Creating Emails from Designer Templates

Designer templates are email templates that provide a layout for you to quickly and easily customize your marketing emails without the need for a designer or developer.

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.

Creating Emails from Designer Templates

Creating marketing emails has never been quicker. Produce beautiful marketing emails in minutes. Launch campaigns on the fly with out-of-the-box, professionally designed templates.

To create emails from a designer template, do the following:

1. Click Email in the left toolbar. 
2. Click Email Templates.
3. Click the Designer Templates folder.

   

4. Hover over a designer template and Click the "+" button to Create Email.

   
   

    

5. Enter a name for the email.
6. Optionally, if applicable, do the following:
   • If you have Granular Unsubscribes enabled, choose an unsubscribe category.  
   • Click the Make Available as a Smart Mail in Contact Manager checkbox to send the email as a Smart Mail.
   • Click the Include “view in browser" link checkbox to open the email in a browser window.
7. Click Add Email.

   
   

    

8. Click directly in the email's body. 
9. Utilize the features in the email designer to modify the email.
10. Click Save.

    
    

     

For more information on customizing the content of designer emails, refer to Email Designer Panel Overview. 

Important: Microsoft no longer supports Outlook 2007. As such, Lead Gen & CRM does not guarantee that email templates and emails created in the email designer will render correctly in Microsoft Outlook 2007. In addition, due to how Microsoft Outlook currently renders emails, two-column layout email templates with an image and text will flip the layout of their renders when sent to clients.

Editing Designer Emails

You can edit previously created emails as necessary.

To edit created designer emails, do the following: 

1. Click Email in the left toolbar.
2. Enter the email's name into the Filter Emails search bar and locate the target designer email.

   
   

    

3. Hover over the designer email and click   Edit Email.

   
   

    

4. Click directly in the email's body and utilize the features in the email designer to modify the email.
5. Click Save.

   
   

    

Customizing Designer Email Text

You can customize email text to suit your needs.

To edit text in an email, do the following: 

1. Click Email in the left toolbar.
2. Create or edit a designer email template.

   
   

    

3. Click directly on the email's text and utilize the features in the email designer to modify text.
4. Click Save.

   
   

    

Adding merge variables will personalize your email by dynamically pulling information about your lead into the email.

Changing Designer Email Colors

You can change an email's many colors.

1. To customize the colors within your email, do the following:
2. Click Email in the left toolbar.
3. Create or edit a designer email.

   
   

    

4. Click    Theme Styles, located in the left sidebar. Here, you can adjust any of the following parameters:
     •   Header Background
     •   Content Background
     •   Footer Background
     •   Email Background
     •   Headings
     •   Text
     •   Links
5. Click Save.

   
   

    

Note: To remove a color selection, click Erase.

The email designer takes any of the styles in the HTML for Theme, pulls them into the database, and removes them from the HTML. If you notice any style code deleted from the HTML, adjust such through Theme Styles. 

Adding Layout and Element Blocks

The email designer allows you to drag, drop, and reorder layout blocks into your email to further customize it.

To add layout blocks, do the following:

1. Click Email in the left toolbar.
2. Create or edit a designer email.

   

    

3. Click    Content and Layout, located in the left sidebar.
4. Drag-and-drop Themed or Simple layouts into your email.

   
   

    

5. Drag-and-drop Elements into your email.

   
   

    

6. Click    Move to reorder layout blocks.
7. Click Save.

    

   

    

For more information on layout and element blocks, refer to Using Layout and Element Blocks in Emails.

Send Settings 

You can modify the general settings emails as necessary.

To modify an email's settings, do the following:

1. Click Email in the left toolbar. 
2. Create or edit a designer email.

    

   

    

3. Click    Send Settings, located in the left sidebar.
4. Adjust any of the following parameters:
   • Subject
   • From Name
   • From Email
   • Reply-To Email
5. Click Save.

   

    

Additional Designer Email Options

There are additional features available for designer emails. These features are as follows:

	Icon		Feature		Description
			Attachments		Affixes attached files to the email.
			RSS Subscription		Adds RSS metadata to the email.
			Shopping Cart		Adds shopping cart functionality to the email.
			Dynamic Content		Adds dynamic content information to the email.

Copying Designer Email Templates

As designer templates are template files, they cannot be directly edited. That said, designer template copies can be edited as necessary.

To create a copy of a designer email template, do the following:

1. Click Email in the left toolbar.
2. Click Email Templates.
3. Click the Designer Templates folder. Locate the target designer email template.

   
   

    

4. Hover over the designer email template and click    Options > Copy Template.

   
   

    

5. Enter a name for the template.
6. Click Copy Template.

   

    

7. Click Save Template. 

   
   

    

Editing Copied Designer Email Templates

Once made into a copy, designer templates can be edited.

To edit designer templates, do the following:

1. Click Email in the left toolbar.
2. Click Email Templates.
3. Enter the email's name into the Filter Emails search bar.

   
   

    

4. Locate and hover over the target designer email template. Click    Options > Edit Template.

    

   

    

5. Add, remove, copy, or edit content in the template.
6. Click Save Template. 

   
   

    

Note: Copied emails are sent to the Miscellaneous folder by default.

Removing Copied Designer Email Templates

You can delete a copied designer template and permanently remove it.

To remove copied templates, do the following:

1. Click Email in the left toolbar.
2. Click Email Templates.
3. Enter the email's name into the Filter Emails search bar.

   
   

    

4. Locate and hover over the target designer email template. Click    Options > Remove Template.

   
   

    

5. Click Yes, I'm sure.

    

   

    

Designer and Legacy Template Differences

Designer templates are email templates that are very similar to legacy templates. However, they are more responsive and are compatible with more email clients and browsers. Designer templates differ from legacy templates in that they are more compatible with Outlook, easier to design, and have many additional options. 

Questions?