Email Editor

Locate the Editor

To locate the email editor:

1. Click on Processes from the Main Menu and select Email Templates.

1. You can filter the templates list by selecting the radio buttons at the top of the list.

• My Recent: Templates that only your user has created. If you make your template public in the save window, other users can view your template by selecting the “All” radio button.

• Active: All public templates saved as “Active”

• Archived: All public templates saved as “Archived”

• All: All templates saved as “Public”

Working with Templates

Add New Template

To add a new template:

1. Click the “Add Template” button on the right-hand side of the Activity Panel.

Edit an Existing Template

1. Find the template you wish to edit.

2. Click the template code to open and edit the template.

   1. Alternatively, select the template in the list and click the “Edit Template” button on the right-hand side of the Activity Panel.

Duplicate Template

1. Find the template you wish to duplicate.

2. Click in the row to highlight the row gray and click the “Duplicate Template” button on the right-hand side of the Activity Panel.

Delete Template

1. Find the template you wish to delete.

2. Click in the row to highlight the row gray and click the “Delete Template” button on the right-hand side of the Activity Panel.

Adding Blocks

The email editor offers different methods for adding pre-built blocks to an email template. Each block can have up to 12 columns. You can add blocks two ways:

The first way to add a block is by dragging the Columns tool under the Content tab on the right into your template. The second way is by dragging the desired block to your template from the Blocks tab.

There are many formatting options available when adding blocks.

Saving Blocks

In some cases, it may be useful to save a block so that the content in the block or its format can be reused in other templates. To save a block, click on it to select it and then click the save icon. (To see the save icon the block itself must be selected and not one of the content elements within the block. Clicking in the margins on the edge of the block is the easiest way to select the block itself.)

After clicking the save icon, you can choose a category and optional tags. The category name is not a name for the block itself, but a means of grouping the block with other similar blocks. For example, “Footers” would be a good category for blocks containing various email footers.

Saved blocks will show up under the Blocks tab in the editor. They will be grouped together by category. There is also a search bar to find saved blocks by category or by tag. Note: Saved blocks are user-specific so only you can see your saved blocks.

Adding Content

The email editor offers a variety of tools that can be used to add content to an email template. All the tools within the email editor are under the Content tab.

CV Online Setting

The email editor has some artificial intelligence features to generate content. If you wish to turn these features off, you can use the EMAIL_EDITOR_DISABLE_AI setting turn off artificial intelligence features in the email editor.

Adding Text

There are two tools for adding text content to an email template: the Heading tool and the Text tool.

The Heading Tool

The Heading tool allows users to include bold headings in an email template.

There are many formatting options available to fine-tune the way a heading looks.

Smart Headings

Smart Headings is a feature that allows users to generate heading text using AI.

To generate a Smart Heading, click “Get Suggestions”. Then enter some keywords to help guide the AI and click “Get Suggestions”.

The AI will then return heading suggestions based on the keywords that were entered.

There is a Tone dropdown that can be used to change the nature of the suggestions that are being offered (i.e., professional vs. friendly). There’s also a Refresh button to generate more suggestions if the current batch is not the right fit.

The Text Tool

The Text tool can be used to add body text to an email. It offers a lot of flexibility and supports everything from lists to links and more. There are several formatting options available to help style the text and there is even built-in spell checking.

Smart Text

Smart Text is an AI assistance feature that can help with writing email text. Have a paragraph that’s not quite long enough? Click “Expand Text” to have the AI add more details. Have some text that doesn’t sound quite right? Click “Rephrase Text” to have the AI help reword it. Those are just some of the ways AI can be incorporated into the template building workflow.

Merge Tags

When creating an email template, merge tags can be used pull in information from the database such as a customer’s first and last name. To insert a merge tag, simply select the desired field from the Merge Tags dropdown. The merge tags are organized by entity type. It’s important to note that merge tags for a given entity type will only work when sending an email to that entity type. So, for example, Individual merge tags would work when sending an email blast to a list of individuals but not when sending an email blast to a list of organizations or emailing an invoice.

Merge tags will appear in the template surrounded by a blue dashed border to make them easy to find. They can be formatted just like any other text.

It’s also possible to search the list of available merge tags. Simply type an opening square bracket and then start typing the name of the desired merge tag.

Adding Buttons

The Button tool makes it easy to create great looking buttons. There are multiple different styling options available and button labels even support merge tags. There is also a Smart Buttons AI assistance feature (which works the same way as Smart Headings).

To add a button, drag the "Button" tile onto the email editor and place it where you want the button to be. Once the button is placed in the email, select it to view the editing options available on the right side.

Working with Images

The Image tool can be used to add images to a template. The email editor supports a wide array of image sources.

To add an image, drag the "Image" tile onto the email editor and place it where you want the image to be.

Once the image is placed in the email, select it to view the editing options available on the right side. See below for more on how to edit images.

Magic Image

Magic Image is an AI tool that can be used to generate images based on a user-provided description. To use Magic Image, add an Image tool to the template and then click “See the Magic” under Magic Image.

Then, enter a prompt and click “Next”.

Depending on how detailed the prompt was, alternate suggested prompts may be provided. If this happens, either choose a suggested prompt or click “Proceed Anyway”.

