Creating reusable email templates

An email template stores reusable subject, preview text, and message content for campaigns. Use one for a recurring newsletter, product update, event announcement, or another message your team sends regularly.

Creating or saving a template makes it available in the template library. It does not select an audience, schedule a campaign, or send email. Review and test each campaign made from it before delivery.

Find a template or start a new one

Open Templates in your site's admin, or go to Campaigns → Manage Templates. You need campaign editing or site settings editing permission to create, edit, duplicate, or archive templates. See Why can't I see or use a feature? if an action is unavailable.

Use Search to find a template by name, subject, or category. Status starts at Active; choose All or Archived when looking for an older template. Category narrows the list further, so clear it to All categories if an expected item is missing.

Choose your starting point:

• New Template starts a new reusable message.
• Edit changes an existing template. Use this when you intend to update the shared original.
• Duplicate creates a separate active copy, normally named with “Copy” at the end. Open that copy with Edit and rename it before making a variation.
• Preview opens a saved text view containing the template name, subject, and plain-text body, or HTML source when no plain text exists. This library preview is not a rendered inbox preview.

For a substantial redesign, duplicate the original first. A duplicate preserves the saved email content and defaults, but it may not preserve the original visual builder's block arrangement. Check its body format and saved content before editing a designed layout.

Use a clear reusable name such as “Monthly customer update — standard.” Keep one-off dates and offers out of the shared base where possible, and identify campaign-specific copies clearly so a teammate does not reuse expired content.

Write the subject, preview text, and message

1. Select New Template, or choose Edit on the copy you want to change.
2. Enter Template Name. This is the library label for your team, not the subject recipients see.
3. Choose Category from the offered values, such as newsletter, product_update, event, or welcome. Use custom when an existing category does not fit. Although the field lets you type, arbitrary new category names may be rejected when saving.
4. Write Subject and Preview Text. The subject should describe the message; preview text adds useful context in the inbox. If you leave Preview Text empty, saving can generate it from the body, so review the saved result rather than assuming it remains blank.
5. Choose Body Format and replace all starter content, including “Add your message here.” Give the reader a clear reason to read and a specific next step.
6. Select Create template for a new template or Save template for an existing one. Wait for Template saved., then reopen it to confirm the saved fields.

Edits are saved through those buttons. Cancel and Back to Templates leave the editor without saving your current work; do not rely on autosave or a discard warning.

Saving checks whether the template has usable content and supported personalization, but it is not approval to send. A template can still need a better subject, correct links, sender setup, audience checks, or a campaign test.

Choose the right body format

Choose one format for the work you are doing. Switching tabs is not a reliable conversion of your current unsaved content: the visual blocks, HTML field, and plain-text field can hold different versions. The selected format determines what is saved. Keep a copy of important content and inspect the destination field before saving after a switch.

Visual builder starts with a Message block. Type the main copy into Message. This field is plain text: typed HTML is treated as text, not as a way to add designed elements. Existing snippets can add reusable content around the message.

To arrange visual content:

1. Edit the Message block and replace its starter greeting or copy as needed.
2. Select an available item under Snippets to append it to the template. If none are available, you can still save a message-only template.
3. Use Move Up and Move Down to arrange the blocks.
4. For a snippet block, choose Style: Default, Card, Highlight, or Compact. Use Remove to remove an unwanted block; the final remaining block cannot be removed.
5. Save the template and inspect both the saved content and a rendered campaign preview.

A snippet added to a template is a copy of its content at that point. Editing the snippet later does not automatically refresh the copy already inside your template. Replace or update the affected template content and verify it before reuse.

Raw HTML lets you supply the email's HTML body. Use email-ready markup with the styles it needs on the elements themselves. Scripts and style blocks are not supported and may be removed or rejected. Check the saved version; pasting an entire website page does not guarantee the same appearance in an email.

Saving Raw HTML generates a plain-text version from the HTML text. A link's visible label may survive without its destination URL in that conversion. Include essential URLs visibly where needed and inspect the plain-text result, especially for the main call to action.

Plain text provides a straightforward text field. Saving also creates a simple HTML version from that text. It does not preserve a previously designed HTML layout. Write important destinations as full URLs and check their behavior in an actual test email.

If a duplicate or older template opens as one Message block, do not assume editing that block will preserve a complex HTML design. Use Raw HTML when you need to retain and edit the saved markup, or build a new visual version in a separate template.

Add supported personalization and review AI copy

Use supported fields with double braces, for example Hi {{first_name}},. The available fields include:

• {{first_name}}: the recipient's first name, with “there” as the fallback.
• {{full_name}}: the recipient's display name, falling back to their first name, then “there” when neither is available.
• {{email}}: the recipient's email address.
• {{site_name}}: the configured site or organization name.
• {{support_email}}: the configured support address; it can be empty when unset.
• {{unsubscribe_url}}: the generated unsubscribe destination.
• {{preference_url}}: a preference-center destination when that feature is available.
• {{web_version_url}}: a campaign web-version destination when its archive is enabled.

