How to use the email editor

Feel free to use the shortcut menu to navigate the content of this article.

1. Create a new email

Whether you're creating an email for an automation or a broadcast, you'll have 3 options to get started:

1. Start from scratch — you’ll need to type the text, format it, and add visuals and buttons to the email from scratch, without using a template.

2. Use premade emails — you can use pre-designed email templates from the gallery.

All templates can be edited to your taste.

3. Reuse my emails — you’ll use one of the emails you have created in Getsitecontrol.

You can choose from the emails you have recently created, or select one of the templates you have previously saved:

Let’s take a closer look at the editing options now 👇

Text formatting options

In the top-left corner, you’ll find all the text formatting options available:

To apply any of the following stylistic changes, make sure to select the necessary piece of text first. Follows a detailed description of each one of these controls. Feel free to skip to the next section if their functioning is obvious to you.

Use the Style menu to create headings of 3 levels, quotes, and notes to better organize your email.

Click the B button to make the text bold, the I button to italicize the text, and the U button to underline the text.

The Link button allows you to attach a link to a piece of text:

Use the A button to change the color of the text and its background (the latter creates an effect of highlighted text):

Use the Alignment options to align the text to the left, center, and right sides respectively.

The last two buttons from this section Bulleted Numbered allow you to create a bullet list and a numbered list.

Let’s move on to the buttons on the right side of the screen.

Visual elements of the email

The controls in this section allow you to add visual elements to your email, namely:

• Images and GIFs
• CTA buttons
• Coupon boxes
• Dividers
• Countdown timers (Pro plans only)
• Product cards (Pro plans only)

Below is a more in-depth description of these options.

💡 If you’re using a template that already features any of these elements, just click on them to open their settings or delete them.

Image

Select Image to add an image or a GIF to your email. You can choose one from the built-in gallery or upload a creative from your device.

To resize the image or GIF, drag the arrows in the bottom right corner.

In the settings, you can also assign a specific URL to the image click. This is a good idea if you’re featuring a product and want people to land on the product page if they click on the image.

Shopify

If you’re a user of our Shopify app, you’ll be able to assign 3 more actions to the image click: Buy now, Add to cart, and Apply discount:

If you select Buy now or Add to cart, you can choose a product variant from your store and let your customers start their shopping journey right from the inbox. You can also apply an automatic discount to the click:

If you select Apply discount, you’ll need to select the discount code that will be applied to the cart upon click, and decide where you want to redirect your customers: your store’s Homepage, the Checkout page, or the Cart page:

The following controls allow you to align the image to the left, center, or right side of the email and adjust the top and bottom paddings:

Button (call-to-action)

Select Button to add a CTA button taking the recipients to the URL of your choice:

Shopify

If you’re on Shopify, you’ll be able to assign 3 more actions to the button click: Buy now, Add to cart, and Apply discount:

If you select Buy now or Add to cart, you can choose a product variant from your store and let your customers start their shopping journey right from the inbox. You can also apply an automatic discount to the click:

If you select Apply discount, you’ll need to select the discount code that will be applied to the cart upon click, and decide where you want to redirect your customers:

When you’re done setting up the action, style the button to match the design and color palette of your email:

Coupon box

Coupon boxes (Coupon) allow you to conveniently display discount coupon codes. You can add one to your email and use the settings to customize its color, shape, alignment, and paddings:

Divider

Dividers Divider allow you to break your email content into sections.

For example, if you want to visually separate your email's signature, a divider will help you do that.

You can position dividers wherever you prefer and change their color, size, width, style, and paddings:

Countdown timer (Pro feature)

❗This feature is only available for Pro and Pro Max users.

The countdown feature (Timer) lets you add a countdown timer to your email. Use it to add a sense of urgency to your offers or create hype for an event (e.g. start of a promo, launch of a new product or store, etc.).

The first control lets you choose between an evergreen timer and a fixed-date timer.

The evergreen timer starts the countdown when the email lands in the recipient's inbox; it counts down the number of hours or days you’ve set up.

The fixed-date timer will display the time remaining until a date and time of your choosing.

Use Captions to rewrite the time units if your subscribers’ language is different from English.

Choose among 4 different styles for your countdown timer:

Change the font to match it with the style of the rest of your email:

Use the following two sections to change the color theme ( 1 ) and align the countdown timer to the right, center, or left sides of the email ( 2 ):

Use the last control on the panel to adjust the top and bottom paddings:

Product cards (Pro feature)

❗This feature is only available for Pro and Pro Max users.

Product cards let you display shoppable cards featuring your products in your emails. Here’s what they look like:

💡 Physical products aren’t the only use case for cards. You can also use product cards to feature blog articles, services, upcoming events, and anything else.

Click the +Add product link to add new cards. Next, enter the link you want to assign to the card, select an image, and enter your product details:

Shopify

If you’re on Shopify, you’ll be able to select a product directly from your store’s database:

This will save you time because the product details will be fetched from the store.

Also, you’ll be able to assign 3 different actions to the CTA button: Open product page, Buy now, and Add to cart:

If you select Buy now or Add to cart, you’ll also be able to automatically apply a discount code of your choosing (among the ones that are currently active on your store):

Once you’ve added all the products, proceed to style your cards using the controls on the right panel:

Choose the number of columns per row and select an image ratio: square images, portrait images, or the original image format:

Align the text of the cards to one side or center it:

Choose a shape for the buttons:

Choose the color theme and adjust the top and bottom paddings:

This concludes the list of visual elements you can add to your email. Now let’s move on to the email display settings.

Email display settings

Using the menu on the right, you’ll be able to edit the following elements of your email:

• Subject
• Preview
• Sender ( From )
• Contact email address ( Reply-to address )
• Preheader
• Header
• Footer

This is what the Sender, Subject, and Preview will look like in your subscribers’ inbox:

The Reply-to address is the address where the recipients will be able to send their responses.

The Preheader is the section above the email itself. In Getsitecontrol, it features a View in browser link and an optional message.

The link to the web version of the email is useful in case your recipient’s email client displays the email incorrectly. However, it’s possible to disable the preheader if you don’t want to display it.

The Header is the section at the very top of the email:

The header settings will allow you to:

• create a menu featuring links to your web pages
• display your brand’s logo
• adjust the paddings
• change the color theme
• adjust the thickness of the divider.

If you don’t want a header in your email, you can simply disable it.