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Send Emails with the Email Designer

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The Email Designer allows you to create visually appealing emails using an advanced designer. With this feature, you can easily create layouts, or add buttons, images, and other visual elements by dragging and dropping elements into your design, without spending much time formatting your emails. This guide shows you how to work with the Email Designer. 

Access The Email Designer

You can access the email designer from wherever there is an Email option in ChMeetings; for example, under People, Groups, Events (People or People and Tickets), etc.

To reach the Email Designer, click the Email option, then select Designer. Here is an example screenshot, from the People section. 

goto-designer.png

Once you select the Designer, you can begin crafting your email. 

Edit Emails Using The Designer

Select a Template

As soon as you select the Designer as your email editor, you will be asked to select a template to work with. Click to select it, then click Next. Your email editor will then load the selected template, which you can edit as needed.

For this guide, we will start with the Blank option. 

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Explore The Email Editor

Once you have chosen your template, you will be taken to the email editor. This is split into three main panels: 

  1. Email Options, where you can configure who should receive the email, the subject to use, any attachments, or templates. 
  2. Email Body: Here is where you edit your visual design.
  3. Design Elements; This panel provides a variety of design elements that you can drag to your email body,

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Edit Emails

Editing emails using the Designer involves configuring the email options and then creating your desired design within the email body, using the available design elements. Let’s look at the process in detail. 

Email Options

Here is what you can configure in the Email Options panel: 

  1. Communicate with: 
    1. Selected People: Sends the email only to the people you selected before clicking the Email option. 
    2. Parents: Sends the email only to those in your list who are parents.
    3. Children: Sends the email only to the children in your list.

      Read more about Communicating with children or parents.

  2. BCC or TO: This is where email recipients are listed. The default selection is BCC 
    1. BCC: When emailing multiple people in one go, this option sends separate messages to each address without making other recipients visible. This means that people cannot see and reply to others’ messages. However, you can use merge fields to pull individual people's profile data,  
    2. TO: When you send an email using the TO option, then everyone can see all other recipients and reply to each other’s messages. However, merge fields cannot be used due to the multiple recipients of the email.
  3. Subject: This is the main subject of your email.
  4. Attach files: This is where you can click on Select File and browse your computer for a file you want to attach to the email. The maximum file size is 20MB.
  5. Sender: Here is where you can select who you want to be displayed as the email sender - your account, or the main church account (the Owner within ChMeetings). 

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Email Design

The email design process occurs using the Email Body and Design Elements. To create a design, you click and drag a design element onto the email body. 

 

Add And Manage Blocks

The design system is based on blocks that act as content containers. Therefore, before adding content, you must first insert a block. The email body will contain one blank block by default, which you can start with, and then add more as you go. 

To add a block, select Blocks from your design elements, then drag a block layout to the email body. You can also add a new, one-column block by clicking the “+” sign, displayed when hovering your mouse cursor over an existing block. 

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When adding a block from the design elements panel, you can choose from several available column layouts. If you want to customize the layout, you can drag the borders to change the column width. 

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You can move blocks by hovering your mouse cursor over them, then dragging them into position using the dragging tool on the right. 

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Add Content

You can add content to your email body by dragging any content element from the dedicated panel on the right. The available elements are: 

  1. Columns: Inserts a new block that is split into columns. 
  2. Button: Inserts a button. You can configure whether the button should open a URL, send an email, or call a phone number. You can also set different parameters such as font family and size, colors, spacing, text alignment, etc. 
  3. Divider: Adds a dividing horizontal line between parts of your design.
  4. Heading: Adds a heading field, which you can configure to H1, H2, etc. 
  5. Text: Inserts a text box which you can edit within the Email body.
  6. Image: This lets you add images to your design. You can select from available stock images, generate new ones with AI, or upload your own.
  7. Social: Here is where you can add a social media links widget to your email. Drag this element to your design and then configure your preferred social media links. If you have configured some of them within ChMeetings already (within the Member Portal Builder’s Social Media Card). 
  8. HTML: Adds an HTML editing area where you can enter code which will be displayed visually within the email body.

content-elements.png

 

Manage Text and Merge Fields

You can add text using the Text element. Just drag it onto your email body then click on it to start editing. The editor gives you several formatting options to choose from, as well as features for generating text with AI, or using Merge fields, here called “Merge Tags”. These let you pull member information from within ChMeetings and insert it into your email automatically. Learn more about working with merge fields. 

The right-side panel of your text editor lets you configure the fonts, colors, spacing, and responsiveness parameters of your text area. 

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Add Buttons

You can add buttons to your emails to help readers perform specific actions such as opening a URL, reaching an email address, or calling a phone number. Just drag the button widget to your design, edit its text, and configure it as you see fit. 

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Manage Images

When using the Image design element, you can add images to your email template. You can upload your own images, or choose from a rich gallery of stock images, or from your previous uploads. You can configure different parameters for your image, such as width, alignment, linking, alternative text, and more.

images.png

 

Add Social Media Links

Social media links allow your email recipients to easily connect with your church. You can add them quickly to all of your emails using the Social widget within your design elements. This widget lets you add your accounts from most social media platforms and email recipients can just click and view your pages. We recommend adding this widget to email footers but feel free to add it wherever you see fit. 

To add the widget, just drag it to your design. To add a new platform, just click the widget, then click the desired platform. It will be added to your design automatically, and you will be able to add your account to it as well. All your changes are saved to your design automatically. 

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Add HTML

You can add HTML code to your email template using the dedicated design element. Enter your code, then set parameters such as container padding or responsive design, as needed. 

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Email Body Settings

You can configure the email body settings using the Body section under your design elements panel. You will find settings for fonts, colors, spacing, styling, and more. 

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Work With Templates

Templates make your work faster and easier by allowing you to save the essentials in your email messaging, which you can just update rather than start from scratch every time. With the Email Designer, you can save and update templates easily, as follows:

Save Designs As Templates

Once you complete an email design, you can save it as a template for later use. You can do this by clicking Save this as template, at the bottom left of your Email Designer screen.

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Once saved, your template is available to select when sending a new email using the designer. 

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Edit Templates

Once your template is saved, you can select it, and use it as your next email, or edit it as needed. 

Once you start your email and select your existing template, you can edit your design, then choose to either create a new template (Save this as a new template), or overwrite the current template (Update Template). Both your new and updated templates will become available in your template list, when sending an email using the designer.  

edit-template.png

 

Preview Emails

You can preview emails from the dedicated widget on the bottom left of the email body area. You can preview the desktop and mobile versions quickly, or click the advanced Preview icon to reach a screen that lets you see what your email looks like on different devices.  

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Send The Email

When you are ready to send your email, all you have to do is to click Send at the bottom right corner of your email designer screen. 

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Schedule Emails

If you do not want to send your email immediately, click the Calendar icon next to the Send button to schedule it for an appropriate time. 

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Footnote

Please keep in mind that all of the features above are exclusively available using the Email Designer. The Standard Email Editor is a simpler way of sending emails and does not provide these options. Learn more about the Standard Email Editor.

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