Overview
This guide focuses on configuring the email-specific settings within your campaign after you’ve completed the general setup steps, such as choosing your campaign type, channels, audience, and communication settings.
Before Getting Started
This article assumes you understand the basics of creating a Campaign. If you haven't already, please read Creating a Campaign (All Channels) for guidance on the initial steps of creating a campaign.
Before building your email, consider customizing a template. Templates are the designs you'll use to enter your content.
You can also install pre-built email templates from the Packs Library. Alternatively, create a template as you build your email.
1: Configure Email
After selecting the email channel during your initial campaign setup, you can begin configuring the email-specific settings:
Subject Line + Preview Text
Subject Line + Preview Text
Subject Line: Enter a subject line for your email. You can add tokens for personalization or even use emojis to capture attention.
Preview Text: Add a preview text snippet, which will appear below the subject line in recipients’ inboxes.
Using Personalization in Email Settings
Using Personalization in Email Settings
Using the personalization feature with version conditions lets you customize various aspects of your email. This includes the subject line, preview text, send-to, sender name, sender email address, reply address, CC, and BCC for each version.
Select the version you want to modify from the version drop-down in the respective field. This ensures your recipients receive the most relevant and personalized message possible.
Choose Template
Choose Template
Selecting a template is the first step in designing and building your email.
Once a template is chosen, the Campaign Builder will appear in the Configure Email section, allowing you to customize your content.
You can choose from two types of templates: prebuilt options in the Default tab or custom templates under the Custom tab created by you or your team.
2: Add Content
Once your template is selected, you can use the Campaign Builder to add content using prebuilt blocks or custom rows.
We recommend using the full-screen feature to edit your Campaign. Click the double-sided arrow icon to expand the editor into fullscreen.
Content Blocks
Content Blocks are predefined rows designed to help you quickly structure and style your email without manually building each element. They are branded to your institution using your logo and colors, automatically pulled from your branding settings.
Content blocks may also include placeholders for you to add your own images and text easily. Many of these blocks are flexible and designed for customization, allowing you to tailor them as needed to fit your specific campaign goals.
Types of Content Blocks
Types of Content Blocks
Custom Components
Custom Components allow you to save commonly used rows (like headers or footers) for reuse in future campaigns. Note that updates to a Custom Component will not retroactively apply to previously sent emails.
Row
Row blocks let you design your content sections from scratch, allowing complete customization. Adding a row allows you to insert individual elements like text, images, or buttons to build your desired layout, offering flexibility for more custom designs without using pre-configured content blocks.
Separator/Dividers
Separator blocks are visual dividers that help break up content within your email.
Alerts
Alert blocks are eye-catching rows used to highlight urgent information. These blocks feature bright colors like red, yellow, or orange to signify important information or actions needed.
Header
Header blocks are typically positioned at the top of the email and feature key branding elements, such as your institution’s logo, name, and colors.
Bodies
Body blocks serve as the main content area of your email and can include text, images, buttons, and multimedia elements. They are flexible and highly customizable, allowing you to format information like articles, announcements, and featured sections with various layout styles.
CTA
CTA blocks encourage your audience to take a specific action, such as clicking a button to “Apply Today,” “Schedule a Visit,” or learn more about an event. They are usually visually distinct, with bold buttons and impactful messaging to draw attention.
Lists
List blocks are structured to present items, schedules, events, or details in a clear and organized way. These blocks can feature titles, descriptions, and icons or images for each item, making presenting grouped information concisely and visually easy.
Quotes
Quote blocks are designed to showcase testimonials, quotes, or impactful statements. Some include large quotation marks as background watermarks, allowing for optional attribution with the speaker’s name, title, or image.
Signatures
Signature blocks provide a personal touch at the end of your email, often featuring the sender’s photo, name, and job title. These blocks can be customized to create a connection between the sender and the recipient.
Footer
Footer blocks typically appear at the end of the email and include essential information like contact details, social media links, and an unsubscribe option. They are branded with your institution’s colors, logo, and other visual elements to maintain consistency throughout the email.
Adding a Content Block
Adding a Content Block
Click the + sign in the top left corner of the editor to open the list of available content blocks.
Individual Elements
Instead of using the pre-configured content blocks, you can customize your own content blocks by adding rows.
Types of Elements
Types of Elements
Text Block: Use the text element to insert text content into your Campaign. Highlight the text to enable formatting, insert tokens, utilize Bolt Writing Tools, and more.
Image Block: Use the image element to insert an image into your Campaign. Once added, click the gear to open the image settings side sheet. Click + Add a file to upload an image from your Media Manager.
For small images, especially logos that don’t need to fill the container, enable the “Use Original Size” setting to display the image at its native dimensions.
Button Block: You can use the button element to drive the reader to a URL. Once added, click the gear to open the button settings side sheet. Configure the button using the settings. Advanced Settings allows you even more control over the look and feel of your button.
