EMAIL BLAST TEMPLATES

Jake Patoski

Training & Learning Manager

Email Blast Templates: Agenda

• Considerations before starting• Starting with a stock template• Basic setup - Create a new

template in Salsa• Customizing your template• Using your new template• “Oh hey, don’t do that…” – Tips to

keep in mind.

• The goal of an email template should always be simplicity – for the sake of the recipient, and to improve your own deliverability.• How many times have you opened an email and exclaimed,

“Wow, that’s a beautiful email!”? 1 in 100? 1 in 10,000? • No matter what, you’re going to have to learn some HTML.

• The basics: <p>, <br>, <a href=“”>, <img src=“”>, and then formatting with HTML and CSS.

Considerations before starting

• http://bit.ly/stock-templates• Pick your basic layout of choice, then copy the source code to…

• A new template in Salsa• A WYSIWYG or other editor to make changes

• It’s that easy (to start…)

Starting with a stock template

• Email package -> Create an Email Template• Pick an identifiable name for the Reference Name• Leave the default setting for Select a predefined template:

“Create from scratch”

Create a new template in Salsa

That “From Information” tab is important

• From name: Best practice - email campaigns do well when recipients build familiarity with a person’s name, not just the company name. • Often the ED, comms. mananger, or someone else close to the action• Do identify your organization though!• Ex: Jake Patoski, Salsa Labs

• From email: Make it either same person as above, or info@, action@, or similar.• Doesn’t have to be real! But smart supporters may email that address

directly, instead of reply-to.• Reply-to email: default address email clients will use if supporter clicks ‘reply’.

• Probably don’t want hundreds of out-of-office autoreplies coming to your personal inbox, right?

• Set the address to an unmanned account, or set up filters ahead of time

• Subject line – Set this field if you want part of your subject line to be in every new email.

• Example: “Take action today [Salsa Action Team]”

• Subject line can be reset on email blast setup.• Edit Template –

• Check this box if you like making changes to your design on the fly.

• Leave it blank (default) if you’re afraid others might screw up the HTML/CSS. (You would never screw it up yourself, even accidentally. You are infallible; we know.)

That “From Information” tab is important, cont’d

• Click the Source button to insert your copied stock template code. (You’re in the ‘code’ mode when all the other buttons are greyed out.)

• Decide where to insert your Editable Content tags:• <!-- TemplateBeginEditable name="content" --><!--

TemplateEndEditable -->• Start and end wherever you want – but code within

those blocks will be editable. • Let’s see an example in Salsa.

Insert stock code

Header (Bun)

Footer (Bun)

Message Content (Meat)

<!-- TemplateBeginEditable name="content" --> 

<-- TemplateEndEditable -->

Viewable content that is pre-populated from

template whenever the template is chosen in

Salsa.

Think of your templates as hamburgers:

• Update banner image• Set up your unsubscribe link• Add any other permanent content• Create a call-out box (optional)

Next steps

• Make sure your image is the right size ahead of time.• In our example, look at source: 600px• Resizing with HTML from 800pixels to 600pixels isn’t a big

deal… but from 2,000 pixels to 600 is.• Host your image on Salsa’s servers.

• Website package -> Images and Files• Insert image using WYSIWYG or fine tune with HTML source.

• Copy URL of image.• Insert URL into image code:

<img src=“URL HERE” width=“600px”>• Want to put a link around the image? Try:

<a href=“THE LINK”><img src=“URL HERE” width=“600px”></a>

Add your organization’s logo/banner/image

• Salsa can add an unsubscribe link by default, simply by clicking the link:

• Make your own unsubscribe page for advanced features (only specific lists, provide reason, etc.)• Email Blasts -> Unsubscribe pages -> Create an

unsubscribe page.

Add an unsubscribe link

Add a callout box, and any other permanent content

<table style="margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" border="0" align="right" width="135" bgcolor="#fff"><tr><td style="font-size: 12px;" valign="top"><a href="http://www.LINK-TO-PAGE.com"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bCvme-1gzPc/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAAA/b5CGUidJJDo/s100-c-k-no/photo.jpg" alt="Image alt-text" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Your call-out box text here.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.LINK-TO-PAGE.com" >Put a link (or button graphic) here.</a></td></tr></table>

•Anything else for the footer? Any other perma-nav links?•Call out boxes are the “too long; didn’t read” summary for email blasts.•Adding one into your template makes it easy to update in new emails. •There are many forms… most important is to style=“float: right;” or align=“right”

Use your new template

Check it out!

• Keep it simple (1998 simple).• Don’t reference outside style sheets (CSS). Do it in declarations at the top,

or inline.• WYSIWYG: Shift+Enter creates a <br> instead of <p>• If you use a free service for creating templates, look at the code (or have

someone check it out) for proprietary/advanced code.• Check this out: http://bit.ly/html-template-tips

“Oh hey, don’t do that…”

CONTACT INFO

Read, learn, discuss – help.salsalabs.com

Training & Learning Team – training@salsalabs.com

Salsa Support – support@salsalabs.com

THANK YOU!