Skip to main content
The visual builder puts an email together from blocks: headings, text, photos, buttons and a footer. You start from a design in the gallery, change what you need, and save it as a template that any campaign can use. This guide builds Northwind Monthly, Northwind’s November newsletter about a new coffee from Huila, Colombia, with a photo from its media library.

​
Start from a design

1

Open Templates

Click Marketing in the left rail, then the Email Marketing card, then the Templates tab. Click Browse gallery to start from a ready-made design. (New template starts from a short starter email instead.)
Marketing email with the Templates tab outlined, and the Browse gallery and New template buttons outlined

Browse gallery, on the Templates tab

2

Pick a design

Each design shows its blocks in order. Click Use this template on the one you want. Northwind picks Simple Newsletter: a heading, an intro, two stories and a footer.Your own copy of the design opens in the visual builder.
The Simple Newsletter design with its blocks Heading, Text, Divider, Heading, Text and Button, and the Use this template button outlined

Simple Newsletter, in the gallery

​
Change the words

Click any block in the email, or its line in the Document list at the bottom right. The panel on the right shows that block’s settings: for a heading, its Content, Level and Align. Type your words in Content and the email changes as you type. Move up and Move down change the block’s place in the email, and Delete block removes it. Northwind changes the second heading to New this month: Colombia Huila.
The builder with the heading New this month: Colombia Huila outlined in the email, its Content outlined in the Edit Heading panel, and the same heading outlined in the Document list

Editing a heading

The Footer block at the bottom starts with Your Company: type your business name there. Keep its Unsubscribe link and the address in it, which fills in your mailing address when the email is sent. Hiveku won’t send a campaign whose footer is missing either.

​
Add a photo

1

Add an Image block

Click Back to add blocks at the top of the right panel. Click a block to add it to the end of the email, or drag it into the Document list to drop it in a particular place. Click Image.
The block list: Hero, Heading, Text, Image, Button, Divider, Spacer, Columns (2-3), Social links, Footer, Quote, Card, List, Stats and more below, with Image outlined

The blocks you can add

2

Choose the photo

In the Image block’s settings, click Browse media library. Your media library opens on My Assets. Click a photo, then Insert Media.
The media library on My Assets with a mountainside coffee farm photo selected and outlined, and the Insert Media button outlined

Northwind's photo of a coffee farm in Huila

3

Describe it

Type a short description in Alt text. Screen readers read it out, and it shows when an inbox blocks images.
The Image settings with the chosen photo, the Browse media library button outlined, and Alt text A coffee farm on a mountainside in Huila, Colombia, outlined

The photo and its alt text

4

Put it in place

The new block is added at the end. Click Move up until it sits where you want it. Northwind puts the photo under the Colombia Huila heading.
The email with the heading Northwind Monthly, the greeting, the heading New this month: Colombia Huila and the coffee farm photo selected below it

The photo under its heading

​
Greet each reader by name

Click Tokens at the top right to see the merge tokens, such as {{first_name}} for the reader’s first name. Click a token to copy it, then paste it into a Text, Heading or Footer block. When the email is sent, each reader sees their own details in its place. Northwind’s intro reads Hi {{first_name}}, here is what is fresh at the roastery this month.
The Tokens button outlined and the Merge tokens list open: first_name outlined, then last_name, full_name, email, phone, job_title and lifecycle_stage

The merge tokens

​
See it on a phone

Click Preview above the email to see it as it will be sent, then Mobile to see it at phone width. Design takes you back to editing. Preview as: Sample data shows the tokens as they are. Click it and pick one of your contacts to see the email with their details filled in.
The builder in Preview with Preview and Mobile outlined, showing the email narrow: Northwind Monthly, the greeting, the Colombia Huila heading and the photo

Northwind Monthly at phone width

​
Save and name it

The builder saves your template by itself a couple of seconds after each change, and shows the time it last saved. Save now saves straight away. The Quality button shows the template’s score out of 100 from Hiveku’s quality and spam-risk check.
The top of the right panel: Tokens, the Quality: 100 button outlined, Send test, and the Save now button outlined

Quality: 100, and Save now

To name the template, click Back to template at the top left. Type a Name and a Description, and click Save. Northwind names it Northwind Monthly: November. Open visual builder takes you back to the blocks.

​
Good to know

  • See it in an inbox. Start a campaign from the template and use its Test send (see Create, Test and Send an Email Campaign). The builder’s own Send test isn’t working yet.
  • Templates are reusable. A campaign that starts from a template keeps the template’s design, and every new campaign can start from it again.
  • Next: Build an Audience to Email.
  • More: Templates covers every template setting.