Connect an email to an automation
BetaThis feature is new and we're actively working to improve it. UpdatedAfter you create an email in Design Studio, you can add it to a campaign, broadcast, or transactional message.
You can only connect a Design Studio message to one automation.
You can connect an email made in Design Studio to any campaign, broadcast, or transactional message, but only one. If you’d like to connect the same email to multiple automations, you can duplicate the email.
Connect your message
How you connect your Design Studio message depends on the type of automation you’re working with.
Campaigns and API-triggered broadcasts
- Open your campaign or API-triggered broadcast.
- Drag an Email block into your workflow.
- Click Add Content in the email block.
- Under Start from existing email, select the Design Studio tab.
- Find your message, hover over it, and click Connect Email. Your messages are displayed in order of how recently you edited them.
You can connect emails, not templates.
You can’t connect templates to automations, but you can create an email from a template. If you need to make a new email, click Create in Design Studio to get started.
Newsletters and transactional messages
- Open your newsletter and go to the Content step.
- Choose Email as the message channel.
- Click the the content block.
- Under Start from existing email, select the Design Studio tab.
- Find your message, hover over it, and click Connect Email. Your messages are displayed in order of how recently you edited them.
You can connect emails, not templates.
You can’t connect templates to automations, but you can create an email from a template. If you need to make a new email, click Create in Design Studio to get started.
Define the envelope
After you connect a message to an automation, click the top of the preview to define the subject, sender, and recipient fields.
You can also add:
- Preheader text
- Reply-to
- BCC and fake BCC
- Custom headers
Preview your message
After you connect your message, you’ll see a preview of your email where you can review liquid with sample data, check responsiveness, validate links, and send a test message yourself to and/or teammates for final review:
Preview with sample data: If you use liquid in your email, you’ll want to preview how it renders with sample data before sending. Click Show sample data to get started. In the menu, you can filter for and choose different users. Check to see how the liquid renders for people who do and do not have attributes specified in your liquid so you know whether your fallbacks work. Click Hide sample data to close the menu. To modify the liquid, click Edit in Design Studio to return to the message editor.
Check responsiveness: Preview your email in desktop or mobile view.
Preview as plain text: Preview this to see how your email would look without styling and images. This version may render depending on a number of settings, like the privacy settings of your recipient’s email client.
Check your links: Click Review Links to make sure all links in your email work. If there are any problems, this button will turn red with a warning exclamation point. Click to display a list of your links with errors noted in red.
Send a test email to verify your email looks right upon receipt.
Need to make edits? If you’d like to make changes before sending, click Edit in Design Studio to go back to the message editor and publish your changes.
A/B test your Design Studio message
You can A/B test your Design Studio message in a campaign or newsletter.
Each variation is a duplicate of the message you connected to your automation. Back in your Design Studio dashboard, all variations are grouped together under the original file name.
The winning variant will have a trophy icon next to it.