Use the Add Token button on the Link field to add a Magic Link to your Application Portal or Microsite. For more information, please read our article on Magic Links.Adding a Custom Field Token to a Button? If you’re using a custom field token that contains a URL inside a button’s Link field, our system automatically adds an
eidparameter for tracking. This can break certain functionality. To prevent this, prepend %% (no spaces between) to the token when adding it to a button’s Link field:%%{{custom_field_token}}. This ensures the URL remains unchanged and prevents issues with the button’s functionality. 📌 Note: While this method works, the %% syntax is not an officially documented feature and could change in the future.
HTML Block: The HTML block allows you to insert your own code for more creative control. Once added, click the gear to open the HTML settings side sheet. Paste your HTML code in the box.
Please be aware that adding any custom HTML could break your template. We recommend previewing and testing your email after adding your custom HTML code.
Video Block: Use the video element to embed a video into your Campaign email. Once added, click the gear to open the video settings side sheet. Configure the video using the settings.
The embedded video must have a public URL. Confirm public privacy settings on YouTube or Vimeo before adding your URL to the block.
AI Text Prompt Block: Allows you to generate personalized content for each recipient at the time of sending. By inserting this block into your email, you can write a custom AI prompt that dynamically generates text based on individual student data.
This is a premium feature that is subject to usage-based billing.
Must be enabled in Billing Settings.
Ruler: A ruler is a divider you can use to separate your content. Once added, click the gear to open the ruler settings side sheet. Configure the ruler using the settings.
Social: Use the social element to place social media icons/links in your email. This will help ensure icons display as expected across various email clients.
Adding an Element
Adding an Element
Insert a row by selecting which column configuration you wish to use. Note that individual elements (like a button or text) are added to a column.
Hover over your row, and the column will appear.
Click Add Element to open the list of available elements.
3: Advanced Email Settings
The Advanced Email Settings allow you to customize your email’s delivery details. You can specify the sender’s name and email address, ensuring your messages appear credible and aligned with your brand. Additionally, if needed, you can set a different reply-to address and include CC/BCC recipients to send copies of the email to other contacts without exposing all recipients.
Setting | Explanation + Details |
Send To | Select which email you wish to use for this campaign from the following options:
* The Send To field supports only a single email address. As a result, if you use Send from a Token and the Token (such as the Guardian Emails) has multiple email values, only the first family member listed in the student record will receive the Campaign. Review Sending Campaigns to Parents/Guardians for more information on sending Campaigns to parents/guardians. |
Sender Name | Specify the name appearing as the sender in recipients’ inboxes. |
Sender Email Address | Select the address from which the message will be sent. |
Reply Address | If replies should go to a different address than the sender email, specify the Reply Address. |
CC | Add recipients to the CC field if you’d like to send a visible copy of the email to additional contacts. Unlike the Send To field, if you use an email Token, the CC field supports multiple email addresses. |
BCC | Add recipients to the BCC field to send a hidden copy of the email. Unlike the Send To field, if you use an email Token, the BCC field supports multiple email addresses. |
When sending messages to a contact's school or secondary email address, Element451 automatically defaults to the primary email address if the school or secondary address is unavailable.
4: Preview Your Email
As you configure the email, you can preview it at any time:
Click the Preview tab in the top-right corner of the builder.
Toggle between Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile views to ensure your email is optimized for all devices.
Use the Full-Screen option (double arrow icon) for easier editing.
5: Test + Review Versions
Once your email configuration is complete, we recommend testing the message to ensure everything displays as intended. You should also review each version to verify accuracy if you’ve set up personalized versions for different audiences.
6: Send/Save Your Campaign
After finalizing your email content and testing it, proceed to send or save your campaign. This process is outlined in the Creating a Campaign (All Channels) article.
7: View Campaign Analytics
You can use the in-app analytics to see how your email messages perform.
To view analytics, navigate to Engagement > Campaigns > Analytics. On this screen, you’ll see a list of communications and all their analytics.
Pro Tips
For small images, especially logos that don’t need to fill the container, enable the “Use Original Size” setting to display the image at its native dimensions.
Editing your email's content is easier in full screen. Just click the double arrow icon in the top left corner to enter (and exit) full-screen mode.
Click on any communication block to quickly duplicate, set variable audience versions, and adjust settings.
Use tokens to send your email to the student's assignee.
Want to send a Campaign to a parent, guardian, or counselor? Depending on your goal, there are a couple of options for achieving this. Click here to read more.
Video: Sending Bulk Messages to All Profile Types
Video: Sending Bulk Messages to All Profile Types
Troubleshooting
Email Renderings in Outlook
Element451's Campaigns module is designed to work best with modern web and mobile-based email clients. Outlook uses an older rendering engine that does not support modern HTML and CSS features commonly used in email design, like those used in Element451. As a result, emails may not display correctly in Outlook, even though they may look fine in other email clients (including the Element451 preview mode).
Tokens are not Populating/Message Won't Send
If you find that your tokens aren't populating correctly or you see messages are not sending, you may have hidden HTML code embedded in one or more of your tokens.
The Campaigns Module is only available with the Element Ignite and Engage packages.