Creating Emails from Templates

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Tip: Are you looking for information about Constant Contact’s Email and Digital Marketing product? This article is for Constant Contact’s Lead Gen & CRM product. Head on over to the Email and Digital Marketing articles by clicking here. Not sure what the difference is? Read this article.

 

Lead Gen & CRM Email Templates

To create an email in the Lead Gen & CRM platform, you must first start with a template. The platform offers Simple templates, Designer templates, and Custom Notification templates to help you get started.

You can also build your own templates, by dragging and dropping layout blocks and elements into the builder. Save your template to help create emails in the future. 

 

Pre-Made Templates		Description
Simple templates		Helps guide your email layout with pre-set columns, sidebars and headers.
Designer templates		Helps guide your email layout and your creative process with pre-set columns, sidebars, and headers, but also offer media suggestions with pre-loaded images and buttons to really bring your emails to life.
Custom Notification templates		Helps you quickly send notifications to your contacts with pre-set personalization tokens, including first names, last names, workflow titles, etc.

 

Use and modify one of our pre-made templates or build your own. While the type of template you choose is up to you, emails can only be created using a template.

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Create Emails From Pre-Made Templates

To create emails from a pre-made template, click Email in Lead Gen & CRM's left toolbar. Navigate to the Email Templates tab or click the blue Create button. 

1. Click Create.
2. Click Create Email.
   
   
    
3. Select one of the template folders.
4. Hover over one of the email templates and click on + Create Email. 
   
   
    
5. Enter a title for your email. 
6. Optionally, if applicable, do the following:
   • If you have Granular Unsubscribes enabled, you must choose an unsubscribe category. 
   • If you want to send an email as a Smart Mail, click the Make Available as a Smart Mail in Contact Manager checkbox.
   • If you want the recipient to be able to open the email in a browser window, click the Include “view in browser” link checkbox.
7. Click Add Email.
   
   
    
8. Edit the email content as needed - type your email message, add, remove, style, or move layout blocks and elements - and click Save.
9. Click Continue. 
   
   
    

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Customizing Email Content

Once your email has been created, you can start customizing its content. Lead Gen & CRM's Email Designer is made specifically to help make the email creation process simple and comprehensive. It does so by using intuitive drag-and-drop functionality. 

Learn how to use the Lead Gen & CRM Email designer:

• Email Designer Panel Overview
• Email Content Editor Overview
• Email Layout Editor Overview

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Testing and Sending Emails

Once an email has been created, you can test it to see how it looks when it is sent, send it right away, or send it at a future scheduled date and time.

Note: Litmus testing is unavailable in the new email editor. To access the Litmus Testing feature of the older editor choose one of your older, existing emails or email templates.

The following are available options for testing and sending emails:

Option		Description
Litmus Tests		Perform Litmus tests (for a fee) to view the email across different platforms and devices.
Send to Lists		Immediately send emails directly to a list. In addition to Litmus tests, consider creating a list specifically for testing purposes.
Schedule Emails		Schedule emails to send at a future date and time.

 

To change the settings for your email, click on   Send Settings. There are eight settings you can manage from   Send Settings:

• Subject Line
• From Name
• From Email
• Reply To Email
• Unsubscribe Category
• Option to send the email to the same person multiple times
• Option to make the email available as a Smartmail in Contacts
• Option to send from lead owner when sending from the automation engine
• Option to include a "view in browser" link

Read our Email Designer Panel Overview article to learn more about these settings. 

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Available Email Options in the New Email Editor

There are options available to you that allow you to preview your email and perform administrative tasks.
The   Check and Preview menu offers the following tools: 


 

Option		Description
Send a Preview Email		Send yourself or your colleagues a preview email by entering your email addresses in the text field. Sending using this method allows you to send a preview of the email as-is. Be aware that attachments will not be sent using the preview feature.
Preview		Open Preview Mode to see the way the email will look to a recipient. Toggle between Dark Mode preview. Toggle between desktop and mobile versions of the email as well.

The    Options menu offers the following tools:


 

Option		Description
Saved Versions		See previous versions of the email in the email designer. See the date, time, and person who last changed the email. You can also restore an older version.
Delete Email		Delete the email from your instance entirely. This is permanent.

To learn more about sending settings read Send Settings in the Email Designer. To learn more about the Settings tab of the Email Designer, read Overview of the New Email Editor. 

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Available Email Options in the Older Email Editor

There are options available to you that allow you to preview your email and perform administrative tasks.

The    Options menu offers the following tools:


 

 

Option		Description
Send a Preview Email		Send yourself or your colleagues a preview email by entering your email addresses in the text field. Sending using this method allows you to send a preview of the email as-is. Be aware that attachments will not be sent using the preview feature.
Pop-Out Preview		See the email preview in a new window.
View Code		View the email's HTML code.
Delete This Email		Delete the email from your instance entirely. This is permanent.
Revision History		See the date, time, and person who last changed the email.
Previous Versions		See the date, time, and a preview of previously saved versions of the email. From here, you may restore a previously saved version of the email. Restoring a previous version of the email will not overwrite version history; instead, a new entry in the Previous Versions section will be created.

 

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