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Email Building Glossary
Email Building Glossary
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Written by Support
Updated over a year ago

Building and sending emails is critical to the success of every company's marketing program. Get to know the terms the Listrak team uses to describe the elements of building emails within the Listrak Platform.

Email Building Methods

When building an email Listrak offers three different methods for creating and displaying email creative.

  • Listrak Composer: Listrak's drag-and-drop editor is easy, quick, and intuitive to use. No HTML coding knowledge is required and you can easily incorporate many of Listrak's solutions directly in the Composer interface.

  • HTML: Listrak allows you to code directly in the platform or paste in HTML created outside of Listrak. The HTML editor supports all email-based HTML functionality.

  • Plain Text: Emails can be sent exclusively in plain text or plain text can be added to Composer or HTML emails. Plain text emails do not include any images and can be viewed on devices such as smart watches. Listrak can automatically generate plain text based on Composer or HTML content or you can write your own plain text copy.

Managing Images

  • Media Library: Listrak's internal media storage can house different image formats such as jpegs, pngs, and gifs as well as PDFs and other file formats. This media can then be referenced in an email to display the specified media. Images stored in the media library can be used in both Composer and HTML emails.

  • Image Source: In either Composer or HTML emails, specifying an image source utilizes an image stored outside of Listrak, for example directly on a website, to display images in an email.

Managing Content

  • Save As an Existing Email: The Save As button is located at the bottom of a previously saved email message. Saving As makes an exact copy of the email. All settings including subject line, analytics values, and message creative will be copied.

  • Templates: Templates are wireframes that are used to specify the layout and creative elements of an email. The specific properties of an element within a template can then be adjusted when creating a specific email. Templates are often used to maintain branding across email sends. For example, a template may contain a button with a specified font family, font size, and color that is then adjusted in a specific email to add the text and link that correspond to the email-specific content.

  • Saved Content: Saved Content is a section of email creative that can be used across multiple emails in both triggered and broadcast marketing emails. The section of the email will be identical in all emails. When saved content is updated in one location it will automatically be updated in all emails where it is included. Saved Content is used to create content that is critical to your brand, but does not change frequently, such as headers, footers, or standard free shipping details.

Message Statuses

  • Saved Email: A saved email includes the creative components, analytics, and filtering settings for a broadcast email. These messages may or may not have been sent to contacts. Saved emails may also include triggered messages (e.g. Welcome Series messages).

  • Scheduled Email: These emails have been created and will send to the contacts who meet the specified filters at the desired time. A scheduled message can be a one-time message or a recurring message on a set cadence (e.g. monthly recurring automated campaign).

  • Sent Email: These messages have been sent to at least one contact and will appear in Listrak's message analytics.

  • Test Send: A test send is a message sent to at least one contact, typically an internal contact, using the Send Test or Send Review function in the message creation experience. The performance of these messages can be shown or hidden in Listrak's message analytics.

Dynamic Elements

  • Dynamic Subject Lines: Dynamic subject lines change the subject line based on if a contact has a value in a profile field. Dynamic subject lines use liquid coding to determine which subject line contacts will receive.

  • Dynamic Content: Dynamic content changes a section of an email (e.g. main hero image) based on if a contact meets a specific filter. Dynamic Content uses Listrak's full suite of filtering criteria to determine which version contacts receive.

  • Product Recommendations Block: The product recommendations block inserts open-time optimized products into an email. A wide range of filtering and personalization options are available to customize the strategy for the products that appear for each contact.

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