Visual Email Builder

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Create an Email

Drip Templates

Custom Templates Across Accounts

Saved Templates

Recently Edited Emails

Visual Builder Layout

Settings

Add Email Content

Display Dynamic Content Based on Conditions and Rules

Mobile Controls

Autosave

Preview

Recommended Specs for the Visual Builder

 

Create an Email

To design an email with the Visual Builder:

1. Create a new Single Email Campaign, Email Series, or Automation email
2. Under Which email builder would you like to use? Select Visual Builder
3. Click Continue
4. Select a Drip template, Saved template, Recently edited email, or + Start from scratch as a starting point for your email

Now you’re ready to design your email. 

Drip Templates

Access our pre-designed Drip email templates in the Visual Email Builder under the Drip templates tab when you go to create a new email. 

Custom Templates Across Accounts

Whether in a Single Email Campaign, Email Series, or Automation Email in a Workflow or Rule, you can access all customized Visual Builder Templates across your accounts!

Saved Templates

Access your Visual Email Builder templates under the Saved templates tab when you go to create a new email.

Recently Edited Emails

Access your most recently edited Visual Email Builder emails under the Recently edited emails tab when you go to create a new email.

After you choose a starting point you'll enter the builder.

Visual Builder Layout

The Visual Builder includes 3 main sections:

• Header
• Sections
• Footer

The Header is where brand logos are placed. This area of the layout can be turned off to suit the needs of your email design. To turn off the header, click Settings > Background, Width, Header and toggle off "Show Header."

Sections are for the main content of the email. There can be multiple sections within the layout, such as using one section per product and description to display. To add additional sections, click the Section button and drop your new section where you want it in the email.

The Footer area is for your general business information. This includes your postal address, "from" email address, and unsubscribe link.

Updating the Email Header and Footer

Edits made to the Header and Footer can be applied to the individual campaign or applied to multiple campaigns at once:

Settings

Settings are the base styles of your email. They determine aspects of the design, such as the width, background, and text and button colors for the email. Set your default styles to match the look and feel of your brand for a consistent look between your store and email design.

To edit your Settings: 

1. Click Settings
2. Configure your styles as desired for this email
3. Click Save Changes
   

Background, Width, Header

• Background Color
• Email Width (max-width of 600px)
• Show header toggle (on or off) 

Footer

• Postal Address
  • When editing the Postal Address, you can set the new default address for all newly created Visual Builder emails moving forward:

Text

Text format styles allow you to manage font family, text size, and color for the following:

• headings 1-4
• paragraphs
• link color and link underline styles

Button Styles

• font family
• text size
• text color
• button color

Add Email Content

Edit or add content to a section by hovering your cursor over the part of the email you'd like to edit. When you hover over an individual element, you can move, duplicate, or delete that element.

You can edit the background and columns or add new content to a particular email section.

Click the Edit Background or Edit Layout button to edit a section’s background styles to include an image or set a different background color.

Then, adjust the settings that appear to the left of the Visual Builder.

To insert an additional column to the email, click the + icon where you'd like it to place the new column.

Select one of the following types of elements from the icons to the left of the email to add to your email:

• Image
• Text
• Buttons
• Spacer
• Product 
• Social Links
• Section

Image

Upload or drag a new image into your account's image library, or insert a previously uploaded image into the email. You can also use a URL if you have an image URL.

When you upload a new image, consider the following:

• Compatible image formats include JPEG, PNG, and GIF.
• Images exceeding the maximum 1800px width are automatically downsized to fit that spec. 
• Images are automatically resized for mobile.

