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Custom Emails: Creating a Template from Scratch

Updated this week

Intro

Customers can create and edit templates to be used on an ongoing basis. For example, they can create a “Newsletter” template that looks exactly how they want, and reuse this template every month when they send a newsletter.

To do this, they can start with one of our default templates, basic templates (with nothing but text blocks and blank images), or even use one of their pre-existing saved templates.

At the end of this flow, they can even jump into the email creation process and schedule their email to be sent.

Templates Page

  • To start the process, navigate to the Templates page under Marketing in the side nav.

  • By default, customers do NOT have any saved templates and they’ll need to create templates to use (using our templates as a base). You can test this by going to an org with no templates.

Empty state:

Non-empty state:

  • Customers will see 2 tabs: saved and archived. Saved contains all the templates they want to use in the future, and archived contains everything they want out of the way.

  • Each tab has cards that show details for each template:

    • Picture of the template

    • Name (clicking this opens the edit screen where they can edit the template)

    • Type of template

    • Emails that it’s used on (clicking the campaign name will open the campaign)

    • Created date/time

    • Edited date/time

Creating a Template

  • To create a template from scratch, start by clicking “Create new template”

  • On the following page, the customer will see all of the templates that they can use as a base. This includes all of our default pre-created templates, basic layouts (with just blocks of image and text) AND templates that the customer themselves crated.

    • Note that we’ll have a separate ticket to QA the templates (as of writing this, they are not yet uploaded), however you can select any template now to use as a base.

  • IF you select a default template, we ask you to name it

  • IF you select any other template, we ask you to:

    • Name the template

    • Give it a category (to help with categorizing it on other screens)

    • Note that right now the pop-up only has text to tell you to give it a name even if it also asks you to provide a category- this is a bug and will be fixed.

    • As soon as you complete this step, we automatically save your template for you.

  • On the following page, you’ll be able to edit your template as well as send a test to yourself.

  • The only meaningful difference on this page from what you experience when you’re creating a campaign is the ability to edit the name of the template, which can be done on the top left.

  • Make a few changes and save the template. You’ll be asked if you want to create a new campaign from this template.

    • IF you click yes, you’ll be redirected to the campaign creation screen with the template already added.

      • IF you do this, the customer will STILL have to edit the instance of the template to schedule their campaign. We do this because the user had just created a reusable template, not the ACTUAL email that will go out. For example, maybe they created a monthly newsletter template, and we now require them to edit the email itself.

    • IF you click no, you’ll be redirected to the templates screen.

Creating a Template

Back on the main templates page, you should see your saved template. There are a number of actions you can take on each template by using the overflow button:

If you duplicate a template, you’ll be asked to give it a name and category, and then be sent into the edit flow. We’ll automatically name it “Copy of [original template name].”

If you create a campaign from the template, you’ll be sent into the campaign creation flow but with the template already added:

If you archive the template, it will be sent to the archive folder. Note that if you do this, any campaign you already have set up using this as a base will not be effected.

On the archived tab, you can also send templates back to saved as well.

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