Creating Emails

Video 6. How To use the Drag And Drop Email Builder To Create Blocks?

After you have decided if you want to create a follow up or broadcast message you may have some questions on how our drag & drop message editor works.

Our editor is best described as a block editor where you click and drag various blocks for the different elements that you may want to place in your message. Instructions on how to drag and drop these blocks can be found below along with information on what each of the blocks does.

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First, to access the "Drag & Drop Email Builder" you will want to hover your mouse over the arrow to the right of either the "Create A Broadcast" button or the "Create A Follow Up" button. From the drop down menu that appears, click on the "Drag & Email Builder" option.

First, you'll want to edit the subject line of your message.

Once you go to create a message you will see the various blocks for the different types of elements that you can drag into your message.

The first thing you will want to do is decide what elements you will want to place in your message. Below you will see how to actually drag and drop these blocks and further down the page you can see what each of the blocks actually does.

How do I drag and drop an element block?

To drag and drop a block all you will need to do is simply click and hold your mouse button on the block that you want to place in your message. As you go to select the block it will change color to let you know that it is selected. In this example we will go to insert an image block into our message (notice how the block changed to a blue color once it was selected).

Continue to hold down your mouse button and drag the block over into your message. Once you have found where you want the block placed into your message make sure there is a perforation around the block being dropped in before letting go of the mouse button to drop it. The perforated area will indicate that you are dropping the block in the desired area.

Once the block is dropped in, you can proceed to edit that block by clicking on it. You can add images between different element blocks in the editor.

Note: You can hide the blue tabs for each block by holding down "Option + Command" on a Mac or "Alt + Win" on a PC.

You can move the position of a block in your message by clicking and holding down the Move tab. You'll see the original placement of your block in grey, and the new position will be indicated with a blue line.

What do the various blocks do?

There are 12 different blocks for various elements that you can place in your message. How these blocks are placed will help you with developing a layout for your content. Below you will find explanations on what each of these blocks do as well as examples of how the blocks look after they are dragged into the message.

Note: The blocks will grey out and you will see a text editing toolbar above the blocks whenever you are using a block that contains text. Blocks that can have text are the Headline, Paragraph, Article, Product, Coupon, or Signature blocks. So you can customize the text and insert links into those blocks in the areas where you can type text.

The "Headline" block creates a headline for your messages. Simply click on the block once you've placed it to edit the text.

The "Paragraph" block creates a block of text. Again, just click to edit the text once you've placed the paragraph block.

The "Article" block creates a headline, a text area, and a "read more" link. Click the text to edit it, and set the URL of the link in the window to the right. Some templates may include an image as well - if that's the case, you can edit the image via the window to the right as well.

The "Image" block allows you to insert an image into your message. The window to the right allows you to upload an image directly to AWeber or enter the URL of the image you'd like to display. You can also have the image link to another page when clicked, and provide the text that will appear when someone hovers their cursor over the image.

The "Button" block creates a clickable button. To the right, you can change the URL the button is linked to or replace the button with another image.

The "Follow Me" block adds buttons to allow readers to follow you on Facebook and Twitter - simply add the social media accounts using the window to the right.

The "Product" block creates an image which you can replace with an image of your product, along with text for the product's name, description, and price. Finally, it comes with a button that can take customers to your order page. The image and button can be edited via the right side window.

The "Coupon" block is ideal for special offers or discounts, with a text area and a dashed border (think a cut-out coupon) by default. On the right, you can add a background color or change the border.

Similar to the "Image" block, the Logo block inserts an image, but automatically loads your logo if you've set one up on the "List Settings" page.

The "Signature" block adds your signature file to your message.

Learn how to edit your signature file.

The "Divider" block allows you to add visible separation elements to your message with borders that are dotted, dashed, or solid. In this example we will show the 3 types of dividers there are (dashed, dotted, and solid).

The "Share" block allows your readers to share your broadcast to popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon. Add which services you would like to share to from the Share menu to the right.

The "Video" block allows you to add a YouTube or Vimeo video to your message. This will take a screenshot of your YouTube or Vimeo video and hyperlink the image with the URL of the YouTube or Vimeo video.

If you have any further questions on how the drag & drop email builder works, please feel free to contact us!

AWeber offers hundreds of templates you’re welcome to use! If you would ever find yourself wanting to modify an existing template or would like a custom template built for you to reflect your branding, our Template Team would be happy to modify existing templates or design a custom template for you!

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