Finally, choose a style and then click “Generate”.

The AI will provide a series of images. Click on one to insert it into the template or click “Regenerate” to get another batch of images to choose from. To change the prompt and try again, click “Edit Prompt”.

Once an AI image is inserted into a template, it will be saved under the Uploads tab so that it can be used again in future templates. All generated images are subject to the OpenAI generated images policy which generally grants full ownership (including for commercial use) to the person who generated the image.

Stock Photos

Using the Images tab, users can search for pictures from various stock photo websites (all of which are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means that they are public domain and free for commercial use). To use a stock photo, simply drag it into the email template. Any stock photos that are added to a template will be saved under the Uploads tab so that it can be used again in future templates.

User Uploads

Users can upload images from their computer to use in email templates. This can be done by dragging an image into the drop area within the image tool or by clicking “Upload Image”.

Uploaded images can be managed in the Uploads tab. The Uploads tab includes all images that have been previously used in a template (including AI generated images and stock photos). To use an image from the Uploads tab, simply drag and drop it into the template.

To delete an image, hover over it, click the “…” button, and then click “Delete”. Note, if an image is deleted, any templates and previously sent emails that contain the image will show a broken image (recipients will be unable to view it).

Editing Images

The Image tool has a built-in image editor. To edit an image, click the "Edit Image" button or double click on the image.

The image editor has several tools including filter and crop. After making the desired changes, click “Save”.

Link Types

When it comes to adding links to a button, image, or text, there are four different link types available. These link types are also available when it comes to adding links to other content in the editor such as text, images, and timers.

Open Website

The “Open Website” link type can be used to link to an external URL.

When you use the "Open Website" link type, you have the option to make use of one of three "Special Links" as the URL. Each of these links will be automatically replaced with the corresponding system setting value when the email is sent.

Special Link	Description	System Setting
Member Profile	A link to take the customer to their member profile	CVWEBEMAILPROFLINK
View Email	A link to view the email on a web browser	CVWEBEMAILVIEWLINK
Unsubscribe	A link to allow the customer to unsubscribe	CVWEBEMAILUNSUBLINK

Send Email

The “Send Email” link type can be used to create a button that generates an email when clicked.

Call Phone Number

The “Call Phone Number” link type can be used to generate buttons that will automatically call the provided number when clicked on a phone-capable device.

Go to Page Section

The “Go to Page Section” link type can be used to link text to a specific section of the email. The section you want to link to must have a section name.

To set a name for a section, select the section you would like to link to and set a name for the section using the "Section Name" field in the general settings of the section.

Once the section has a name, select the element that will be the link to the page section and select the "Action Type" as "Go to Page Section" and select the name of the section you would like to link to.

Add a Website Link

You can add links to your membership website through the email editor. You can include links to an event, survey, dues, and products.

1. Add a text element onto the email template.

2. Place your cursor and add a website link to the email template by clicking on "Insert Website Link".

   

3. Select the type of link you would like to add.

   

4. Depending on which type was picked, a list of records will show for you to select which event, survey, dues, or product the link should go to.

   

5. A link will be added to the email template.

Working with Styles

Block Styling

When adding blocks to your template, you can update or make changes to the styling on the right.

Content Styling

There are many options to update or make changes to the styling of the content in the template.

Body Styling

To update or make changes to body of the template, click the Body tab on the right-hand side. There are many styling options that will update the body of the template.

Other Useful Tools

The Social Media Tool

The Social Media Tool can be used to add social media links to a template.

The icons for a variety of social media sites are built-in to the tool and the icon style can be changed using the “Icon Type” dropdown.

The Timer Tool

The Timer tool can be used to render a countdown to a specific date/time. This can be useful to build excitement for an event or to emphasize an important deadline.

Many aspects of a timer can be customized from the language and time zone to its appearance. It’s even possible to add a link to a timer so that clicking it can take the user to an event registration form, for example.

The Video Tool

The Video tool makes it easy to include a video link in an email template. Give it the URL of any YouTube or Vimeo video and it will automatically generate a preview image with the video thumbnail and a play icon.

The style of the play icon is fully customizable.

Content Audit

The Audit tab flags common issues so you can address them before finishing your template. It performs the following accessibility and content checks:

• Missing alternate text for images

• Missing links in buttons or menus

• Missing image URLs

Save Template

To save a template, click the Save button on the top right-hand corner of the screen. This will open the Save Template window.

• Name: This is the name of the template, and it shows on the template listing in the email blast tool.

• Description: This populates as the description section and can serve to provide additional information for potential users.

• Recipient Type: Choose from General, Ind., Org., Invoice, Payment, or Event Attendee. This determines which email blast interfaces throughout CVO the template will be available in. General templates will be available everywhere.

• Category: Select an existing category type. You can add new categories to organize your templates more accurately. This field does not need to be filled out.

• Save as Draft/Show in Email Blast Interface: This is an either/or option. Draft email templates are still being worked on and are not ready for use. Selecting show in blast interface publishes the template and makes it available for users.

• Archived?: Checking this box archives the template and takes it out of the email blast interface. This allows you to clean out obsolete and unused templates from the interface.