A token's value is inserted during campaign rendering. Seeing braces in the library's text preview does not by itself mean the token is broken. Conversely, a token that saves successfully can still require campaign or site settings before sending. In particular, do not add a web-version link unless the campaign will have a public web version.

Unknown fields such as {{company}} are not automatically created from your contact data. If saving reports an unsupported token, replace it with a supported field or ordinary text. Have the assistant show the current supported fields if you are unsure.

AI Assist offers Draft copy or Rewrite copy, with refinements such as Make shorter, Friendlier, and Stronger CTA. These require the site's AI setup to be available. Generated copy changes the working draft; review it and save deliberately. Check the subject, preview text, message, dates, prices, promises, and links before keeping it.

In the visual builder, generated copy updates the first Message block while keeping other blocks. Inspect the whole email for duplicate introductions, repeated calls to action, or a snippet that no longer fits. Preserve a copy of wording you want to keep before rewriting it.

Preview the saved template and test a campaign

Use the library's Preview for a quick text check, then verify the rendered email through a campaign draft:

1. Reopen the saved template and confirm its name, subject, preview text, body format, and message. Check that the original is unchanged if you worked on a duplicate.
2. Select Preview in the library to inspect the saved text. Use Close preview when finished. Read the actual body rather than treating a successful save as a content review.
3. Open Campaigns → New Campaign, choose this template, and select Keep as a draft before saving. The builder normally starts with a scheduled-send option, so check that setting explicitly.
4. Ask the assistant to preview the saved campaign and review its sender, reply-to address, personalization, footer, links, and readiness. State that it must not schedule or send the audience campaign.
5. Request one test of the saved draft to an address you control. Review the destination before confirming. Inspect the received email on desktop and mobile, including its links and plain-text alternative where your mail app exposes it.

Follow Sending your first email campaign for the complete draft, test, and scheduling workflow. A test is a real email, while template creation and previews do not send anything.

For HTML content, check that images have useful descriptions, the main message remains understandable without images, and the links lead to the intended public pages. A preview can show content without proving that a destination exists or is accessible to the recipient.

Templates can also retain sender, reply-to, public archive, and tracking defaults. Those settings are not all exposed in the basic template editor. Ask your email administrator or assistant to inspect them when you need to change them, and check the values on the campaign you will actually send. The sender must still be valid for the selected provider.

Reuse, update, and retire templates

Creating a single-email campaign copies the template's saved content and relevant defaults into that campaign. Later template edits affect new campaigns; they do not automatically replace content already stored in an existing campaign.

If an existing draft needs the new wording, create a new draft from the updated template or ask the assistant to update that campaign's saved content explicitly. Preview and test the saved campaign again. Merely seeing a different template in the builder preview is not proof that an existing campaign's saved message changed.

For a running sequence, review template changes more carefully: a future follow-up can use its template when that step is created. Coordinate changes with whoever manages the sequence rather than assuming every future email already holds a frozen copy.

The library's Used and Last used values describe campaigns created from a template, not deliveries or opens. A draft can count as usage. Loading or unavailable usage data should not be interpreted as proof that a template has never been used.

To retire an old template:

1. Review whether your team still needs it for new campaigns or future sequence steps.
2. Choose Archive on that template and read the Archive template? confirmation.
3. Confirm Archive when you want to remove it from active selection.
4. Set Status to Archived to find it later. If you need an active variation, use Duplicate, then review and rename the copy.

Archiving retains the template record and does not cancel campaigns already using copied content. It is not a substitute for cancelling or reviewing a scheduled send. Editing an archived record does not, by itself, restore it to active selection.

Fix saving, preview, or reuse problems

The new category will not save. Choose one of the supported categories offered in the picker, or use custom. The ability to type in the field does not guarantee that every new category name is accepted.

Saving reports that content is missing. Check the currently selected Body Format. A nonempty field in another format does not guarantee that the selected format has a usable body. Keep at least one visual block and add meaningful message content.

Formatting changed after switching formats or duplicating. Stop before overwriting the original. Inspect the saved HTML and plain text, and choose the format that contains the version you intend to keep. A duplicate may not retain the same editable block structure as its source.

Preview shows plain text or HTML tags. The library Preview is a text inspection tool. Use a campaign preview and a real draft test to assess rendered email appearance.

A template is missing. Clear Search and the Category filter, check All or Archived under Status, and review any library limit notice. The library can load only the 100 most recently updated records; its pagination and filters do not reach records outside that loaded set. Ask the assistant or administrator to locate an older template rather than creating a duplicate immediately.

A campaign still has the old wording. Template edits do not rewrite existing single-email campaigns. Update or recreate the intended draft, then review the saved campaign and test again before scheduling.

AI Assist failed. Keep your manual content, read the error, and ask your administrator to check the AI connection if necessary. An AI failure does not require abandoning the template; you can continue editing manually.

For help, provide the template name, selected body format, action attempted, and exact error. Include the campaign name if the mismatch appears only after reuse. See Getting help with your Cedros site.