Custom email template design made easy

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Make basic and required settings

After choosing a template, a new email message opens showing the initial content from your selected template. We recommend that you start by making a few basic and required settings for the message. You can also wait until later to update these settings, if you prefer.

Enter a name for the message

Each email message must have a name, which identifies the message when you’re looking at the list view or when selecting messages to include in a customer journey. To enter a name, select the Email name field on the left side of the header and enter a name for your new message.

Enter a subject for the message

Enter a subject for your message by selecting Add a subject in the email header section at the top of the page and filling in the Subject field inside the Email header pane. This is a very important setting because this is one of the first things recipients will see when they receive the email, and they may use this to decide whether to read the message.

You can also add a preheader, which shows up next to or below the subject line in the recipient’s inbox. Preheader allows you to create custom text that displays in your recipient’s inbox before they open the email message. The preheader is your chance to create a line that grabs the recipient’s attention as soon as they see your message.

Other important settings

• Send settings
  • To address: This must contain an expression for finding each address the message will be sent to. This should almost always be the dynamic expression provided by default, which is > .
  • From address: This is the email address for the person who sends the message. This is the default email address set for your organization in the Admin settings. The domain shown here should be authenticated as belonging to your organization, which can dramatically impact deliverability.
  • From name: This is the name that recipients will see as the sender when they receive the message. This is the default from name set for your organization in the Admin settings. Recipients are more likely to open your message if they see a name they recognize here.
  • Reply-to address: The email address that reply messages are sent to when you want the messages to go to a different email address than the from address.

  Add standard, required, and specialized links to your message

  Marketing messages are delivered as HTML and therefore support hyperlinks. Some types of links provide access to special features that are hosted by Dynamics 365 Marketing, whereas others can simply be standard links to content anywhere on the web. A subscription center link is required before any commercial message can pass the error check and go live, but other links are optional, so you can use them only as needed.

  URL: You can add standard links to any text content by highlighting the link text and selecting Link on the text toolbar. You can also add link URLs to many other types of design elements, including images and buttons. When your message goes live, Dynamics 365 Marketing replaces each link with a unique redirect URL that targets your Dynamics 365 Marketing server and identifies the message recipient, message ID, and the destination you specified for the link. When a contact clicks a link, Dynamics 365 Marketing logs the click and then forwards the contact directly to the URL you specified.

  Event, Teams check-in, marketing page, or survey: These links go to an event website, Teams check-in, marketing page, or a survey. You can add them as text links in a text element, or as colorful call-to-action buttons or images. To create a button, drag an event, survey, or landing-page element to your email design and then configure which item the element should link to. To create a text link, select some text in a text element, and then use the personalization feature.

  Subscription center (required): All marketing commercial email messages must include a link to a subscription center. A subscription center includes mailing lists available from your organization, including an option for contacts to opt out of all marketing emails. Contacts might also be able to update their contact details here. Dynamics 365 Marketing includes a standard subscription center, which you can edit to contain your subscription lists and to reflect your graphical identity (you can also create additional pages to support multiple subscription options, languages, or brands).

  You can add a subscription center link to your page or email manually by highlighting the link text and selecting Link on the text toolbar, and then using the personalization feature to select the subscription center URL from the content settings.

  Forward to a friend: This type of link opens a form that contacts can use to forward a marketing email to their own friends or colleagues by entering recipients’ email addresses. It’s a good idea to include this type of service for your contacts because messages forwarded by using the forward form are counted correctly in your email results and analytics (messages forwarded by using a contact’s local email client forward feature won’t be registered in Dynamics 365 Marketing, and all message opens and clicks performed by the recipients who were forwarded the message will be credited to the original recipient). A forward-to-a-friend page ID can be included in each set of content settings, but none is provided out of the box, so you must create a forwarding page and add it to your content settings to use this feature. You add a forward-to-a-friend link to your page by highlighting the link text and selecting Link on the text toolbar, and then using the personalization feature to select the subscription center URL from the content settings.

  View as a web page: This link opens the marketing email message in a web browser. Some recipients will find this useful if their standard email client is having trouble rendering the message. You add this link to your page by highlighting the link text, selecting Link on the text toolbar, and then using the personalization feature to select the view-as-webpage URL from the message object.

  But wait; you still need to test!

  All of the free email templates above are designed to give you a leg up and save you time when it comes to creating beautiful, effective messages. But even if you use the highest-quality template, you’ll still need to test your email.

  Why? Because even the smallest change to the code could cause issues when rendering your email on different browsers and devices. But don’t worry; the testing process doesn’t have to be time-consuming either!

  With Email on Acid, you can quickly preview your email on popular clients and devices so you know that it looks great for each and every subscriber. Plus, you can easily share your email design with clients and stakeholders, review the design for accessibility, and more!

  Even Great Emails Need to Be Tested

  It’s true: Even well-designed emails can break from time to time. That’s why email testing is an important part of sending a successful campaign. Email on Acid tests your email code quickly and accurately, allowing you to preview your design across dozens of the most popular email clients and devices. Try us free and start delivering email perfection!

  

  Author: The Email on Acid Team

  The Email on Acid content team is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and straight-up email geeks. Connect with us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more sweet stuff and great convos on email marketing.

  

  Author: The Email on Acid Team

  The Email on Acid content team is made up of digital marketers, content creators, and straight-up email geeks. Connect with us on LinkedIn, follow us on Facebook, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for more sweet stuff and great convos on email marketing.

  Email Marketing Design Must-Haves

  #1: Choose Complementary Colors and Fonts

  You can incorporate (and should use, for recognition) your brand colors in your emails. However, a simple, clean template is essential for readability. For example, use a dark color for your text against a white background for the body of an email, and white text on a darker color for a CTA button. Free tools like Are My Colours Accessible? help you ensure your content is visible to all people, not just those with 20/20 vision and the ability to distinguish between more colors.

  From basic HTML to more complex templates, choose complementary, yet contrasting text and background colors. Then, choose web-safe fonts — such as Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, and Times New Roman — that typically render correctly across the web and devices from different brands. Unless you’re working with an established email marketing design team, save the JavaScript for other web projects; you may want to keep your emails on the simpler side.

  Choose Your Colors Wisely: Your Email’s Legibility Depends on It

  

  #2: Pick Your Visual Elements Wisely

  Including graphics, photos, or other visuals is a good way to make your email engaging, and they can be interesting for your readers. Your templates and emails shouldn’t contain too many animated GIFs, however, and no auto-play audio elements.

  You don’t want to overwhelm your reader or distract them from your message. Additionally, you don’t want to slow down or complicate how the email loads by adding too many moving parts (literally). An email that won’t display properly, has sections of its copy cut off, or otherwise might get flagged as spam doesn’t do your business any good.

  Put in the visual elements, then send test versions of the email to multiple dummy accounts to make sure it renders perfectly. A better alternative is to use email preview tools to see how your message renders in different apps and devices. Either method is a necessary step in creating an email and helps you make sure your email recipients see your messages exactly how you intended.

  Resources:

  https://99designs.com/email-design
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/marketing/email-design
  https://esputnik.com/en/blog/how-create-email-footer-design-best-practices-and-examples
  https://www.emailonacid.com/blog/article/email-development/600_free_email_templates/
  https://www.salesforce.com/products/marketing-cloud/best-practices/email-design-best-practices/