Designing an Email with the Email Builder

The email builder is a full-screen, click-to-edit canvas for designing a polished email out of stackable blocks, with your church's branding already applied. Use it when you want something more designed than a plain personal note.

Before you begin

You need access to the Email tab for your church.
Your logo, colors, and footer come from your email branding settings. Set those up first so every email you build matches your church. See Brand your emails.

Open the email builder

Go to the Email page in your dashboard.
Click Create email in the top corner. A short menu opens with two choices.
Choose Email builder ("A designed email with blocks and your branding"). The other choice, Simple email, is a quick Gmail-style note instead.

The builder opens full-screen and starts from a blank layout with your branding and footer already in place, so you're building on top of your church's look from the first click.

Find your way around the header

Across the top of the builder you'll see:

A back arrow on the far left that returns you to the Email list.
The email's name, which you can click and type over so you can find this email later in your list.
A Switch to the list editor link, in case you prefer editing your email as a simple stacked list instead of the visual canvas.
A Preview button that opens a true-to-send preview (more on that below).
Test and Send buttons for sending yourself a test copy or sending to your people.

Build your email

Add blocks from the left rail. Under the Basic heading you'll find building blocks like headings, paragraphs, images, buttons, and dividers. Click a block to drop it into your email, or drag it into place.
Click any text to edit it. The canvas is direct-edit: click a heading or paragraph right where it sits and start typing.
Insert a church card. Below the basic blocks, a From your church section has an Event card and a Form card. Click Event or Form to pick one, and the builder drops in a branded card with the details and a button that links back to it.

Everything you place updates on the canvas as you go, so what you see is close to what lands in the inbox.

See exactly what recipients get

Click Preview in the header. A What recipients get rail opens on the right.
This is a true-to-send preview built from the same pipeline your real send uses, shown with sample recipient details filled in, so personalized greetings appear the way a real reader would see them.
Below the preview, fill in Preview text (the inbox snippet) to control the short line of text that shows next to your subject in the inbox before someone opens the email.

For more on checking your work before you send, see Testing and previewing your email.

Good to know

Everything saves automatically. There is no Save button. Your changes are saved for you as you work, so you can close the builder and come back later.
Reopen anytime. Clicking a draft or scheduled email in your Email list opens it right back here in the builder, exactly where you left off.
Switch styles freely. The Switch to the list editor link gives you the same email in a simpler stacked-list editor. It's the same email either way, just a different way to arrange it.