The email designer is where you build what your people see in their inbox. Go to Designs, then Emails, and click New design, then Email. To work on a design you already have, click Edit on it.
Ways to start
- Start from a template: a whole email with its layout, words and photos in place. See Your designs and templates.
- Describe & Build: on the Designs page, describe the email in a sentence or two and a first draft is laid out for you. See Describe & Build.
- A blank page: drag blocks in from the left and build it yourself.
Blocks
The left rail has four blocks. Click one to add it to the end of the email, or drag it to the place you want it.
- Text for headings and paragraphs.
- Image for a photo from your Media, a stock photo or a new upload.
- Button for a link that looks like a button.
- Spacer for space between parts of the email, with an optional line across it.
Below them, Ready-made opens a library of finished sections, such as a pull quote or a product card. Search it, or narrow it with the chips under the search box, then click a section to add it to the end or drag it into place. The Your shop chip shows the blocks that use your products. Two of them, What they left behind and Ask for reviews, only fill in when a drip sends the email.
Columns and rows
Drag a block to the left or right edge of another block to put the two side by side. A row can hold up to four columns. Drop a block onto the middle of another to stack it underneath, in the same column; a column holds up to three blocks. Drop text or a button onto a picture to place it on top of the picture.
Hover over a block to see its small toolbar. Drag the dotted handle to move the block, and use the buttons beside it to duplicate or delete it. The circle chooses who sees the block (see Show a block to some people only). In a row with columns, another button moves a block to the top, middle or bottom of its row. You can also drag a block off the page to remove it.
To change a whole row, click the bar that appears at its left edge. You can then give the row a background colour that runs the full width of the email, add padding above and below its blocks, and, for a row with columns, set the gap between them. To make one column wider than another, drag the handle on the side of a block in it.
The toolbar at the bottom
Click a block and its settings appear in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, such as a text block's size and colour, or a picture's link and alt text. More holds spacing, fills, corners and padding. With nothing selected, the toolbar shows the page's background colour and spacing. See Words, links and personal touches and Pictures in your emails.
Phone view
The two buttons at the top switch between Desktop view and Phone view. On a phone, columns stack one above the other, and Phone view shows you how that looks. Blocks can't be moved in Phone view, so switch back to Desktop view to change the layout.
Saving and undo
The design saves a moment after each change, and again when you leave; beside its name you'll see Saving…, then Saved. A template you open and don't change isn't saved. Click the name to rename the design, and use the arrows near the top right to undo and redo changes. If a change hasn't saved when you go back to your designs, you're asked before you leave.
If the same design is saved somewhere else while you have it open, such as in another tab, nothing is saved over it. When you come back to the tab, the designer shows the latest version. If you'd changed something in the meantime, the note beside the name reads Changed somewhere else instead. Load the latest shows the version saved elsewhere, and Keep mine as a new design saves yours as a copy.
Working on several designs
The narrow strip on the far left shows each design you have open. Click + to start another email or image, or to open one of your designs. The cross on a design in the strip closes it in the designer. It doesn't delete the design.
When it's ready
Click Send a preview to email yourself a copy. Click Use this design to start a campaign with it: the campaign opens in a new tab with this design already chosen. If you opened the designer from a campaign, that campaign opens in a new tab with this design chosen. See Check a design before it goes out.
Good to know
- The logo at the top and the address and unsubscribe link at the bottom come from your header and footer. See Your header and footer.
- Every email goes out with a plain-text version as well, made from the design.
- The designer needs a bigger screen than a phone. Open it on a laptop or desktop computer.