Design a mailing
Build a mailing from blocks or a template, add personal touches, preview it, send a test, and send or schedule it.
Go to Mailings and click + New mailing. A mailing has four steps: Content, Audience, Settings and Review & send. Your work saves as a draft, so you can come back to it.
Start from a template
Pick a ready template, one you saved, or start from blank. There are ready templates for newsletters, offers and more. Everything in them can be changed.
Subject and preview text
- Subject - the first thing people see. Keep it short and clear.
- Preview text - the line shown after the subject in most inboxes. Use it to add to the subject, not repeat it.
- From name and Reply-to - who it's from, and where replies go. They start from your defaults in Settings.
Build it from blocks
Drag blocks from the side into your mailing: text, headings, pictures, buttons, columns, dividers and more. Click a block to change it. Drag it to move it.
Themes set the colours, fonts and background for the whole mailing in one go.
Pictures you upload are kept for your next mailings. Keep them small so the mailing opens fast.
Personal touches
Merge tags put each person's own details into the mailing:
| Tag | Puts in |
|---|---|
{{first_name}} | Their first name |
{{name}} | Their full name |
{{company}} | Their company |
{{org_name}} | Your business name |
Add a word to use when a detail is missing after a | sign. For example, Hi {{first_name|there}} reads "Hi Asha" - or "Hi there" when there is no first name.
The footer
Every mailing ends with a footer that has:
- an Unsubscribe link and a Preferences link
- your business name and postal address
You can't remove these. The law in many countries asks for them, and mail providers expect them. You set the address in Settings.
On the Free plan, the footer also has a small "Sent with Ellibo" line. It goes on Standard and up.
Preview and send a test
Click Preview to see it on a computer and on a phone.
Send a test
Click Send a test and enter up to a few email addresses. The test goes through the mailing's own sending account, with "[Test]" in the subject. Check it on your phone and computer, and click every link.
Settings
- Sending account - which account sends it. See Sending and domains.
- Campaign - put it in a campaign to see results together. See Campaigns.
- Track opens and Track link clicks - on by default.
- Campaign tags (UTM) - adds utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to your links, so your website's statistics show visits from this mailing.
Send now or schedule
In Review & send, check the list of things to fix, then:
- Send now - it starts going within minutes.
- Schedule - choose a day and time in your business's time zone.
Big mailings go out in slices, within your sending account's limits. You can Pause, Resume or Cancel a mailing while it's going.
Approval before sending
On Standard and up, an Admin can turn on approval under Settings > Preferences. Then a Marketer's mailing waits for a Manager or Admin, who can approve it or send it back with a note. See Users and roles.
Save your own template
Like a design? Save it as a template from the mailing. Your team can start from it under Templates.
Copy a mailing
Duplicate any mailing - sent or not - to start a new one with the same design. Only drafts can be deleted.