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Adding a Template

Add Your Message Template is the wizard step that decides what recipients receive. Two paths are offered:

PathButtonWhat it does
Use a Saved TemplateBrowse TemplatesApplies a template from the Templates library, read only
Build Your OwnStart BuildingOpens the editor for the campaign's channel and builds a template in the campaign

Both paths produce a template the campaign sends. The difference is where the content is maintained: a saved template is maintained once in the library and reused, and a template built here belongs to this campaign alone.

Browsing Saved Templates​

Browse Templates lists the templates that match the campaign's delivery channel. An SMS campaign is never offered an email template, and the reverse. A search field narrows the list by name.

Each template card has two actions:

  • Preview opens the template in a modal, at the size it will send, and the template can be applied from inside the modal.
  • Select applies the template directly, without previewing it first.

Campaigners cannot open the Templates library itself. If nothing in the list fits, either build a template in the campaign or ask a Campaign Manager or an administrator to add one to the library.

An Applied Template Is Read Only​

Once a saved template is applied, its content cannot be edited from inside the campaign. Everything except the test data fields is locked, so the content the library holds is the content the campaign sends.

The header above the template shows:

  • The template name, so the source is obvious at a glance.
  • A Read Only badge.
  • Preview, which reopens the full size preview.
  • Change Template, which returns to browsing.
  • A line noting that the template is managed in Templates, with a link that clears it so you can build your own instead.

Test data stays editable because it belongs to the campaign rather than the template. It fills the template's variables in the preview and in test sends, and never reaches a recipient. See Variables and Default Values for how a variable resolves when a contact has no value for it.

A template can carry a brand, and a brand can fix the sender its messages go out from. See Applying a Brand.

Where that sender is later cleared from the brand, the templates using it are left without one. A campaign on a saved template in that state cannot be saved, and no run can be created from it, until a Campaign Manager or an administrator sets a sender on the template in the library. See A saved template with no sender.

Clearing or Changing a Template​

ActionWhat happens
ClearThe campaign returns to the choice between a saved template and building your own. Any test data entered is discarded
Change TemplateBrowsing reopens, and a confirmation is shown before the new template replaces the current one. Test data is discarded

Both actions discard test data for the same reason: the fields follow the template's variables, and a different template has different variables. Note down anything you want to reuse before swapping.

A Template That No Longer Exists​

If the applied template is deleted from the library while the campaign still refers to it, the template header changes to a distinct variant that flags the problem. The content is still displayed, so you can see what the campaign was set up to send, but the campaign cannot be saved until the template step is resolved.

Two ways out: apply a different saved template with Change Template, or clear it and build a template in the campaign.

Runs created before the template was deleted are unaffected. A run keeps its own copy of the template it was created with, so it sends what it was prepared with regardless of what happens in the library afterwards.

Building Your Own​

Start Building opens the editor for the campaign's channel: the plain text editor for SMS, or the design or code editor for email. The editor works the same way it does in the library, and the result is saved with the campaign rather than added to the library.

What the campaign can personalise depends on the audience:

AudienceVariables offered
All Contacts or a SegmentEvery contact field, reserved and custom, held against a contact
FileThe columns mapped as Template Values on the file

A dynamic audience draws its values from the contact record at send time, so a variable resolves to whatever that contact holds when the run starts. See Contact Fields for what is available and Choosing an Audience for the sources.