In this article, you will learn how to create a communication using the new Inspire editor.
Creating a communication
To create a new message:
- Go to the "Journey Lab" area, click the "Create" button, and choose "Communication"
- Select the journey to insert the communication into and click the “Create” button
- Name the communication, choose the email channel, and confirm by clicking "Create communication"
Design
Choose a template to use as a base for your communication layout. The Inspire template, available in the standard library, allows you to create attractive layouts in minutes; it is designed to be compatible with the most popular email clients, as well as being optimized for mobile format. Alternatively, choose the most suitable custom template created specifically for your environment.
In this article, we will see how to customize your communication using Inspire. Start by clicking on this template.
Styles
The communication inherits the styles from the brand kit. You will find pre-set logos, fonts, and color palettes. To modify them, click on the Styles icon.
The section on the right will appear, allowing you to adjust various options:
- In the Font tab: size, font, color, and line spacing of the main text and headings
- In the Link and buttons tab: style of links and buttons
- In the Email tab: communication size, spacing between sections, background color or image, favicon, and any images for social sharing
This last tab, in particular, allows you to take advantage of the ability to create wide communications from 660px, the new magnews standard, up to 780px. This feature is useful if you think you need more space, such as for a 4-column block.
Communication content
A simple way to approach the magnews editor is to imagine it as a container of building blocks. With these, you can compose your communication, in the same way, you'd use many LEGO bricks to build a small house.
You will find the basic blocks in the Elements section, containing text, images, buttons, menus, Call To Action, spacing, divider, and social.
To create more complex modules, called Sections, you can combine the basic elements as desired.
You can start creating your communication by customizing the existing section, or by adding a new section from the catalog by clicking the Add section button.
The sections catalog will open, and you can select the desired object from the various categories; in the example, a section with two service links at the top and the logo aligned to the left is added.
To delete an existing section, click on the trash icon.
We add more sections based on how we want to compose the communication, and the footer section composed only of the unsubscribe link.
Once the communication is composed, you can:
- Edit each element
- Customize the styles of each individual section
To customize the various positioned elements, click on the desired element, and the editing area will appear on the right; in the example below, we proceed by modifying the text element.
Edit a Text
The text block is the basic element of a communication and can be used for both titles and content.
- In the Content tab, insert the text, select the style as a title or paragraph, choose the size, pick a color from the palette, and set horizontal alignment.
- In the Block tab, choose whether the text will use full-width space or a reduced format; for example, select 75% for a layout with side margins, and if necessary, add space after the end of the element.
- Click Save to confirm the changes made.
Edit a Call to Action
Configure the Call to Action element, which is the button in the section.
- In the Content tab, insert the clickable text, the link to take the contact, the title to show on mouse over; assign one or more tags to profile the contacts who click the button.
- In the Format tab, define the appearance of the button, its size, and the color to assign to the text, border, and background.
- In the Block tab, set the button width and horizontal alignment.
Edit an Image
After editing text and the call to action, let's move on to editing an image: By clicking on the image, the editing area appears on the right, where you can modify:
- In the Content tab: the image, alternative text, decide if the image is clickable, and then insert the destination URL.
- In the Block tab: the width of the image relative to the block, alignment, and the size of the space after the object.
- In the Mobile tab: from the dropdown menu, you can decide whether you want the element to be displayed in both Desktop and mobile versions, only on desktop, or only on mobile. Additionally, you can customize the size of the image in the mobile version.
Insert the footer
Add the footer section by selecting your preferred one from the catalog.
The logo is inserted directly using the image from the brand kit,
additionally, the social object is inserted, which you can customize by clicking on the edit icon.
- In the Social tab: URLs to your social networks that you configured in the brand kit are inserted, which you can customize by adding or removing links.
- In the Format tab: you can customize the style (circle or original), the size, and the color of the icons, customizing them to match your brand.
How to add a multi-column section
Insert a multi-column section and modify the style by clicking on the Edit icon (the pencil).
The editing panel will open on the right, composed of multiple sections:
- Layout: modify the outer background color of the entire section and the inner background color, choose the column size percentage, vertical alignment, and what the top and bottom margins are.
- Columns: customize the background color of individual columns, deciding whether and how they will be displayed on mobile devices.
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Mobile: indicate if the section will be visible on both desktop and mobile email clients, or only on one of them. In the example below, we modified:
- The outer background color of the section, now yellow;
- The column sizes, 66%|33%;
- The background color of only the left column;
- The display on mobile devices, where it was requested to keep the same layout as the desktop clients with the columns side by side. To achieve this, the Responsive flag on mobile was disabled, which would otherwise stack the two columns vertically.
Below are the two views: desktop and mobile.
How to personalize communication with a placeholder
At any point in the communication, you can insert a placeholder like the contact's name or any other field from the database or a service data (a PIN code, a coupon).
- Place the cursor in the "message text" area at the desired point.
- Click on the placeholder icon and select the desired field (in the example, we inserted the name field); optionally, you can insert a default value in case the database field is empty. Click the Insert button.
- Click the "Save" button.
View preview
After inserting all the content, you can view the preview of the communication by clicking the "Preview" button.
Choose whether to view the desktop or mobile version. Additionally, by activating the Blocked images option, you can view the communication simulating that the recipient has images blocked, to verify whether all alternative texts have been inserted for the images. In the image below, you can see that instead of the logo, the word magnews is displayed, which is the brand name.
Magnews initially presents the mobile device view. Switch the layout by clicking on desktop.
magnews will remember your preference for the next preview.
See how a specific contact will view the communication, and check if the placeholders have been inserted correctly.
- Click the customize button.
- Choose the contact's database.
- Click on the database icon and select a contact.
- Click the "Update preview" button.
Send the communication
Once your communication is complete, close the designer and, returning to the main page, select Assign a target and send.