Coming Soon to Emarsys - Universal Email Template

WillYoung · ‎10-12-2021

In preparation for the SAP Emarsys Autumn Release (arriving on October 20th), I’d like to introduce some of the new features we will be including.

Today’s topic: The Universal Email Template

What is the Universal Email Template?

This is a new default email template that comes with every Emarsys account. It contains a wider variety of content sections than our previous default template and can be adapted to suit pretty much every kind of email campaign that you are likely to want to send.

You can use this template to create new email templates for all your ongoing email campaigns. Simply copy the universal template, make your changes and save it under a new name.

The new template in the VCE editor

Alternatively, you can take the sample code that we use for the blocks and use that to modify the blocks in your own existing templates, or even create new ones.

This template features a vast range of essential block types that are commonly part of any email campaign, including:

headers

navigation

hero banners

various layouts for product recommendations

text areas

background image

social media buttons

footers

It also comes with special blocks that support our advanced features:

repeatable blocks

multi-language support

cart recovery

Tactics

Loyalty

More importantly, each block comes with highly customizable elements that the Emarsys web production team defined with variables and CSS style settings, to ensure that every part of the content can be transformed in various ways to achieve a unique look for any campaign.

You are free to edit, modify and build upon the codebase using our VCE editor, or indeed any HTML editor.

Why did we develop this template?

Our previous default template (the so-called 'LifestyleLabels' template) was built more as a demo tool and sandbox than anything else. Although it could be edited and repurposed to suit many different types of email, it was still quite restricted and we continued to build and deliver bespoke templates for any customer who requested them.

Because we liked the templates we were building, and to inspire our customers when they came to design and order templates from us, we began to showcase the best emails that our customers were sending, in our Email Inspirations site.

Then, in line with our philosophy of putting the customer at the center of every decision and every journey, we asked our template-building team to call on their wealth of experience creating high-performing templates and collect the most common customer requests they have seen over the years.

The result? A flexible template with over 25 different content blocks that is super-easy to customize with zero coding required, built to industry standards for email deliverability and responsive on all the major mobile devices.

The new template in the mobile preview of the editor

Will this template continue to be developed?

Most certainly, yes! We will always ensure that this template represents and supports all Emarsys features.

Important note: Because of the level of customization available with this new template, any updates we make to it cannot be pushed to other templates already created from it (because of the risk of overwriting customized content). When we update the template, you will be notified of the changes and will have to decide whether or not you want to invest the time recreating some emails campaigns in order to take advantage of the new features.

What if I am still using the VCMS?

The new template will not be available in the old VCMS editor. If you are still using that editor, we strongly suggest that this is time to make the switch to the VCE once and for all.