You have four options for personalizing your email content.
Personalization variables
You can personalize your text content by using variables to populate the text with values from your Emarsys database fields. To personalize your text in this way, proceed as follows:
If you want to use alternative text that will be displayed for those contacts who do not have a value for the selected field, you must use the Emarsys scripting language (see below).
If you do not define alternative text, the variable will be replaced by a blank space. If you think this is a risk, you should make sure that your email design allows for it.
Using the Emarsys Scripting Language
Example of an ESL snippet containing alternative text for the first name:
Similarly to other personalization options, the snippet will be shown within the text.
By using the snippets, you have the option to freely format your content, without breaking the end result in your email.
Conditional text
The email editor also comes with predefined templates for conditional text blocks, which you can apply to any text content. To add conditional text, proceed as follows:
- Place your cursor in the text block where you want to add the conditional.
- Click the Conditional text icon.
You can choose from the following conditional templates:
Decide by gender
With this option you can display text targeted at customers based on their gender. You can also personalize this conditional.
Decide by email address
With this option you can define conditional text based on an exact or a partial match for the contact's email address. You can also personalize this conditional.
Decide by country
With this option you define text based on the recipient's country. You can also personalize this conditional.
You can define as many countries as you like, as long as they are included as values in the Country field of the Emarsys database, and that you have spelled them correctly.
Decide by contact field
With this option you can select from any database field and define conditional text for one single value of that field.
Block targeting
You can also decide to hide or show an entire content block for different user segments within the launch list. Proceed as follows:
- Select the block you want to show or hide and click the Block targeting icon.
You can then choose from the following templates. In each case you must choose to show or hide the block according to the criteria you define.
Decide by country
With this option you show or hide the block based on the recipient's country.
You can define as many countries as you like, as long as they are included as values in the Country field of the Emarsys database, and that you have spelled them correctly.
Decide by segmentation
With this option you show or hide the block based on whether the recipient is in the selected segment or not.
Combined segments are currently not available for selection in block targeting.
Decide by database field
With this option you show or hide the block based whether the recipient has one of the defined values for the database field you have selected.
Please note that single choice field selection is not supported in block targeting.
Previewing your email
The live preview screen lets you see how your email looks as you build it, but it does not take into account personalized content, mail clients or devices. For these we have developed some additional features:
Contact preview
You can select any one of the contacts in your database and see exactly how your email will look when it has been personalized with their properties.
On the Contact preview pane, the search field is dynamic, and previously used contacts are stored in the list. In this way you can create text contacts that correspond to the contacts you are targeting with your campaign and make sure that the email looks great for all of them.
This feature is only available in the VCE editor. Please also note:
- Only Twig syntax is supported. Personalized content which uses $pers$ and %% placeholders will not be displayed.
- Personalized content from external events will not be displayed.
- Block targeting by segment is not yet supported (coming soon); all such blocks will be displayed in the preview. Block targeting by contact data field is supported.
Mobile preview
When previewing your email, you have to consider whether the email will be opened on mobile, desktop or both. To this end we have developed a screen where you have the opportunity to test how your content looks on different platforms.
Click the device icon to access the navigation screen where you can select the devices where you want to test the appearance of your content.
For more information, see the Mobile First Email feature.