If you are using the HTML Editor, it is recommended to prepare your HTML templates (and, optionally, any accompanying images) in advance, and then import them into Email.

 

There are several steps to take before uploading your template, such as handling your image files and activating click tracking.

 

In order to build your email template using the HTML editor, go to the Manage Templates tab in Optimove (under the One-to-One Campaigns menu) and select Email from the Channel dropdown.

 

If you have more than one Email account (as is common when managing multiple brands within a single Optimove instance), you will see a list of available accounts under the Brand dropdown. Select the account you want to use.

 

If you have a few template types (scheduled, triggered, transactional), select the type of template you wish to use from the Type drop-down menu.

 

In this example, we use the Scheduled Campaigns template type.

 

Select the HTML Editor:

 

Enter a name for the template, and enter an email subject line for the template. In order to include personalization tags in your subject line, click the Advanced Subject Line button.

 

Select a “From email” from one of the predefined options, a “From name” value, and a “Reply-to” email address.

 

Click Import and select the HTML file or ZIP file you prepared (as explained above).

 

Every email template (regardless of editor type) must contain a link for the recipient to unsubscribe.

The imported HTML may already contain this link (<a href=”[%UNSUB%]”>…</a>), or you can enter it here yourself (adding a [%UNSUB%] link manually, or by selecting one of the predefined unsubscribe links from the Unsubscribe drop-down list).

 

Read more about managing unsubscribes here.

 

If such a link is not included in the template, the system will add a default unsubscribe message and link when sending the email. Therefore, it is recommended that you insert the link yourself to have maximum control over the appearance of your customer emails.

 

Make any desired changes to the body of the email using the editor. This includes the addition of any personalization tags using the Personalization drop-down list.

 

To add additional personalization tags to your drop-down list, contact your Customer Success Manager.

 

A plain text version is automatically generated for each template. In order to edit the plain text version, click Edit Plain Text in the top section of the template editor.

 

In the plain text dialog, you can edit the text manually or click Generate from HTML to regenerate the text from the latest HTML version.

 

Click Validate to make sure that all personalization and unsubscribe tags are valid. You will not be able to save your template unless all of your tags are valid.

 

Email tracks email opens using the open pixel. By default, the OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL is added to the bottom of the template, but it is also available as a personalization tag that you can place somewhere else (if not placed, it will be automatically added at the bottom of every template).

 

If you would like to customize where in the template the open tracking pixel will be placed, add the “OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL” personalization tag to the template, thus avoiding rare cases in which the pixel is truncated by the inbox provider.

 

Tracking clicks on hyperlinks in emails is enabled by default in Email. This means that when a template is sent to campaign recipients, all links are replaced with an auto-generated version of the link that enables Email to track every time a recipient clicks a link. You can disable tracking for specific links by including the ‘clicktracking=off ‘ attribute in the link tag. You can do this for Apple Universal Links or for any other reason.

 

For example, this link would not be tracked: <a clicktracking=off href=”https://example.com”>link text</a>.