When you were a new user getting confident with Act-On, you addressed, designed, reviewed, and sent a basic email with text, images, and a responsive design.
Now we'll talk about some advanced features to make your emails successfully engaging.
There are many options available in Act-On to design emails that speak your organization's language and brand while being sharp, friendly, professional, and engaging.
Email Templates
- Create your own email template in Act-On from scratch or from a draft email. See Create an Email Template
- The Act-On content catalog has ready-made email templates for you to use as-is or as a basis for your own design. See Content Catalog Email Templates
- Import your own email templates, if you designed your message outside of Act-On. See Importing Custom Email Templates
- Customize the 'blank message' (used when users create an email from scratch) to ensure all emails contain the content your organization needs. See Customizing the Blank Message
- Create folders to organize & control access to email templates in Content > Email Templates. For example, allow sales users access only to the templates they need. See Creating Folders for Email Templates
Branding & Content Reuse
Go to Content > Branding and add your organization's:
- Logos. See Add your Logo to your Emails
- Marketing domain Changing your Marketing Domain and Rebranding in Act-On
- A custom link in Act-On to a page your team accesses frequently, such as your company's homepage or CRM. This link displays at the bottom-left of the main Act-On navigation page.
Content reuse is key for consistent branding. See 7 Ways to Add Your Brand Identity to Act-On Emails with Content Re-Use
Also, see our use cases: "Controlling Your Brand" Beginners and Advanced Guides.
Personalize it!
Add personalization fields to the subject line and body of your emails to make your emails unique for each individual contact:
- Add contact personalization, such as their own name. See Use Personalization Fields in Emails
- Add a signature to show who the email is from & who to contact. See Create and Use Email Signatures
- Add sender personalization so, for example, your emails are coming from a specific person. See Using Sender Personalization Fields
- Use personalized 'from' addresses to automatically use your sales owner's contact information in your outbound messages. See Personalized From Addresses
- Add a personalized link, for example to an account owner's profile or a delivery tracker. See Add Personalized URLs to Email Messages
- Add a 'bulletproof button'; an attractive, personalized button with a visible Call to Action. See How to Add Bulletproof Buttons in Emails and Best Practices for CTA Buttons in Emails
- Add personalized images for each contact. See Inserting Images into Emails Using Personalization
- To make sure it all looks good, include fallback text (so your email still makes sense if personalization fields are missing data), and preview your personalizations. See Preview Email Personalizations
Also, see 8 Ways You Can Personalize Emails in Act-On.
Dynamic Content
Define entire sections of your message – including text, hyperlinks, and graphics – that will display differently for recipients depending on their profile attributes. This lets you send a single message to a particular list and still provide targeted information for each contact. See Creating Dynamic Content in Email Messages.
Maximize Deliverability
- Check your email's Spam Score in Act-On. See Check the Spam Score in an Outbound Message
- When spam filters see an HTML email without a plain text counterpart, it is more likely to be flagged as spam, so accompany your HTML email with a plain text version. See Generate a Plain Text Version of an Email Message
- Maintain a good sender reputation to maximize the deliverability of your emails, and learn about Blocklists
Also see How to Design an Act-On Email for Deliverability.
More Email Design Options
- If your contacts are going to want to engage quickly, for example, to get a limited offer, you can add a Form right in the email. See Adding a Form Link Block to an Email
- Find out your contact's preferences with multiple-choice survey questions in your email. See Using Multiple Choice Surveys in Emails
- If a specific font is used across your organization, you can Add a Custom Font to your Act-On Email
- If you want to add a video to your email design, use a link or a bulletproof button. See Can I add Video to my Act-On Emails?
- Provide links in your email for contacts to easily share on social media. See Adding Social Media Sharing to Emails
- Using an email header is considered standard practice for email marketing. Act-On provides a default header but you can build your own. See Create Custom Email Headers
- Create custom footers to match your branding. See Create Custom Email Footers
- If your email contains long-format content, such as a newsletter, you can use anchors to help readers quickly access what they want. See Using Anchors in Emails
- Set a Background Image for Text in an Email
- Give your contacts the option to opt-out. See How to Add an Opt-Out Link to an Email
- If you are creating multiple emails & want to maintain branding throughout, you may want to use custom HTML stationery to apply a theme to your emails. See Custom Stationery Overview
- If uploading HTML email designs to Act-On, use inline styling. See Why you should use inline styling for your email designs and 8 Ways to Customize HTML and CSS in Email Designs
Also see: