Email Template Builder

The email builder is where you design the emails your campaigns and automations send. It is a drag and drop editor: pick a block from the panel on the left, drop it where you want it in the email, click it to change the words and colours, and drag any block to a new spot when you change your mind. Everything you build saves itself as you go.

Plan requirement: Email marketing is included on the Essentials plan and above. It is not on Lite. See Plans & Pricing.

Open the Builder

1. Log in to my.captifi.io
2. Go to Marketing → Templates
3. Click Edit on one of your own templates. To start a new one, click New template, give it a name and click Create and edit (on the Start from a design tab, when the window has tabs), or click Use template on one of the starters to copy it into your library first. To have a template drafted from a line about the email, see Describe it

Your own templates, with the Edit button on each card. Starters lower down are copied into your library before you can edit them.

Describe it

Describe it drafts a template for you from a line about the email, such as coffee 10% off for students. It comes with the Growth plan and every plan above it.

1. Go to Marketing → Templates and click Describe it, beside New template. The New template window opens on its Describe it tab

The Describe it button sits to the left of New template at the top of the page.

2. Under What is the email about?, say what the email is for in 10 to 500 characters. Put in what guests need to know, such as the offer, the days or the times, because the draft only uses what you write
3. If you have more than one venue, choose one under Venue. The email is written for that venue, and any price in it is in the venue's currency

The Describe it tab with a description typed in and a venue chosen.

4. Click Draft it. Drafting takes 10 to 20 seconds, and Cancel stops the wait. Once the template is made, the window reads Your template is ready. Opening the builder... and the builder opens

If drafting is busy for a moment, or the draft comes back but the template can't be saved, the window says so and offers Try again. After a failed save, Try again saves the draft you already have. As long as the description and the venue are unchanged, nothing is drafted a second time and it doesn't count as another draft.

Examples beside What is the email about? opens a list of descriptions to start from: a student discount, a quiz night, a new autumn menu, weekend brunch, new Sunday opening hours and live music. Click one to put it in the box and change it to suit your venue; nothing is drafted until you click Draft it. A pick replaces anything you have already typed.

The Examples list, open above the text box.

The draft starts from the starter design that best fits your description. Its headline, text, detail rows and subject line are written from what you typed, and the photo may be swapped for another of the starter photos. Times, prices and conditions come only from your description: where you didn't give one, the starter's sample row is taken out. Your venue logo stays at the top and the locked footer at the bottom. The template is saved under Your templates and opens in the builder, where you can check the wording and the button's link, then change anything you like before using it in a campaign or an automation. Drafting sends nothing.

The template drafted from coffee 10% off for students, every weekday, open in the builder.

Each account can draft 30 templates a calendar month, counted in UK time. Every draft also counts towards a daily drafting allowance the account shares with Describe it on workflows, which resets at midnight UK time. Team members need the Manage marketing emails and texts permission. On plans below Growth, while CaptiFi has drafting switched off, or once your account has used its allowance for the day, the Describe it button and tab are hidden and New template opens straight on the design form.

If a draft is turned down when you click Draft it (the day's allowance or the month's 30 drafts are used up, your plan doesn't include Describe it, or drafting is switched off or not available right now), the window closes and a notice at the top of the Templates page says why. For the daily allowance it gives the time you can draft again, and for the monthly one the date. Dismiss clears the notice.

Know Your Way Around

The builder fills the whole window. From left to right: the Blocks panel, the email itself on a grey backdrop, and the Styles and Inspect panel on the right. Along the top sit the back arrow, the template name, the Edit and Preview tabs, undo and redo, the Subject box, Personalise, the desktop and phone preview switch, the save status and the Send test, Save and Save & Continue buttons.

On a narrower window the top bar wraps onto a second line, the template name is hidden and the Personalise and Send test buttons show as icons with the same names when you hover them.

