Creating a text-only email communication

You can use Deliver to create email messages that are formatted only as text. To create email that is delivered to the recipient in text format, you must work with a text-only template.

Before you begin

Before you begin, ensure that the template required to create the email is available in the Content Library of the Deliver Message Editor or on a shared server that you can access from your Deliver installation.

About this task

To create a text email, you specify Text as the content type and you add a text-only template. You must add a template to the email communication before you can save it.

You can use the drag-and-drop features available in the Message Editor to create and modify text-only email because Deliver supports defining configurable zones in text-only templates. You can add various content elements, including personalization fields, to text-only email. You can also embed personalization fields directly in a text-only template. However, you cannot use zones to add images to a text-only email.

Before you can use the text-only email communication with an Deliver mailing, you must configure the email header. You can also add content elements (except images) to the email according to your marketing requirements and the design of the template that you select for the email.

Procedure

  1. On the bottom of the Communications tab, click Create New Communication
    Create New Communication icon
    and select Create new email.
    A default communication displays in the editing pane.
  2. Right-click the tab of the default communication and select Rename. In the Properties window, assign a name to the communication.
    In the Properties window, you can specify a folder on the Communications tab where you want to save the email communication, or you can specify a folder later, when you save the communication.
  3. In the Content Type field, select Text.
  4. Click the click to select a template link. In the Select Template window, navigate to the text file that you want to use as a template.
    In the Select Template window, click a folder to display the folder contents. Click a file to display a preview of the template. Click Insert to add the template to the communication.
    The communication editor displays the email that is defined by the template that you select.
  5. Click Save Changes Save Changes icon.

    When you save your changes, the system presents an option to publish the email. Publishing the email makes it available for use in a mailing. However, you must configure the email address and subject before you can publish and use the email. If you do not fully configure the email address and subject, Deliver displays an error if you attempt to publish the email.

    When prompted to publish the email, click Cancel to save the email but not publish it. You can publish the communication after you configure the email address and subject.

What to do next

After you create the text-only email communication, do the following to use it in a mailing.

  • Configure the email header. Specifying a personalization field for email address is a minimum requirement.
  • Reference the communication to a mailing.
  • Edit the email message. If the template contains configurable zones, you can add hyperlinks, personalization fields, and text. You cannot add images or HTML snippets. However, text blocks can contain advanced scripts for email that you can use to display data tables and nested conditional content.
  • Define content display rules for zones that contain multiple content elements that are displayed conditionally.
  • Preview the email.
  • Publish the email. To be able to use the email in a mailing, you must publish it.