How to Create an Email Using the Drag and Drop Editor

Drag & Drop Editor Updated on May 13, 2022

Create emails effortlessly with our Drag and Drop editor. Each section of your email can be customized to fit your company’s brand. Select a pre-designed template, create an email from scratch, or if you’d like to use an email you created in the past select from the Past Emails templates.

All emails created with our Drag and Drop editor are designed using HTML, if you need to create an email using custom HTML code, Benchmark also offers a Code Editor. To learn more about the Code Editor, click here.

For a video tutorial on how to use the Drag and Drop editor, please watch the video below.

 

To create an email using the Drag and Drop Editor, follow the steps below:

 

1. Log in to your Benchmark account. From the Dashboard menu, click the Emails tab and select Emails.

2. Click on the Create New Email option, and select Regular Email type and click Next.

3. Choose the Drag & Drop Editor and click Next.
4. Give your email a name. This is for identifying your email. Your contacts will not see this. Click Next.

Below we explain each section of the email checklist:

• Design
• To
• From
• Subject
• Link Tracking & Sharing
• Send Email

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Design

 

This step comes directly after giving your email a name. If you are returning to the email checklist, open this section by clicking on the Design Email option. Once the Editor is open, you can create or edit your email.

On the Layouts page, select an email layout to create your email. Choose from one of the following options:

Blank Layouts

Start your email from scratch, build new email sections and add or remove content blocks. Blank layouts provide a visual of the column layout possibilities.

Templates

The pre-made templates have email sections and blocks within the email, all you need to do is customize them with your images, text, and color schemes. In addition, Email Templates have something for every occasion, including integration templates, and multi-language email templates.

Past Emails

The Past Emails option will include previous email templates you’ve created and saved. Click on the List View icon to see the created date or last modified date of a past email.

5. After choosing an email layout, you can begin editing your email. The email is divided into sections and blocks that can be managed individually. Add or remove sections and move the blocks by dragging and dropping the block to the desired location on the email. The email’s background colors can be changed in the Global Styles tab.

 

6. When you are done, click Save or select Save & Next.
   • You can Save your email and come back to finish it at any time.
   • If you clicked Save and Next, on the next page, complete your Email Checklist. When completing the Email Checklist, each section has to be saved before moving on to another section.

 

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To

 

From the dropdown, select the contact list you would like to email. You can also exclude a list to prevent contacts from receiving your email, even if they are on a selected send list.

 

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From

 

Add a From Name your contacts will recognize, like your company name. The from name is displayed to the contact as the sender. Next, select a From Email address; use your company or business domain instead of a personal email address for best results. If you do not see an email address you’d like to use, add a new one. Here you can also set a different Reply Email address.

 

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Subject

 

Add your email’s subject line. To learn how to write an effective subject line, click here. You can click on the Emoji Support link where we briefly explain the use of emojis on a subject line. Click the light bulb icon for subject line suggestions!

Preview Text: This text appears in the inbox after your subject line.

AB Test Subject Line: To Enable AB Testing, toggle the slider from gray to blue. Test with two different subject lines to see which one is better, then set the testing period and the sample group size.

 

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Link Tracking & Sharing

 

To enable tracking or content options, click on edit or directly in the Link Tracking & Sharing box, this will open the section and allow you to enable the following.

 

Google Analytics: This is used to track site visitors. You will need to have Google Analytics set up on your website to use this feature.

Auto-post your email to a Facebook business page. Click on the dropdown to select a Facebook Business page. If you have not yet connected your Benchmark account with your Facebook Page, you’ll need to follow the integration steps on the page. Or you can integrate at a later time. To learn more about the Auto-post Emails to Facebook integration, click here.

Automatically tweet your email on Twitter: Enable this option if you’d like to post the email to your Twitter account automatically. To learn more about our Twitter integration, click here.

Benchmark’s public Community: You can add your email to the Benchmark Community to be viewed by other Benchmark clients.

Benchmark Archive: Add your email to your archive. The Email Archive can store all emails selected, and a URL is provided.

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Send Email

 

When you are ready to send or schedule your email, click on the Schedule or Send Immediately option on the top right. The Send Immediately and the Schedule option are only clickable once all sections are checked off.

• • Send Immediately: The email will go out within the next 10 minutes. Click Send Immediately to confirm.
  • Schedule: This option enables you to schedule your email for a later time. Select the date, time, timezone, and click on Schedule when done.

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Emails Text Version

 

When copying content from another source to the Drag & Drop Editor, you could be bringing unwanted characters. On some occasions, this could disrupt the HTML to Text sync. If your HTML and Text versions aren’t synced you’ll see a message like this in your email checklist: Your email’s HTML version isn’t synced with its plain text version.

Here is how to update your email’s Text Version. We recommend doing this once your Email has been finalized.

1. Go to your email’s Design, from the Email’s Checklist page.
2. Then, click on the View Text Version option.

3. Now, click on the Copy Text From HTML Email option.

4. Confirm, by clicking Continue.

 

If you have questions, please feel free to contact our support team via Email, LiveChat, or Phone.

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