Step 1: Add a Block

Every block type sits in the Blocks panel. There are two ways to add one:

1. Drag it in. Press and hold a tile, drag it over the email, and a blue line shows where it will land. Let go to drop it there
2. Click it. The block is added at the bottom of the email, selected and ready to edit

A Button block being dragged out of the Blocks panel, with the blue line showing it will land between the heading and the text.

You can also hover the gap between two blocks and click the round + that appears to pick a block for exactly that spot. On screens narrower than about 1200 pixels the Blocks panel is hidden to leave room for the email, and the + is the way to add blocks.

Block	What it is for
Heading	A headline: choose H1, H2 or H3
Text	A paragraph. Turn on Markdown for bold, links and lists
Button	A call to action linking to your booking page, menu or offer
Image	A photo. Upload your own, pick from your library or paste a link
Avatar	A small round or square picture, for example the owner's photo beside a note
Divider	A thin line between sections
Spacer	Empty vertical space
Html	Your own HTML, for anything the other blocks cannot do
Columns	Two or three columns side by side; each column holds its own blocks
Container	A box with its own background colour and padding that holds other blocks

Step 2: Move a Block

1. Hover over a block. A grip (six dots) appears to its left. When a block is selected, the same grip sits at the top of its toolbar
2. Press and hold the grip and drag. The block you are moving fades, and a blue line follows your pointer to show the drop position: the top half of another block means "before it", the bottom half means "after it"
3. Let go to drop the block. It stays selected so you can carry on editing

The Text block being dragged by its grip, with the blue line under the button showing where it will drop.

You can drop a block into a Container or into any column of a Columns block in the same way. An empty container or column shows a dashed Drop a block here box while you are dragging.

A few rules keep the layout sensible:

• A container cannot be dropped inside itself, and the slots inside it are greyed out while you drag it
• The two slots either side of the block you are dragging are greyed out too, because dropping there would change nothing
• Dropping on the grey backdrop lands the block on the last position the blue line showed. If no line has shown yet, nothing moves: letting go in the margin is how you change your mind
• On a touchscreen use the up and down arrows in the block toolbar instead, which move a block one place at a time

Step 3: Edit a Block

Click a block to select it. The right-hand panel switches to Inspect and shows that block's settings: the words, the link, the image, alignment, font size, colours and padding. Changes appear in the email as you make them.

The Inspect panel for a selected Button block, with its text, link, colours and size.

The Styles tab covers the whole email: the backdrop colour, the email's background colour, the default text colour and the font family. Click anywhere on the grey backdrop to return to it.

Step 4: Duplicate, Delete, Undo

The toolbar beside a selected block has, from top to bottom: the drag grip, Move up, Move down, Duplicate and Delete. Duplicate places an exact copy directly beneath the original, contents included. Delete removes the block and, for a container or columns block, everything inside it.

The block toolbar with its grip, move arrows, duplicate and delete buttons.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Keys	What happens
Delete or Backspace	Removes the selected block, when nothing else on the page has focus (never while you are typing in a box or using a control)
Esc	Deselects the block
Ctrl+Z (Windows) or ⌘Z (Mac)	Undo
Shift+Ctrl+Z or ⇧⌘Z	Redo

Undo and redo also have buttons in the top bar. Every drop, move, duplicate and delete is one undo step, so one press puts a block back where it came from.

Step 5: Personalise

Click Personalise in the top bar to see the merge tags you can use. The menu is grouped by section: Guest Info, Business, Visit Info, Links, Rewards, Events, Bookings and System. Each row shows the tag's short name, its token in monospace (for example {{first_name}}) and an example value on its first line, and for many tags what the tag fills in on a second line. Click a row to copy the token; a message at the foot of the window reads "{{first_name}} copied. Paste it into your text", and you paste it into any Text or Heading block, or into the Subject box. If the browser refuses the copy, the menu stays open and the message reads "Could not copy, select the token and copy it", with the token shown for you to select. When the email is sent, each tag is replaced with the real value for that guest.

