Campaign templates
Email templates serve a number of different purposes throughout The Layer. This knowledgebase article will share some useful tips for creating an email template for a marketing campaign (as these are set up slightly different to regular templates)
Email templates
Navigate to Settings and click into "Mail Templates" under the "Mail & SMS" menu:
Select New Email Template from the left-side menu. The fields are as follows:
Title: The title of your email template - this is internal and will be used when you are assigning a template to a particular action.
Template Type: A template will be of General type by default. For marketing campaigns, you do not need to change this.
Subject: This will be the subject line of the email.
Body: This will form the email body. An email template for marketing purposes will likely contain strap lines, images and company branding. You can apply more detailed structure to a marketing email template using the html editor feature:
Email Template: Ticking this option will ensure that this is available from the drop down list within an email dialogue. Generally, for marketing email templates, you should not enable this.
Campaign Template: This must be enabled to send through a marketing campaign.
After you Save your template, you will be able to access the Attachments and Appointment Status tabs.
It may be useful to add attachments into marketing campaigns. To do this, you must upload to general files and enable the "info" checkbox:
Creating a Marketing Email Template
As mentioned, email templates for marketing purposes will be different from your regular templates. These may include strap lines, images and company branding. This is why we recommend using the html editor feature.
If you are unsure how to get started, we offer a selection of free-to-use marketing email templates. These can be found within the Template Library of a marketing campaign, and includes:
Layer Basic - This template is perfect for sending a basic and appealing message
Layer Hero - Want to include an image in your email? This template is for you!
Layer Hero Sidebar - Want a sidebar and a hero image? This is the one for you. This template combines the sidebar and hero templates.
Layer Sidebar - This template includes a sidebar area for a list of links, perfect for linking to additional content.
Selecting this will populate the preview window with a template. You must edit your template before you send it to a contact as this only provides you with a base structure (see below).
Important: Changes made to a template within a marketing campaign will be saved only for that specific campaign, meaning alterations here will not affect templates stored in the Settings area. If you make changes within a campaign, you can copy the html within the html editor window and paste it into the html editor within the Mail Templates area in Settings.
Once this has been saved, you can make it "Campaign Compatible" by enabling the checkbox. This will pull through into your Template Library section when creating new campaigns.
Compliance Snippets for Marketing Email Templates
As with any email template in The Layer, you can apply snippets to automatically pull through information. Marketing campaigns require specific snippets in order to meet compliance standards. These include the following:
$$unsubscribe_link$$ - This will provide your recipients with an option to unsubscribe from marketing campaigns in the future
$$forwardtofriend_link$$ - This will allow your recipients to forward your marketing content on to another person. The Layer can track this activity if this link is used.
$$openinbrowser_link$$ - This will allow your recipients to view your campaign email within their browser, something many people prefer to do
$$tracker$$ - This snippet enables tracking of opens, links clicked, forwards and unsubscribes
$$mailing_address$$ - This snippet pulls through your company's mailing address, which is configurable in Company Set Up in Settings
Another snippet that may be useful for marketing campaigns, but is not essential is;
$$gdpr_link$$ - This will allow users to edit their contact preferences, including emails, phone calls and SMS for marketing and service