To send an email, it is good to start with creating an Email Template. This allows you to use this content again later, or make a clone and change some of the content for a new email. From Click's perspective, an Email Template is just a record containing the content that you will send out to your recipients. This can be just a basic structural template where you add content later, or it can be an entirely complete email with all of the content already in place.
Create a New Email Template
Go To Messaging > Email Templates.
Here, you will be able to see all of your available Email Templates. You can also change how you view your templates by using the buttons in the top-right corner. Selecting the View as Thumbnails option will let you see a preview of each of your templates that contains content.
Selecting View as List will display the templates in rows with additional information about them.
To continue creating your template, click New.
This will open a new Template record.
If you'd like, you can change the view from the default Classic view to the Enhanced view for a more guided template creation experience:
You can then proceed depending on which view you are using.
- Classic
- Enhanced
Classic View
Step 1: Fill required fields and save
Name (Required): This is the name that you will see in your list of Email Templates within Dynamics. Your recipients will not see this.
Subject (Required): This is the subject of the email. Your recipients will see this as the subject when they receive your email. You will be able to change this when create the Email Send record.
Tags: This is for your internal organizational use. For example we'd type "Newsletter" if this were a newsletter. It's something you can make searchable for yourself.
Preheader: This is not a required field, but this will populate the third line of text when looking at a message in the inbox's list. This field can be filled out within an Email Template record, or within an Email Send record.
Editor Type (Required):
There are three types of editors: Email Designer, Drag and Drop, Free Style, and Custom HTML.- Email Designer is our new drag and drop Email Designer with improved user interface, and exciting new features such as email templates, mobile editing, undo/redo & version history, this is available for those on version 2024.02+.
- The Drag and Drop editor allows you to create email templates easily through dragging different types of content into different sections of the editor and editing the style and content of each cell and the entire email.
- The Free Style Editor is a little more advanced and allows use of HTML with a What You See is What You Get Editor. If you already have email layouts designed, you will want to choose Free Style and upload your layout.
- Custom HTML has very few buttons and is strictly HTML; there is no Design type of view. Use Custom HTML if you have created the template outside of ClickDimensions and don't want to make any changes or additions, or if you know HTML well enough.
Category (Required): This field allows you to select some predefined options to help identify and better understand your email statistics.
The Quick Send Settings section is available if you want to make this Template an option to send via the Quick Send feature. Read this article for more information on this.
Choose Save when you've filled out this information.
Step 2: Open the editor
The HTML Version Section will be blank for now. Click Open Editor to get started designing or Refresh to update the preview below.
You can also click Open Editor at the top of the record to open the editor in a new window to begin designing your template.
Here is what you'll see depending on the editor you chose:
Free Style Editor (learn more here):
Custom HTML (learn more here):
Drag and Drop (learn more here):
Email Designer (learn more here):
Be sure to Save your changes in an Email Template as you build it!
Enhanced View
Step 1: Fill required fields
Name (Required): This is the name that you will see in your list of Email Templates within CRM. Your recipients will not see this.
Subject (Required): This is the subject of the email. Your recipients will see this as the subject when they receive your email. You will be able to change this when create the Email Send record.
Preheader: This is not a required field, but this will populate the third line of text when looking at a message in the inbox's list. This field can be filled out within the Email Template record, or within an Email Send record.
Email CNAME: This field allows you to select a different Email CNAME to use to brand the links in your email when creating emails using this template.
Category (Required): This field allows you to select some predefined options to help identify and better understand your email statistics.
Owner (Required): This field lets you specify the owner of the Email Template record.
Tags: This is for your internal organizational use. For example we'd type "Newsletter" if this were a newsletter. It's something you can make searchable for yourself.
The Quick Send Settings section is available if you want to make this Template an option to send via the Quick Send feature. Read this article for more information on this.
Once the required fields are properly filled in, then the check mark in the top right-hand corner will become green to indicate that the step is complete.
Step 2: Select Editor Type and Save
- The Drag and Drop editor allows you to create email templates easily through dragging different types of content into different sections of the editor and editing the style and content of each cell and the entire email.
- The Free Style Editor is a little more advanced and allows use of HTML with a What You See is What You Get Editor. If you already have email layouts designed, you will want to choose Free Style and upload your layout.
- Custom HTML has very few buttons and is strictly HTML; there is no Design type of view. Use Custom HTML if you have created the template outside of ClickDimensions and don't want to make any changes or additions, or if you know HTML well enough.
- Email Designer is our new drag and drop Email Designer with improved user interface, and exciting new features such as email templates, mobile editing, undo/redo & version history, this is available for those on version 2024.02+.
Once, you've made your selection you can hit Save and Continue or Save on the Email Template record to update the record and enable the Design Email button.
If you would later like to change your editor type, then you can click the Switch option. The original editor type will determine which editors are available for selection, so all editor types may not be available to be converted to.
Step 3: Open the editor
Now you will be able to access the email editor. To open it, you can either click the Edit option from Step 2:
Or you can click the Open Editor at the top of the record to open the editor in a new window to begin designing your template.
Here is what you'll see depending on the editor you chose:
Free Style Editor (learn more here):
Custom HTML (learn more here):
New Drag and Drop (learn more here):
Email Designer (learn more here):
After inserting your email content, you can then use the Generate option to automatically create a Text Version for your email.
Be sure to Save your changes in an Email Template as you build it!
Additional Steps
Text Version
It's also important to create a Text Version of your Email Template to improve deliver-ability. This article gives you more information on how to create a Text Version.
Cloning
If you want to duplicate your template, press the Clone button to make an exact copy of the entire Email Template including HTML Version and Text Version. Then save it as a different name and edit it while still keeping your original. More information on cloning an email template can be found here.
Associated Email Sends
Below the Text Version window on the Classic view Email Template record you will find a list of all Email Sends (drafts, sent, or otherwise), which use this particular Email Template. Click here to learn about Email Sends.
Create an Email
If you want to create an Email directly from the Email Template record, you can do using the "Add to Email Send" button in the toolbar.
Once you click on it, you will be taken to a new Email record where you can finish filling out the required fields, such as From Name and From Email. (The Email will pre-fill the Owner, Email Template, Subject, and Editor Type fields so you don't have to fill those out manually.)
Now you're ready to edit your template in the Drag and Drop, Email Designer, Free Style, and Custom HTML editors.
| Feature Added: Original |
| Feature Updated: 12.6.0 |
| ClickDimensions Version Needed: 8.10.0 |