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    Use Twilio Engage to build personalized email templates to store and use throughout marketing campaigns.

    Build an email template from scratch using the Drag and Drop Editor or the HTML Editor. Include personalized content in the subject line, preview text, and email body to engage with users based on their profile traits and actions.

    Build an Email template

    Navigate to Engage > Content and use the Email Templates page to preview and edit existing templates.

    To configure an email template, click Create Template.

    1. Select Email, and click Configure.

    You must first connect a SendGrid subuser account to your Segment space to build email templates in Engage. Visit the onboarding steps for more information.

    1. Configure the email template.
      1. Add a template name for internal reference.
      2. Add an internal description.
      3. Enter the sender email address. You can optionally include profile traits.
        • Emails can only be sent from verified domains.
      4. Enter the sender name.
      5. Indicate if you want replies sent back to the initial sender. If not, add a “reply to” email and name, or include profile traits.
      6. Add email addresses to receive a blind carbon copy of your email.
      7. Add preview text and the subject line. Use merge tags to personalize the email template with real-time profile traits.
    2. Select the design method to build your email template:
      • Drag and Drop Editor is a drag and drop WYSIWYG tool with customizable content blocks.
      • HTML Editor contains both a code and visual editor from a single view. This editor provides complete HTML editing access with error flagging.
    3. Design the email template, then click Create Email Template.

    Engage content validation

    For all content editors in Engage, you’ll see alerts for any issues in your template, such as invalid profile traits or incorrect liquid syntax. Engage both flags template issue(s), and displays recommended next steps. You must fix any issues before using your template in Engage campaigns.

    Test the Email template

    You can send test emails before you include a template in marketing campaigns.

    1. Select the email template you want to test on the Templates screen.
    2. From the Template Settings page, click Test email.
    3. If your template has profile traits, enter a trait value for the test email. This ensures that your merge tags work as expected.
      • To test a default value, leave the profile traits field blank. Default values must be assigned in your merge tags. For example, loyal customer would be the default for the following merge tag: {{profile.traits.first_name | default: "loyal customer"}}.
      • To test traits with arrays, you must input the array in JSON format. For example, [“item1”, “item2”] or [{“itemName”: “shoes”}]. If you don’t use JSON format for arrays in the test message side sheet, your template might not render as expected.
    4. Enter recipient email addresses for the test message.
      • Profiles that you send test messages to must have a userId in Segment.
    5. Select Send test email.

    When you send a test message, the trait must be valid for the field it’s being used in. For example:

    • If you use profile.traits.first_name in the From sender field, it must be a valid username.
    • If you use profile.traits.email in the Reply to email field, it must be a valid email address.

    You can also test email templates directly from a Send an Email step in Journeys.

    Dynamic sender using merge tags

    Engage supports dynamic sending using merge tags. Personalize email content by adding real-time profile traits in merge tags to the following fields:

    • Subject line
    • Preview text
    • Message body
    • From sender
    • Reply to email

    As you configure the template, click Merge Tags and select the profile traits to include. Engage inserts the merge tags based on cursor placement.

    • For all merge tags, you must add a default value inside a single quote. For example: {{profile.traits.traits | default: 'Default'}}
    • Only use variable tags in liquid sytax.

    The following table contains a description and some best practices for all fields in the email template. Asterisks indicate required fields.

    Field Description
    Template Name* The email template name.
    Description A description for the template.
    From sender* The email address users will see in the from field of the email campaign.

    For the profile trait and default value, use a valid username. For example:
    - default: 'jsmith' is valid
    - default: 'j smith' is invalid
    Sender name* The name users will see next to the sender email.
    Reply to email* The email address that will receive any replies users send. You can use different Sender and reply-to email addresses. Email recipients will see this address if they reply to your campaign.

    The profile trait and default value must be one of the following:
    - A valid email address
    - A valid username for the email address (the input field needs to end with a valid domain for the email address)
    Reply to name* The name users will see next to the reply-to email address.
    BCC Email address that will receive a blind carbon copy of your email campaign.
    Preview text A brief message that displays next to the email subject.
    Subject* The email subject.

    You can also add merge tags in the heading or body text as you design an email with the Drag and Drop or HTML editors. Engage supports liquid templating to create dynamic content in the email design editor.

    To learn more about profile traits, visit Segment’s Computed Traits and SQL Traits documentation.

    When you build email templates, it’s your responsibility to include an unsubscribe link in your message. Add unsubscribe links to an email template from the Drag and Drop or HTML editors.

    When a recipient clicks on an unsubscribe link, they’ll see a confirmation page and the recipient’s subscription state is updated.

    Only send messages to subscribed users. Learn more about User Subscriptions in Twilio Engage.

    Clone an Email template

    You can clone existing Email templates to edit and use in your message campaigns.

    To clone a template, navigate to the Templates page (Engage > Content). You can also clone from the Overview page of an individual template.

    1. Click the … icon.
    2. Select Clone.
    3. Enter a template name.
    4. Click Clone to save the template.

    After you clone a template, you can edit it from the Templates page.

    Next steps

    This page was last modified: 29 Sep 2023

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