Once you've placed an image in your email, click on it to pull up a few additional settings:

• Source lets you swap the current image for another in its place. Or, you can enter the URL to an external image you might be hosting outside of Drip.
• Link lets you turn the image into a hyperlink. Enter the URL to the web page where you'd like to direct any person that clicks it.
• Add ALT text for your image. ALT text is accessed by screen reader users to provide them with a text equivalent of images.
• Padding: Uniform adjustment for the space around the image’s outer edges
  • More Options: You can toggle this ON to adjust the padding for the top/bottom/left/right edges individually
• Size
  • Fill column: Toggle this ON to display the image at its maximum size. Toggling this OFF will allow you to adjust the width and height of images in pixels
  • Fill column on mobile: Toggle this ON for the image to fill the column space when viewed on mobile devices. Toggling this OFF will display the image at its maximum size regardless of the device.
• Alignment lets you align the image to the right, center, or left inside of the email column it's placed.
• Border:
  • Color: Apply a color to surround your image.
  • Radius: Add a radius to round the corners of your image.
  • Width: Add width to set the thickness of the border

Once an image is deleted from your image library, Drip cannot retrieve the image. It is recommended to always keep duplicates of your image files in an external storage source.

Text

Use this component to add text via the editor to your email section. 

Button

Insert a call-to-action (CTA) button element into your email.

When you place a CTA button into your email, you can set the URL where the button should direct the reader once clicked. You can also modify the button's color, alignment, width, and vertical spacing.

Spacer

Insert a spacer if you want to add a space between two elements.

A spacer can run horizontally only. Once a spacer is in place, you can modify its height. Use the slider to the left of the builder. Keep the display line enabled to change its width, stroke, style, and color.

Display Dynamic Content Based on Conditions and Rules

By default, subscribers can see all content in your email campaign. Use conditions in the Display portion of the content settings to only show specific content blocks to those meeting the device or tag/custom field criteria.

You can choose to add display conditions to the following content blocks:

• Images
• Texts
• Buttons
• Product Blocks
• Sections

Device Visibility

The device visibility condition allows you to choose whether or not content should only be shown on desktop, mobile, or both desktop and mobile devices.

To apply device visibility conditions:

1. Click on the content block you’d like to apply device visibility to:
   • To apply device visibility to the whole Section:
     • Hover over the Section and click on Display on the right-hand side of the Section.
2. Click on Display
3. Choose either Desktop only, Mobile only, or All to display on both desktop and mobile

If a device visibility condition is applied to a section, you will find either this mobile-only visibility icon or this desktop-only visibility icon  . No icon will be shown if the content block is set to show for All:

Show content to people based on tags or custom fields with Show/Hide Rules

Choose whether or not you want to show text, images, buttons, or a product block to people who meet certain tag and/or custom field conditions only.

To apply show/hide conditions:

1. Click on the content block you’d like to apply show/hide rules to:
   • To apply show/hide rules  to the whole Section:
     • Hover over the Section and click on Display on the right-hand side of the Section.
2. Click on Display
3. Click on Add Rule 
4. Set either a Tag or Custom field rule
   • Currently, you can only apply the AND logic to your conditions. People must meet all listed criteria to see the conditional content:

If a Show/Hide Rule is applied on a content block, you will find this icon at the bottom corner of that block when hovering over it:

Mobile Controls

To control how your email is displayed on a mobile device, click the Mobile tab. In the Mobile View, you can change the way columns and content are placed with the flip and stacking icons.

Autosave

When the same email is edited in multiple tabs, the autosave feature in the Visual Email Builder will alert you to make sure that changes aren’t accidentally overwritten. 

Click Save my changes to overwrite changes you want to keep. Click Refresh this page to reload the page and discard the conflicting changes. 

Preview

Ready to check how your Campaign renders? You can head on over to the Preview page to get a better idea of what your email will look like once landing in your recipient’s inbox. 

While you can preview your style renderings right from this page, it is best practice to utilize the Send a test feature for a better grasp of how the email will look once in your recipient's inbox.

Recommended Specs for the Visual Builder

Consider the following specs before designing an email with the Visual Builder:

• Laptop and desktop computers with touchscreens have been reported to get in the way of some design features in this builder. It's recommended to disable touchscreen features on your device. 

• Recommended browsers for designing with this builder include Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.