You can edit both the look of the marketing email and the contents of the message.  When editing the content of your email, you can edit the plain text or the HTML content.  You can edit as you create, or you can create a campaign and edit it later.  

Once you've created your campaign or several campaigns, you may have a need to go back to one and edit it, either to resend it as is or to have an edited, ready-to-go custom template for a future campaign. All of your campaigns can be found in the list of campaigns, available from the Email Marketing Campaigns menu. That list is a data table and can be manipulated like all the other data tables in your RescueGroups.org account. If you need a refresher on how to use data tables, check out the chapter How information is organized in your account.

You can edit the "look and feel" of the email, meaning the font size, colors, and width. You can edit the contents of the email using HTML or as plain text.

• Click Edit HTML Email Look & Feel to change the colors and fonts used in the campaign.  The campaign HTML Part Builder tool opens to the Look & Feel section.
  
  
  The ColorPicker icons allow you to easily select a new color and apply it to the chosen portion of the email. The current color for the portion of the email you are changing is displayed in a field beneath the color picker, and different color options are displayed to the right as your cursor moves along the color spectrum. For instructions about changing a color for your email campaign, see the section below, Changing the colors in an email.
  
  
• Click Edit HTML Email Contents to change the text and images in your email campaign. Each section of the email can be edited separately.  For instructions on editing the HTML contents, see the section below, Editing the HTML contents.
  
  
  Once you open an area of content, the WYSIWYG editor you notice elsewhere in your account is available. The familiar bold, italic, and underline buttons, as well as the text and highlight colors are to the left, and the styles and font selector are to the right. 
  
  

In addition, you can use HTML variables to enhance your content, such as {SALUTATION/} {FIRSTNAME/} {LASTNAME/} which inserts a greeting, such as "Happy holidays" and the first and last name of the recipient.

Uploading and adding images for your email marketing campaigns

1. Buttons at the top of the editor enable you to upload an image or file to your website to use in your campaign. Once the images are uploaded to your website, you can select them to import into your email.
2. Click the Upload an Image button from the top menu bar.
3. Choose File button to browse your images for the one you want to use.
4. Enter a name for the image beneath the selected image file.  Both the upload file and upload image popup boxes say "Choose File."  However, once you open the image upload popup, you'll see the heading, Upload a Web Image.

Here's an animation showing the process:

When you've uploaded the image to your website, you can add it to an email marketing campaign:

1. Open the WYSIWYG editor.
2. Select the image icon from the menu at the top of the page.
3. Scroll down to the field labeled Image List. 
4. From the list of your uploaded images, select the image you want to include.
5. Add alternative text, if desired. (Alternative text is the text that a sight-impaired user will hear read to them when they use a reading program.)
6. Click the green OK button.
   Here's an animation of the process of adding an image to your email:
   
   
   
   

Uploading and adding files for your email marketing campaign

Adding a file to your email marketing campaign is very similar to adding an image. In this case, files are attached to the email and not embedded in the text. Therefore, you may want to bring attention to the attached file.

Saving or not saving changes

At the bottom of the editing page, there is a button to preview the current section of your email or to cancel it. Once your changes are implemented, you can also click Preview Email from the campaign page to see the entire email.

You can save the changes you made to your campaign, or, if you have second thoughts, you can discard the changes and start again.

Undoing changes

At any time you can click Undo Changes and the preview will discard your unsaved changes and reload with the saved Look & Feel settings.

Discarding changes

If you decide not to save your changes, click the link  Click to discard unsaved contents.  Your changes will be available to you until you decide to either save your changes or discard them.

Leaving your changes unsaved

You can leave the page and come back later.  Your unsaved changes will be waiting for you.

Changing the colors in an email

To change the colors in the email:

1. Select the colors for the background and fonts. 
   If you know the hexadecimal color code, enter it in the appropriate field (#ffffff). 
   If you do not know the hexadecimal code, click the multicolored squares to open the ColorPicker and select a color.
2. Select the font family and size.
3. Click Refresh Preview at any time to view your changes in the Preview area below.
4. When done, click Save Changes.

Editing the HTML contents

To change the text in the message, click the Edit HTML Email Contents button.

Select the part of the email message you want to change:

• Click Header Content, Main Content, or Footer Content to edit the contents of each of those sections of your email. 

For this example, we clicked Header Content.

1. Edit the content by typing in the editor (the green area in our example)
2. Format your text using the icons in the editor.
3. You can also Upload an Image or File by clicking the buttons Upload an Image or Upload a File.
   
   

Previewing the campaign

When you're done making changes to your campaign, click Preview at the bottom of the page to see your changes.

After reviewing your content, click Back to Campaign.

When you've completed your changes, remember to click Save Changes.  This step makes the changes permanent.

You can send yourself (or anyone else) a test email marketing campaign email. See the chapter Sending a test marketing campaign email.