Create New Email

Block Editor

In the block editor screen, select a box in the area at the right and drag it to the left to build up your email as a set of blocks. The screen looks like this:

Click in the Header area and enter some text in the box at the right. The box allows you to select different fonts and colors, and to insert fields such as the current date. When your Header is complete, click Done to be returned to the screen above.

You can now build up the content of the email itself, using the block boxes at the right. Select one of the layouts; this defines the column structure of the email. To insert one of the blocks, such as an image or a button, drag the box to the area at the left. Editing options for the block are then displayed at the right; these options depend on the type of block that you inserted (for example, a button requires a URL).

The available blocks are as follows:

• Text. Adds a block of text. You can change the layout, font, font size and color. You can also add personalization.
• Image. Inserts an image from your Asset Library or from a local file. See Asset Library for a list of supported file formats.
• Button. Adds a button with a specified URL. The link is followed when the user presses the button. You can change the layout, font, font size and color of the button text.
• Divider. Adds a horizontal or vertical divider line. You can specify the thickness, length and color of the line, and add padding if required.
• Social. Adds a social media link. You can select one of the most common types of social media from a dropdown, or add your own custom link to social media. You can use the standard image for the social media type you select, or use a custom image.
• Video. Adds a video. You can add a YouTube video or one created using Communicate. See Including a video for details.
• Compose. Adds a template that was designed in EngageOne™ Compose and imported as a Data Source into Communicate. See Data Sources for more information.
  Note: The Compose block is only displayed if EngageOne™ Compose datasource functionality has been enabled as described in Data Sources.
• Barcode. Adds a barcode. You can select the type of barcode and its value.
• Table. Adds a table. You can customize the appearance of the table and add data fields. See Tables for more information.

When you have finished editing the block, click Done to return to the main screen.

Once you have inserted a block, you can edit it by clicking on it. If you hold the mouse pointer over it, you also have the options to delete it or duplicate it.

Including a Compose block

If you drag a Compose block into your email, the right side of the screen looks like this:

Select a template from the dropdown, which lists all the Compose templates that have been published from Compose (if the currently selected contact list is based on a template, that template is preselected in the list).

If the template you select is different from the Data Source selected for the email, an error message will be displayed ("The template does not match the data schema"). You need to go into the Contacts tab and select the same template from the dropdown.

The various elements of the template, that are available for the Data Source selected, are now displayed:

If you click Select, that element is added to the email. You can also click on the eye icon at the top right in order to see a preview of the block.

If there are any font families used in the Compose template element that are not supported in Communicate emails, a message is displayed ("Your font family is not email compatible. Please select a replacement") and you are prompted to select a replacement font family. See Font families for a list of font families that are supported in Communicate emails.

When you have inserted the Compose element that you want, you can change the Design Style, including the font, as follows:

You can also reach this screen via the Design tab. Click Change to use a different element from the Compose block.

The block uses personalization in the same way as for other blocks.

Add personalization

Click on Add personalization to insert a Data Field or System Field. The Data Fields displayed are based on the Data Source selected (to select a data source, use the Contacts tab). You can insert a Data Field that is not in the currently selected Data Source by selecting Add Custom Field (it must, however, exist in one of your Data Sources). For each custom field that you add, you will be prompted to provide a default value to be used whenever there is no value present. System Fields are standard fields not dependent on any Data Source (mostly time and date related).

For further information, see Personalizing communications.

Conditional logic

You can use conditional logic to specify that the display of a selected block is conditional on the value of Data Fields or System Fields. For example, you may only want to include details of a special offer if the recipient has not yet availed themselves of the offer.

To use conditional logic, first add the conditional block into the email. Then click in the Edit Layout area (outside the block to the right or left). Click the box Only show this section to certain recipients followed by + Add Conditions. The following dialog is then displayed:

A condition specifies whether a Data Field or System Field has a specified relationship (such as equals, less than, etc.) with a value that you enter. For example, you could specify that special_offer must equal "not_taken". If you specify two or more conditions, you should specify whether all conditions must match, or any one of them.

For further information, see Applying conditions.

Unsubscribes

To add an unsubscribe link to an email, use the System Field Unsubscribe. This provides a clickable link for the user, and will result in their being removed from the email list. To see statistics about unsubscribes, see Reporting and Audience Analysis. For further information on unsubscribes, see the short video clips about email.

You can design the appearance of the unsubscribe page that the user sees when they click Unsubscribe in the email. For how to do this, see Unsubscribe Email page.

Viewing the email in a browser

To add a link to an email that allows the user to view the email in their browser, use one of the System Fields View in Browser or View in Browser URL. Clicking the link will open the email in the recipient's browser.

• View in Browser adds a link element around the text View in Browser (with HTML of the form <a href="...">View in Browser</a>).
• View in Browser URL adds only the URL so that you could, for example, add the URL to your own button.

Layouts

By default, an item that you select fills the width of the email. The Layouts area allows you to divide the email, or part of it, into a number of columns. You can then drag and drop items into the various columns.

Including a video

To include a video in an email, drag the Video block into the appropriate place.

From the dropdown, select either Communicate Video or Youtube.

• If you select Youtube, you need only specify the YouTube link.
• If you select Select Communicate Video, you must first have created and published a video in Communicate (see Video for how to do this).
  Note: The same data source must be selected for the Video (using the Contacts tab) and for the email (also using the Contacts tab). If they do not match, the video will not be available to include in the email. Also, if a video that has been published subsequently has its data source changed, it will be blurred and has a message superimposed on it.

If you want to replace an existing Communicate Video, select Replace Communicate Video.

Select the Video location from the dropdown (note that if only one option - Communicate Hosted Video - is available, no dropdown is displayed). The following options are available (note that the options you see depend on what has been configured):

• Embedded Video. Allows you to select a URL to an externally hosted page that contains the embedded code with the video iframe. See Embed Video for more details.
• Communicate Hosted Video. Allows you to select a video hosted by Communicate. All videos that have been published, and that have the same data source, will be displayed. Select the appropriate video and click Use selected video.
• Custom Domain. Allows you to specify a link to a Branded PURL domain. See Creating PURLs for details.

The email editor is then shown with various settings that you can make for the video:

• ALT TEXT - by default, the name of the video. You can edit the text.
• ALIGNMENT - by default, Center.
• WIDTH
• HEIGHT
• Padding

Design tab

This allows you to set the page and text styles for the email.

Contacts tab

This allows you to add personalization to the email using data from a Data Source. See Data Sources for how to create a Data Source. After importing a Data Source, the fields in that source appear as Data Fields when you select Add personalization.

For details of how to include or exclude specific email addresses, see Audience Analysis.

Add barcodes

EngageOne™ Communicate Software makes it easy to add barcodes to emails or PDFs for communications such as returns slips.

To add a barcode to your email:

1. Drag the barcode block into the email design canvas to add a placeholder barcode to your document.
2. In the barcode design tab, select the barcode type.
3. Specify the barcode value.
4. Enter fallback text.

You can modify the barcode to match your brand by editing the following barcode properties:

• Alignment
• Width
• Height
• Padding (top, bottom, left, and right)

Attachments tab

To add an attachment to the email, click the Attachments tab. All the attachments listed on the Attachments tab are sent with each email communication, each time you send the campaign.

There are two types of attachment:

• Static attachment - these can be any type of file. Select a specified file from the Asset Library for the project. You can browse to add a new file to the Asset Library.
• Dynamic attachment - these can be PDFs that are generated by EngageOne™ Compose Cloud for email campaigns sent using Communicate. These templates are provided by EngageOne™ Compose Cloud and the data is imported into Communicate as a Data Source. Alternatively, you can create a dynamic attachment using the Document option within Communicate.
  Note: Generating PDFs using EngageOne™ Compose Cloud requires a subscription to EngageOne™ Compose Cloud.
  Note: To attach a PDF created in Communicate, the PDF document and the email must be created within the same project.

You can add both static attachments and dynamic attachments to the same communication.

The maximum file size for a single attachment is 3MB, and the total size of all of the attachments for a communication cannot exceed 7MB. Emails with very large attachments will take longer to send.