Email Template Administration Updated 


Before we begin please, ensure that the following tasks have been completed.


Review Design Guidelines for your E-mail Template

  1.  Keep all email template designs a maximum of 600 pixels wide. Most emails will show up in a preview window of the recipient first and these are much narrower than a website page would be.
  2. For more in-depth email template guidelines, click to download the “E-Mail Design Guidelines” PDF file.

Have an HTML email template designed, coded and ready to be added to the system.

  1. Have an HTML email template designed, coded and ready to be added to the system.
  2. All images needed for the design of the HTML template as well as any variations of images that will be editable within the template should be within the images folder or in a location you can access on your computer.

Upload Necessary Image Assets

  1. If one does not exist, create an image category under the Image Gallery parent category that will hold all of the images used for the design of the email template. A suggestion for naming this category name would be “email template structure images” or something that lets you know these are images used in the design of the template and are not to be edited by users.  We suggest setting the permissions of this folder only to Admins.
  2. Upload all editable images to your DMP. We suggest making separate categories for similar image types like “header-banners”, “logos”, “product-photos”, etc…


Creating an HTML Email Template

To start, navigate using the main menu to Adminstration > E-mail Marketing System > Manage Templates. Once on that page scroll to the bottom and click on Create New Template.

  1. Name your new template and choose an existing category for it to be listed under, or create a new category by typing in a name in the New Category field.
  2. There are two ways to add the HTML for your new template to the system. (Option A) Upload and existing template (HTML file) from your hard drive.  (Option B ) Use the System HTML editor to compose an email template from scratch or use this option to paste in the HTML code from the local HTML file on your computer. We recommend Option B.
  3. Once you have named your template, selected it's category and set how you want to add the HTML, click on the Continue button.

Adding the HTML to your Template

  1. If you chose option A (Upload and existing template(HTML file) from your hard drive), from the previous page you will be given a a browse button and the ability to add image files if they are not already loaded. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to upload your HTML file and assets.
  2. If you chose option B (Create HTML using On-line Editor) you will be taken directly to the main editing page for HTML email templates. Scroll down to the “Edit Template” region.
  3. Click on the “HTML” icon at the end of the top row of icons in the on-line editor.  The HTML Source pop-up window will open.
  4. Copy the HTML code from your local HTML file and then paste it over any code that is in this HTML window pop-up. 


Setting Template Attribute Defaults

This section is at the top of the Customize HTML template page which you should already be on. If you don't see the “(template name) Template Attributes” section, scroll to the top of the page.

Some of the template attributes will be populated with default information. You can modify these if you desire. Areas with Manage Permissions use the permissions features of the system.

  1. Set a default Campaign name and default Subject/Title for this email template
  2. Set the default sender name and sender email address for this template. By default, profile tags are used to pull in the users name and email
  3. Set the default sender name and sender email address for this template. By default, profile tags are used to pull in the users name and email
  4. Add a description and keywords to help you and your users find this template when doing a search.
  5. Systems have 1 mail queue by default. If you have more than one mail queue, you can choose which mail queue emails using this template would be sent from. If you would like the "reply to" email address to be different than who the email is being sent from (for example sales@company.com) you can set a default reply to email address. The Control Number field allows you to add an identification number for the template which can be used as an additional search option.  
  6. If you would like to set up a specific support person for users to contact if they have questions about the template, you can select from a list of Support contacts that you have entered into the system here.
  7. You can change the category this template is assigned to here and also assign it to multiple categories.
  8. Set user access to this template by using permissions.


