How Do I Build an Email?

Virtuous provides multiple ways to send emails to your supporters, via Automation or in bulk. To take advantage of all that Virtuous Marketing has to offer, you'll need to start by creating a compelling email. Here's a handy guide to working with the email editing tools in Virtuous.

To create a new Email, navigate to the Email page by hovering over the left sidebar, and then selecting Marketing. In the pop-out window, select Email.

On the email page, you have two options for creating a new email:

To learn more about working with templates check out this support article. In this article, we'll focus on creating a brand-new email.

Select the Actions button in the upper-right, and then select "Create an Email" from the drop-down.

This will launch the new email wizard, which walks through five steps to creating a new email. These steps are visible along the bottom of the screen as you move through the process.

On the Setup tab, you'll be able to choose whether you want to use our visual builder or advanced builder. Select the visual builder option. If you are more comfortable using the HTML builder, you can choose to do so. To learn more about using the HTML builder, check out this support article. 

Next, you can enter the details for your new email. Required fields are all marked with an asterisk (*).

Once you have entered all the details for your email, click "Next" in the lower right of the screen to move on to the Build step.

On the Build step, you'll see the email editor. When starting on a new email, you will have a blank slate to start, with a message prompting you to add content:

Before adding content, though, it's a good idea to start by setting up your design first. On the right, you'll see a panel with three tabs at the top: Content, Rows, and Settings.

When designing a new email, work on each tab from right to left, so that you begin with designing your email, and then filling in the content. Let's start by looking at the Settings tab.

Use the features on this tab to configure the basics for your email, including the content width, background colors, and the default look for your fonts. These settings may be changed as needed at any point during the build process, but configuring them now will help with adding additional design elements. Once you have made your selections, move on to the Rows tab.

This tab is where you can determine how your content will be arranged in your email. Content will be added in blocks, and those blocks will be arranged into rows, almost like laying bricks or tiles. The default layout is a single column, which is the first-row option. If you intend to use nothing but a single column, you do not need to customize your rows at all, though your email may not look as exciting as you like.

To display content side-by-side, you'll need to click on any of the other row options and then drag them onto the editor screen. 

For example, if you'd like to have a row that is split, where a small piece of content takes up one-quarter of the email width, and additional content occupies three-quarters of the width, click on the second-row option and then drag it onto the editor.

Once you have configured the rows for your email, it's time to move on to adding content.

As with adding Rows, just click on any of the Content options to drag it to the editor and drop it in one of the spaces created when you added Rows. There are six types of Content that you can add.

Adding a text block will allow for typing out the body of your email, as well as adding any unique header or footer text. Click anywhere in the text block to bring up the text editing toolbar.

The toolbar will allow for additional customizations of fonts and styles for your text. Use the Special Links option to add one of three unsubscribe options anywhere in your email.

If you do not choose an unsubscribe link, then the Global Unsubscribe link will be automatically inserted into the footer of your email. You can learn more about managing subscription preferences and email lists in this support article.

Click on Merge tags to personalize your email content by inserting the recipient's First name or other data, including Contact or Individual custom fields.

Adding an image block will allow you to drop an image file into your email. Drag to any of the content areas in the editor, and you'll be able to drag and drop an image file directly into your email or click to browse the image files already stored for your organization.

You can learn more about managing and working with images in this support article.

Add a button for clear calls to action, like "Donate" or "Learn More." When adding or editing a button, you'll see that the right side of the screen displays options for customizing the design of your button.

Use the Action section at the top to specify where button clicks should take recipients. For example, if you are inserting a "Donate" button, insert the URL of the web page where you have your donation form embedded.

Use the Button Options section to customize the look and feel of your button, including the color, spacing, and padding (how much space is between design elements).

Add a divider to insert a line between rows and help create definitions between separate sections in your email. As with the Button option, the right menu will provide options for customizing the look and feel of the design.

Use the Social content option to add social media buttons to your email header or footer.

The right menu will provide additional options for customizing the social buttons. Use the icon collection drop-down to select a design style for all of the buttons included. For all of the selected icons, you'll see the option to customize the URL so recipients can click and be taken directly to your social accounts.

Click the stripes to the left of any icon to drag and re-order the icons however you'd like. Click on the "add new icon" option to add additional social media profiles to your email.

Users may choose to add an HTML block to insert custom HTML code into an email. This is recommended ONLY for advanced users, as customizing HTML can affect how emails are rendered.

Video

Embedding videos directly in emails is not a recommended practice, but inserting image files and then linking them to your video content elsewhere can be time-consuming, to say the least. Just drag this new content block to any spot in your email, and then paste it into a YouTube or Vimeo link instead. The video thumbnail will automatically be inserted into your email, with a link to view the video. You can even customize the look and feel of the "play" icon! This should save a lot of time when working on emails with plenty of video content.

Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. But that doesn't mean you have to live with them. Once you have made any changes in the email editor. you'll see a small undo widget in the lower left corner of the screen.

Use the left arrow to undo your most recent change. Toggling between the left and right arrows will allow you to move back and forth between changes if needed.

The history icon on the left will open a timeline of all the changes made during your current editing session. Each change listed will include the content type or element changed, a brief description of the change, and the date and time when the change was made.

Select any set in the timeline to revert and undo all changes made after that step. When a step is selected, the content that is changed in that step will also be automatically highlighted.

While working on your email, you may periodically see an autosave warning at the top of the screen:

The autosave will temporarily cause the page to display a spinning icon instead, but should not last more than a few seconds. It is recommended that users do not cancel this process to avoid losing any progress in editing their email.

You can manually save your progress at any time by clicking on the Actions button in the upper right. There, users can choose to save and continue working or save and return to the main email screen.

Use the Preview option to see what your email will look like, on a desktop screen or on a mobile device. Send a test email to see your email in your inbox and make sure it renders correctly. Note: Merge Fields and custom senders will not be populated for a test email.

Once you have finished putting your email together, you must publish it before sending it. Click here to learn more about publishing emails.

Once your email is ready to send, click Next in the lower right to continue through the wizard and send your email. To learn more about targeting and sending your email, check out this support article.