This article is for Emma's HQ accounts and provides instructions for using the legacy Template Builder.
Ⓘ Available to Emma HQ accounts
With a tiered account like Emma HQ, you have access to a suite of extra assets and advanced marketing tools including the Template Builder, image sharing, document sharing, and campaign sharing. If you have a Teams or Corporate account, or if you are looking for instructions for using the new drag and drop Template Builder, please refer to this article.
How the Template Builder works
The Template Builder lets you customize a template’s components using the same controls that the legacy editor uses to build the campaigns in your account. It’s easy to drag in new content blocks, update the header or footer, change the background colors, and much more.
When using the Template Builder, it's helpful to think of templates as a piece of stationery; then any campaign you create is content that you're placing on top of your template or writing on that stationery. Once complete, you can share the template with any of your subaccounts.
One thing to remember about working at the parent account level is that you can upload images and documents to the Brand Manager and then share them with your designated subaccounts. This means when you upload a document to your Brand Manager document library, you can choose which subaccounts should see the documents in their library, or you can also link to a document in a shared campaign or template without adding that document to the subaccount library.
About the legacy Template Builder
Now that the new editor is live, you will see that all of your saved templates are labeled accordingly with ‘LEGACY’ or ‘EDITOR’. Moving forward, you will only be able to create new templates using the new drag and drop editor. But you can rest assured that whenever you reopen or copy any of your previously saved legacy templates you will still have access to the legacy Template Builder to continue working on them.
This article provides instructions for using the legacy Template Builder. For information on how to create and edit your templates in the new drag and drop editor, please refer to this article.
Watch a quick video tutorial on template building and locking in your HQ account
Where to find shared templates and campaigns
When subaccount users are ready to create a new campaign, they will find any templates or campaigns that have been shared with them in the following places:
- Campaigns that have been created with the Campaign Builder and shared can be found in the Shared tab of the subaccount's Campaigns page.
- Templates that have been shared from the Brand Manager can be found in the Shared Templates section of subaccount’s Template Gallery.
How to access a legacy template using the Template Builder
- Click on Brand Manager in the top left navigation menu of your account and you'll see tabs for Style guide, Templates, Campaigns, Images, and Documents.
- Click on the Templates tab.
- Select one of your previously saved legacy templates to edit.
How to edit and share a legacy template
Here, you'll be able to use the legacy editor to edit your existing legacy template. You'll be able to see the menu of template features that are editable at the Brand Manager level, i.e. background color.
By default, all elements of the templates created in the Brand Manager are unlocked, but you can lock them if you don't want your subaccounts to be able to edit them.
In the examples above and below, the background color has been changed and a sidebar was added to the template at the Brand Manager level.
When a subaccount opens this template to build a mailing, they won't see the options along the top of the editor to edit those template features. Instead, the subaccount users will see that all existing content blocks in the template are locked (as noted by the lock icon next to Saved). They will be able to drag in and edit new content blocks but will not have access to edit the blocks that were added before the template was locked.
The locking feature is a great way to provide your subaccounts with a template that has some pre-loaded content to use as a starting point, allowing them to further customize each mailing using that template.
When using the legacy editor, you can also switch to see the code view for any saved legacy templates, if needed.
Once you're happy with your template, click the arrow next to the Save button and choose Save & share.
On the next page, select which subaccounts you'd like to share the template with. You can select one subaccount, several subaccounts, or check the box to select all current and future subaccounts. Any subaccounts that you select here will be able to see this template as an option when building a new campaign.
Click Save at the top-right when your selections are made.
*SPECIAL NOTE: As of April 2022, Emma's legacy editor has been replaced with a new drag and drop editor. You will still have access to the legacy editor from your previously saved templates and campaigns, you just won’t be able to create any new legacy campaigns, only campaigns using the new drag and drop editor.
To help differentiate, all new campaigns you create or templates that you save will be labeled with 'EDITOR' and all existing campaigns or templates built with the legacy editor will be labeled with 'LEGACY'. This means that you will be able to access both the current drag and drop editor and the legacy editor in your account, it'll just depend on which editor you created the campaign or template in. While the two editors will coexist in this manner for some time, the change to the new drag and drop editor in your account is permanent and cannot be reversed. Please refer to our new editor FAQ article for more information.