The Logo (from your splash page) tag in Business, {{business_logo}}, puts your venue's logo in the email: the one on its splash page, sent as an image every mail app shows. When the logo has a see-through background, CaptiFi places it on a small white or dark rounded tile so it shows up on any colour, or on the background colour you picked for the logo on your splash page. Put the tag in a Text block on its own; a venue with no splash logo gets its name there instead. The tag fills in when the email is sent and in the template previews, so the builder itself shows the token. Every starter template uses it at the top.

The Rewards section appears only for accounts with Rewards on: the reward link, code and expiry fill in from the offer attached to the campaign or automation, and the rewards link and points balance read the guest's membership; see The merge tags. The Events section appears only for accounts with Events and tickets on and holds the eight event tags; see The event merge tags. The Bookings section appears only for accounts with Table bookings on and holds the seven booking tags; see Table booking triggers.

The Personalise menu, grouped by section.

The same tags work in the subject and body of a workflow email step.

Step 6: Preview

Click the Preview tab to see the email without the editing controls, and the phone icon to see it at phone width. When the email is sent, two and three column layouts stack on top of each other in mail apps on small screens.

The Preview tab at phone width.

Step 7: Save, Test and Finish

The builder saves on its own ten seconds after your last change. The status beside the buttons tells you where you stand: Unsaved changes while an edit, including a change to the Subject box, is waiting to be saved, Saving… while it goes up, and Saved once it is on the server. Click Save to save straight away.

The save status, Send test, Save and Save & Continue buttons in the top bar.

• Send test saves the design and emails it to your own login address with sample values filled in, so you can check it in a real inbox before a campaign goes out. Test emails are limited to a few per minute
• Save & Continue saves and takes you back to where you came from: the Templates page, or the campaign wizard if you opened the builder from there
• The back arrow (top left) asks whether to Save & exit or Exit without saving, so you cannot lose work by accident
• If you try to close or refresh the tab while changes are still pending, your browser asks you to confirm first

The email footer

Every email ends with the same footer: your venue's name and address, a line telling the guest why they got the email, the unsubscribe link and "Sent with CaptiFi". The law requires the unsubscribe link and, in many countries, your address, so the footer is locked. You can't edit, move or delete it, new blocks always go in above it, and clicking it shows a note explaining why. A template made before the footer was locked gets it at the bottom the next time you open it, and an earlier footer from a starter is replaced so nothing appears twice. The footer keeps the background colour of your design, with its text set to stay readable on it.

The unsubscribe link opens a page that shows the guest's address with an Unsubscribe button, and the guest is unsubscribed when they press it. An email security scanner that opens every link in a message can't unsubscribe anyone on its own. The Unsubscribe button that mail apps such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail show at the top of a message unsubscribes the guest in one click. See Can guests opt out?

Troubleshooting

Issue	Cause	Solution
A block will not drop where I want	You are dragging a container onto itself, or onto its own current position	Those slots are greyed out. Drop it anywhere else, or use the move arrows
Nothing happens when I drag on my phone or tablet	Touchscreens do not support drag and drop in the builder	Select the block and use the Move up and Move down arrows
The status says Unsaved changes	Autosave waits ten seconds after your last edit	Wait a moment or click Save
Undo did not put my block back	Undo works one step at a time	Press it again; every move is its own step
Edit is greyed out on a starter	Starters are shared designs	Click Use template to copy it into your library, then edit the copy
Test email did not arrive	Sent to your login address; a few per minute allowed	Check spam and the address on your account, then try again in a minute
There is no Describe it button	Your plan is below Growth, or your account has used today's drafting allowance	See Plans & Pricing, or come back after midnight UK time. You can start from New template or Use template instead

Related Features

• Email Campaigns: send the template to an audience
• Email Automations: send it automatically when a guest connects, returns or stays away
• Email Marketing Best Practices: what to put in the email