Email Template Permission Options

  • On initial view, this section is minimized. Click the [Toggle Options] link on the section bar to see all of the options displayed. This area is set to the most common use case.  The following permissions are included in this area and more details about each of these can be found on the full email permissions documentation.
    • Allow Advanced Editor Mode – Default set to Administrators only
    • Start in Advanced Editor Mode – Default set to NO
    • Allow Option Customization – Default set to allow all users to see this tab
    • Approval Flow Exemption – Default set to only Administrators are exempt
    • Allow Plain Text Editing – Default set to YES
    • Allow Link Customization – Default set to allow all users to access this tab
    • Allow Unsubscribe Options – Default set to allow Administrators Only to access this tab
    • Custom Unsubscribe Settings – Default set to NO
    • Custom Forward To Friend Settings – Default set to NO
    • Custom Forward To Friend skin – Default set to Administrators Only


Adding Editable Areas to the Template

  1. To begin adding editable areas, select content in your email that you want to allow users to edit.  We recommend doing one edit tag at a time and recommend copying the content the edit tag is taking the place of into notepad as you will want to keep it and copy it back into the edit tag as its default content. After highlighting the content, type in the name of an edit tag [edit:my-tag-name] where “edit:” is all lower case and “my-tag-name” is any variable name you want. Variable names cannot have spaces. so use  hyphen “-” or underscore “_” instead.
  2. Once you have typed in your tag, click the “Update Editable Areas” button. This will set the tag and then allow you to set the type of editor and default content associated with it.

Setting Edit Tag types and default content

  1. Once you've clicked the “Update Editable Areas” an edit tag you have created will show up in the area below.  Any editable area that does not have its content type set will show up like this.
  2. Once you choose an edit tag type you will be shown the options available for that type of edit tag. The next pages will show the options available for each field type.


Text Edit Tag – Single Line Text Options

  1. Choose “Single Line” from the text area type drop down box.
  2. Set the limit of how many characters a user is allowed to type into the field.
  3. Add the default text for the field.
  4. Set the permissions on who is allowed to edit the field when using this template.

Text – Small Multiline Text Options

  1. Choose “Small Multiline” from the text area type drop down box. Users will only be able to change the text but not any formatting, color, size or other styles.
  2. Set the limit of how many characters a user is allowed to type into the field.
  3. Add the default text for the field.
  4. Set the permissions on who is allowed to edit the field when using this template.



Image Edit Tag – Image Options Tab

  1. To make the editable area contain an image, select “Image” from the tag type drop down.
  2. The “Image Options” tab will allow you to set the default content, minimum and maximum size, permissions and a few other settings.
  3. To select the default image, click the “Default Image” button. The image gallery browser will pop up. Just click on an image from the image gallery browser to select it or choose your “My Assets” tab and upload an image. Your selection will display in the Default Image box. If you want the default image to be pulled from a profile image field, click the “Profile Image” button.
  4. If you know the full URL path to the image, you can type or copy and paste the path here and click “Apply”
  5. Set the image size constraints if you want to control the minimum or maximum image size pixel width and height for this edit tag. Images selected will be re-sized so be sure to check the “Resize Proportionally” box to keep images looking clear. 
  6. If you don't know the size of the default image, you can click the “Fill constraints with current image size” link to populate the size constraint boxes with the size of the current default image.
  7. The bottom part of the options tab has all of the permissions settings. Set permissions on who can change the image using the collateral picker and limit what categories they can choose from, set permissions on who can type in the path to an image and who can upload their own images from their computer.
  8. Click on any of the permissions links to bring up its options.


Image – Image Link Tab

  • There are three link options for images on the “Image Link” tab.  You can choose to not allow the image to have a link, you can link to a single URL and allow your users to edit that URL, or you can allow multiple links on an image using the HotSpot tool.  The last two options are covered more on the next pages.

Image – Link Tab – Single URL

  1. To allow an image to link to a single URL, click the radio button next to “The image should link to a URL”.
  2. To set the default URL, type in the URL or click the icon on the right to select a collateral piece to link to.
  3. Choose if the link should open in the same window or in a new window by default.
  4. Set permissions on who can free form change the URL, change the URL by selecting a collateral piece from the platform and who can change if the URL opens in the same window or a new window. Also set the collateral categories users are allowed to choose from if they are allowed to create a link to a collateral piece. Set who can access the My Assets tab to upload their own file to link to, and set who is allowed to pick a link from the Link Library. (You can find more about the link library in the next section, “Link Edit Tags”, of this document.)

