Email templates — saving & managing the Template library

An email template is a reusable email design. A template carries its text, images, merge fields, styling and the required Unsubscribe Link block, so every campaign of a given type starts from the same approved foundation. Templates save time, but the bigger benefit is consistency — your newsletter, your event invitations and your renewal reminders all begin from a design you have already checked.

Templates are reached from three places:

• Create campaign on the Emails landing page — this opens the Template library before the campaign builder.
• The Design step (Step 3) of the campaign builder — Browse templates and Save as template in the toolbar above the email canvas.
• The dropdown beside Create campaign on the Emails landing page — Manage templates.

Start a campaign from a template

1. On the Emails landing page, click Create campaign. The Template library opens.
2. Use Search all templates to find a template by name.
3. Filter by email tag in the left-hand panel. It lists All templates with a count, then one entry per email tag with its own count. Templates with no tag are grouped under Other, at the bottom of the list.
4. Change the order using the sort control to the right of the search field: Newest first (the default), Oldest first, Name (A—Z) or Name (Z—A).
5. Click a template card to select it. To check a template before committing to it, click the preview icon on the card — Template preview opens, with the fully rendered email on the left and the template's name, description and tags on the right. From there, Back to library returns you to the list and Apply & use template starts the campaign from that template.
6. With a template selected, click Apply & use template (bottom right) to open the campaign builder with that design already on the canvas.

If you would rather start from nothing, click Create blank campaign in the same footer. Close exits the library without starting a campaign.

Once a template has been applied, the campaign is completely detached from the template. Later edits to the template do not flow through to campaigns already built from it, and deleting the template has no impact on those emails.

Swap in a template while you are designing

In the Design step, click Browse templates in the toolbar above the email canvas. The same Template library opens, with Close and Apply & use template in the footer. Search, tag filters, sorting and preview all work the same way.

Applying a template replaces all existing content on the canvas. If you have already built something you want to keep, save it with Save as template first.

Save a design as a template

1. In the Design step, finish the design on the email canvas.
2. Click Save as template in the toolbar above the canvas.
3. Complete the Save as template dialog:
   • Template name — how the template will appear in the library.
   • Description — what the template is for. This shows in Template preview, so it is worth filling in.
   • Tags — one or more of your email tags, used to group the template in the library.
4. Click Save.

Make this a habit: whenever you finish a design you are happy with, save it as a template so that standard becomes your starting point next time.

Manage your template library

Click the dropdown beside Create campaign on the Emails landing page, then Manage templates. The Manage email templates window opens, with the same search field, sort control and email-tag panel as the Template library.

Each template card has a ⋮ Template actions menu:

• Preview template — opens Template preview with the rendered email, name, description and tags. Edit template takes you straight into the editor; Back to library returns you to the list.
• Edit — opens the template in the template editor (below).
• Duplicate — creates a copy you can change without touching the original.
• Delete — removes the template from the library. Campaigns already built from it are unaffected.

Click Close when you are finished.

Edit a template

Edit opens the template on its own Email templates screen. Because you are editing the template itself, your changes apply in place — there is no need to load a template into a campaign, change it, save it again under a new name and delete the old one.

• The template's name and tags appear at the top left. Click the pencil icon beside them to open the Update template dialog:
  • Template name (required)
  • Description — what this template is for
  • Tags — one or more email tags
  • Recipient type — Person or Organisation. This controls which merge fields the editor offers you.
• Above the canvas: undo, redo and Preview.
• The right-hand panel has three tabs:
  • Content — the blocks you drag onto the canvas: Rich Text, Button, Image, Video, Attachment, Divider, Social Media, Location, Unsubscribe Link, Survey and Columns.
  • Layouts — pre-built sections: Header, Callout card, Call to action, Button list, Event card, Paragraph and Footer.
  • Styles — Enable View in Browser Link, Body background colour, Background colour, Width (in px) and List style (Aligned or Inline).
• At the top right: Cancel discards your changes, Update template saves them, and the dropdown beside Update template offers Save as a copy — use this when you want to leave the original as it is and store your changes as a new template.

Content and layout blocks work exactly as they do on the email canvas in a campaign — see Design your email: the email canvas, content & layout blocks.

Build a template from scratch

1. Open Manage templates and click the + New template card (first in the grid).
2. A blank canvas opens showing Drag and drop content here.
3. Click the pencil icon beside New template at the top left to give the template a name, description, tags and recipient type.
4. Drag content and layout blocks onto the canvas to build the design. Include an Unsubscribe Link block — every campaign needs one, so building it into the template saves you adding it each time.
5. Click Save template at the top right. The button stays unavailable until the template has a name and some content.

Organise templates with email tags

Templates use the same email tags as your email campaigns — there is no separate system to learn. Tags are configured for your account in Settings, reachable from the dropdown beside Create campaign via Edit tags. The tags available to you are whatever your organisation has set up, and a template can carry more than one.

In both the Template library and Manage email templates, the left-hand panel lists each tag with a count, and any template without a tag appears under Other.

Because tagging templates is a recent addition, templates created before it start out untagged and appear together under Other. The first time you open Manage templates is a good moment to tidy up: delete the templates you no longer need, and tag the ones you keep.

Best practice

• Keep the set deliberate. A small number of well-maintained, clearly tagged templates is more useful than dozens of near-duplicates. Where two templates do almost the same job, consolidate them into one and delete the other.
• Fix problems at the source. Because editing happens in place, an out-of-date date or a link that has moved can be corrected once in the template, and every future campaign starts from the corrected version.
• Always keep the unsubscribe block. The campaign builder warns you if it is missing, so leaving it in the template avoids the problem entirely.
• Use the description. A line explaining what the template is for makes the library usable by everyone in your account, not just the person who built it.
• Retire what you have outgrown. When you build something better, save it as a template and delete the old one, so the library reflects your current standard rather than your history.