What is an email template?
Your Carma email template is the base for your email communications. Using the template, you can easily edit your email, adding, changing or deleting content, while retaining the framework of the template.
A Carma template consists of different building blocks, which in turn contain different elements. For example, a block might have an image element on the right and text elements such as a header, body text and a link on the left. The selection of blocks you can choose from depends on what your chosen standard template provides, or how you have chosen to compose your customer unique template.
So, your email template defines the basic design that is the starting point for all email communications you create with the template. We help you to set up a basic template, and based on that, you can easily create different project templates using Carma, deciding what content from your basic template you want to use in different email projects. We modify your Carma workspace so you can easily handle all your email content elements, such as text, images, links, RSS flows and so on.
You don’t need any prior technical knowledge to be able to understand the interface of Carma’s template editor. You simply drag the block you want to use into the template and then change the contents of the block until you’re satisfied. Which blocks you use in any given communication is completely up to you.
How flexible can a template be?
Before we tell you more about how very flexible Carma’s templates are, we want to mention that designing for email is a little different. The possibilities and limitations of email design are subject to the ways different email clients show email content. There are rather large variations here, so it’s a good idea to gear your design and functionality to as large a majority as possible. Read more about this in possibilities and limitations in email templates.
Regardless of how many different email projects you have planned, you can often base them on one basic template. Since you can specify the options in your basic template, and how these options are spread out between different blocks, it’s easy to use the drag-and-drop Carma editor to choose the blocks you need for each specific project. Once you’ve created a certain type of message, such as a newsletter, you can simply save it as a new template and use it as the base for your next newsletter. In this way, a basic template with many different options can work perfectly for all your communication project needs.
Examples of factors that are decided by the template’s framework:
• The width of your email
• What the blocks consist of
• How text and images are presented in different blocks
• Style of different headers
• Style of linked text
• Style of bullet point lists
• What external data can be brought into the email (RSS, XML etc.)
Choose a Carma template or design your own
If you do not have any specific requirements as to what your email template should contain, or what functionality it should support, we provide ready-made standard templates – our Carma templates. Regardless of whether you choose a Carma template or a customer unique template, you will have a very flexible base to work from. Our basic training teaches you how to work with the templates.
The section below outlines the different possibilities available with a Carma template and a customer unique template.
What is a Carma template?
A Carma template is a standardized template, where email width and block function and content are pre-defined. If you’re not certain how to design your template, or if you simply have no need for a tailor-made template, the Carma templates provide great options for creating dynamic emails.
The different types
The Carma template comes in three different types. When purchasing a Carma template, you choose one of these types.
Click here to see which blocks and graphic elements are included in the template types.
The Carma template includes a version adapted for mobile phones.
Read more about mobile Make your email marketing mobile.
Customer unique templates
If you have specific requirements regarding how you want your template to look and what functions it should support, Compost can create a tailor-made template for you based on your design. You provide a sketch of what options you want your basic template to contain, and our design team helps you put it all together.
If you want a mobile version of your template, we can provide this too. By adding this feature, you will be able to create specially adapted versions of your emails to be read on IOS based smartphones. All you need to do is sketch a design for how you want your emails to look on a mobile phone, and Compost’s designer team will make it happen. Read more on mobile emails here.
Another kind of customer unique template is the responsive template. A responsive template provides the same content regardless of the type of device used to open the email, but the presentation of the email varies according to device.