Link Edit Tag – Link Selector

  1. Choose “Link” from the type drop down box and then select “Link Selector” from the Link Type drop down box.
  2. Under the “Link Selection” tab (shown) you can sort the link order in how they should appear to the user as options, edit permissions of who can edit, move or remove a link, and remove a link option altogether from the available list.
  3. To add or chose existing links for the user to choose from, clink on the “Link Library” button.

Link – Link Selector – Link Library

  1. To add links to the library, click the “Create New Link” button. This will open the input fields.
  2. Using the input fields, select a search category for the link, type in the link title and the link URL. Then click “Add Link”. The new link will show up in the link library list. You can use the collateral picker to link to assets in the platform.
  3. Use the check-boxes to make links available for the current edit tag and to set the default links.
  4. To edit the link name, link URL or category for an existing link, click the pencil icon. To delete a link from the library click the “X” icon.





Link – Link Selector – Settings Tab

  1. The “Settings” tab contains the settings and configurations for this link edit tag.
  2. Set the max number of links allowed for this edit tag.
  3. Set permissions on who can create new links, free form type link titles and URLs, and access the “My Assets” tab to upload a file from a users desktop to link to.
  4. If users are allowed to create new links, and admin can limit the categories users allowed to browse collateral for to link to.
  5. To have each link automatically break out into its own line, select the “Block” option next to the Advanced Settings. If your link is within a paragraph of text, use the “Inline” option.

Link – Link Selector – Link Styles Tab

  1. The “Link Style” tab contains link style options to customize the appearance of the links.
  2. View the current style or type in your own style using HTML/CSS and then save the style to the “Style Library” for later use by typing a name in the “Save As:” box and clicking “Add to Library”.
  3. Select from preset HTML/CSS styles already saved in the Style Library. See a preview of the style in the Preview box and hit Apply to apply it to the current styling.  Click “Delete” to delete the style from the style library.




Link – Quick Upload

  1. Select “Quick Upload” from the link type drop down menu. This option will prompt the user to browse their computer and upload a file to link to.
  2. Type in a default link name and default link URL for the edit tag if you have one.
  3. If you want the default to be an existing collateral piece, click the “Get Collateral URL” button and select the collateral to populate the “Default Link URL” with a URL to that collateral.
  4. If a user selects a Flash SWF file to upload, you can force that file to play in the platforms Flash Player when accessed by checking this check box.


Content Selector Edit Tag

  1. To set the edit tag type as a Content Selector, choose “Content Selector” from the tag type dropdown.
  2. Type the content into the content area provided.
  3. Use the icons to change the order of the content options(up and down arrows), add more content options (“+” icon) and to remove a content option (“X” icon).
  4. Group names are used to link a group from one content selection in an email to the same named group in another content selector in the same email. When one or the other group is selected, the content in the other editable area will automatically load the content with the same group name.
  5. Set permissions on who can choose between the alternate content options.


Global Content Tag

Global content can be displayed in any part of the system that supports variable tags. To set up global content go to Administration > Global Content > Manage Global Content.

  1. To create a new global content tag, click the “Create New Global Content” button.
  2. View all previously created global content tags. You can sort by category or view tags in all categories. Clicking on a tag name in the Content Tags area will bring up the details for that global content tag.
  3. The details will show you the content name, content description, tag to use in HTML, tag to use for Plain Text and a preview of the content. You will also be able to Edit the content, Edit the permissions or delete the content tag using the Actions drop down menu.
  4. To use a global content tag in your email, type in, or copy and paste the tag for the content you want to use into your HTML email content.



Global Content Tag – Create New

  1. When adding a new global content tag, set a name and description for your content. Assign it to an existing category or create a new category.  Then decide if the content should be formatted for HTML, Plain Text, or both.
  2. Add your HTML content to the HTML area using the on-line editor. If you select the Plain Text or Both option for the content type, you will see a Plain Text box to type your content into.
  3. You can place a “Var” tag within content to make small parts of the content editable. Simply wrap the text you want editable with [var: MyText] where MyText is the text you want editable.
  4. Once you are done with your content, click the “Save” button.