The Basics of Creating an Email

Ready to send some emails? Let's get started with the basics!

On this page

• Newsletters or Automations - Which one to use?
• Effective Subject Lines and Preview Text
• Customizing the Theme and style for your emails
• Adding and customizing Sections in your email
• Previewing your email, requesting feedback, and sending tests

Newsletters or Automations - Which one to use?

Seguno supports two main types of marketing messages.

Newsletters are broadcast messages where you build the message content, determine the group of recipients you want to send to, and when you want to send the email. These are appropriate for when you want to message a group of subscribers to tell them about a new product, sale, or general announcement.

Automations are messages that are triggered to individual contacts when they take specific actions. You still control the message content, but the recipient and timing are up to when the subscriber performs the actions. These messages generally have higher engagement but lower sending volume overall. Automations are especially important to shops that have a smaller subscriber list as they help to maximize the value of each subscriber.

So, which one to use? For almost every shop, using both Newsletters and Automations will create the best results. Your Newsletters will create spikes of engagement while your Automations capitalize on subscriber engagement and build loyal customers.

Learn more about Creating Newsletters or Activating your Automations.

Effective Subject Lines and Preview Text

The Subject Line and Preview Text are similar to the title and back cover of a book - these summaries help a subscriber decide if they want to open your message or not.

Your subject line is the main tool to grab your subscribers' interest and should set their expectations for the message.

Effective subject lines are:

• Straightforward and to the point
• Avoid spammy or misleading phrases
• Relate to your unique subscribers

Preview text can expand on the subject line and provide more specific details of the message content by highlighting the email's value, included products or discounts.

Preview text can provide more details and continue to build interest by playing off the subject line. If your subject line mentions a new product, use the preview text to share some key features or highlights. Announcing a sale in the subject line? Create a sense of urgency by mentioning the discount end date in the preview text.

Customizing the theme and style for your emails

To make creating emails easier and faster, Seguno will carry over basic elements that we refer to as your Theme. Spending a little extra time on your theme the first time will pay off every time you create a Newsletter or Automation in the future.

These elements include your:

• Header
• Footer
• Theme settings

Your theme can be updated while customizing any newsletter or automation. Start by creating a newsletter or selecting an available automation. Use the Customize button to open the editor.

From the editor, start by going to the Theme Settings panel. Work your way down the list to update from the defaults to your primary colors, web-safe font, button style, the spacing between each section, and links to your social media feeds.

To update your Header and Footer, navigate to the Section tab of the editor.

Select the Header to set up your preheader text, logo, layout, and create a navigation menu that links to the top collections of your site.

Select your Footer and add links to your company policies such as return policy, privacy policy, discount policy and include your customer service information.

Adding and customizing Sections in your email

If you're using a template or customizing an automation, your email will already have some pre-selected sections in the body of the message. You can modify existing sections or choose from the available menu to add to them.

Select the type of section you're interested in from the menu. Depending on the section you add, you can customize the new section's contents by selecting from the available menu options and content.

The following section types are currently available.

• Blog - allows you to pull in the Blog posts from your Shopify Online Store
• Collection - lists multiple Product Collections or can feature Products from a specific Collection
• Discount - highlights the details of the Discount assigned to the email (if a discount is applied)
• Live - create an more unique email experience by creating interactive content
• Media - give you a variety of media-focused layouts to pull rich images or link to a video
• Product - easily pulls in selected attributes from your active Products
• Separator - allows you to continue customizing the styling of your emails
• Social - helps you to create a multi-channel experience to keep your customers involved through your social media accounts
• Text - provides a variety of layouts to offer more details or create strong call-to-actions in your emails

Have an idea for a section type? Submit it as a suggestion!

Previewing your email, requesting feedback, and sending tests

With more recipients engaging with emails in varied ways, you'll want to be sure to preview your message with different device layouts and email clients.

To preview your message with different layouts, select the layout type in the message editor.

After you're comfortable with the design and content of your message, you can request feedback from a single stakeholder or send test emails to multiple addresses you configured in your Settings. While editing the message, select the choice from the Actions menu under your sections layout.