Text Block Features
Rich text blocks allow you to customize your content with merge tags, images, buttons, and formatting options. Let's take a closer look at some of these options below.
Merge Tags
A merge tag is a placeholder in the body of your email, e.g. {{First Name}}. The placeholder is replaced with data from the contact database when the email is sent.
As you compose your email, simply stop typing where you want the contact info to auto-fill (or move the cursor there), and select “Merge tags” from the edit bar.
Merge tags have a fallback/default option when there is no data to replace the tag. In this case, I usually add the word “there” – as in, “Hi there” – followed by the body copy.
Insert Images in Text Blocks
Adding images to your text blocks is an easy way to create more memorable and eye-catching messages.
- To add an image inside a text block, place the cursor where you’d like the image, click the image icon in the edit bar, and upload:
- To edit an existing image, select it with your cursor; it will then be highlighted with a green border, and the image icon in the edit bar will change to orange.
- Select the image icon to open its image settings.
- In this example, I reduced the size of an image from 550px to 300px:
🕺🏽 Experiment with image size to complement your design.
Double Column Text Blocks
Double column text boxes are great for adding text next to an image.
I recommend using the double column text block instead of the image + text block; the double column method allows for more flexibility with image and text placements.
Here is a double column text block in Edit mode:
Once saved, it looks like an image + text block:
Insert Buttons in Text Blocks
Like images, inline buttons can be embedded inside text blocks.
- Stop typing where you'd like to insert the button, and select the “BTN” option from the Edit bar.
- From here, select a playlist or provide an external link to another site.
- To change the button’s settings later on, simply select the button itself (it will highlight green) and then select the orange BTN icon to edit according to preference.
Playlist & Button Blocks
The playlist and button blocks can link to DISCO playlists with unique URLs assigned to each recipient. Their access and listening activities are recorded through these links, providing analytics all the way down to the track level.
Playlist Blocks
To add a playlist to an email, drag a playlist block into the Editor.
In Edit mode, the column to the right has a Select Playlist dropdown. Your most recently saved playlists appear first, but you can search and find any playlist in your DISCO.
Tip: create your Playlists before designing the email.
After you’ve selected the playlist, all its tracks and their artwork will appear in the email body, along with a button for opening the playlist URL.
Customize the design further by adjusting:
- Padding
- Button position
- Button text and color
The “Show header” checkbox at the bottom adds or removes the playlist title from the body of the email.
🕺🏽 Remember that tracks cannot be streamed from within an email due to technological limitations; that’s where our handy playlist URL comes into play!
Button Blocks
Button blocks work much like Playlist Blocks, allowing you to find and link a playlist to the Button.
The advantage of a Button, is that you can avoid the whole list of tracks cluttering the email body, while still capturing the individual access stats from every recipient.
Background Colour & Text Settings
Each Block has settings to control the background colour, font, font size and line spacing (where relevant).
- Choose from preset colors or enter the exact colour #hash.
- When a block is in edit mode these settings appear in the right hand column.
Settings tab
The Settings tab at the top of the right-hand column is used to apply global settings to the whole email. This includes:
- Background color
- Font
- Padding
- Line height.
Set global settings up first to achieve a cohesive look, then overwrite the settings on each block as necessary.
🕺🏽 Create a seamless scrolling email across all blocks by matching each block’s background color to the email settings background color.
Padding & Image Size
Optimize your design by adjusting image sizes and padding around each content block.
The Email Creator content is restricted to 600 pixels wide; this ensures that all standard email programs can display content as designed.
Images can be a maximum of 600 pixels wide when the block’s horizontal padding is 0 px. As the padding increases, the max width of the image has to decrease accordingly.
In this example, the image size is 500 x 500 px, with 50 px of horizontal padding on each side; this totals 600px across.
Set the Padding on Adjacent Blocks
In this example, an image block is placed above a playlist block. See the settings for each block:
Image Block Settings:
I reduced the image block’s vertical and horizontal padding to 0, which allowed the square image to be the maximum size of 600x600 px.
🕺🏽 Adjusting image width or height will update the other dimension to maintain the same size ratio.
Playlist Block Settings:
I created space around the playlist content by adjusting the font size to 16, and setting the horizontal and vertical padding to 20 and 40 px respectively.
The Footer Block & Social Icons
The Footer block appears in every email.
For legal reasons, the footer must have an “Unsubscribe” button and explanation for why an email was sent to the recipient.
URLs for your website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. can also be included in the footer.
Now that you're an email design expert, learn how to test and send, then view access analytics!