©2015 Backstop Solutions Group, LLC
BUC: Handout – BUC: Backstop User Conference 2015 | page 1
Spice up Your Emails
Creating a custom template can be relevant to your organization to establish an effective brand. This allows you to increase
your trust in your network, create a professional reputation and differentiate your organization in the marketing place. The
Backstop philosophy to a powerful email message is clear messaging, clear objective and consistent branding.
What is your email going to accomplish?
To share information:
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To gather information:
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To create action:
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Workshop Guide
Step 1: Logo & images
Notes:
Step 2: Merge fields
Notes:
©2015 Backstop Solutions Group, LLC
BUC: Handout – BUC: Backstop User Conference 2015 | page 2
Step 3: Formatting text
Notes:
Step 4: Hyperlinks
Notes:
Step 5: Unsubscribe link
Notes:
Step 6: Testing the blast
Notes:
Quick Reference WYSIVYG* Editor Guide
(What you see is what you get)
©2015 Backstop Solutions Group, LLC
BUC: Handout – BUC: Backstop User Conference 2015 | page 3
Quick Reference HTML Guide
Paragraphs
<p>This text will appear as normal paragraph text because I am using the standard “p” tag. If I want to make something
<b>BOLD</b> I will use the standard “b” tag. If I want to make text <i>ITALIC</i> I will use the standard “i” tag.
</br>
A LINE BREAK “</br>” tag will allow me to create a new line of text within one paragraph without adding a blank space in-
between lines.</p>
<p>A new paragraph will automatically add spacing between my text. If I want to add <a href=“#”>A LINK</a>, I will use the
standard</p>
Lists (Bulleted and Numbered)
<ul>
<li>Bulleted lists will always be wrapped in a UN-ORDERED LIST tag “ul”</li>
<li>Each list item will be wrapped in a LIST-ITEM tag “li”</li>
<li>If I want my list to show numbers instead of bullets, I will use the ORDERED-LIST container “ol” instead of “ul”</li>
</ul>
Headings
<h1>Heading 1 is biggest of them all! I AM IMPORTANT</h1>
<h2>There are</h2>
<h3>six other</3>
<h4>headings you</4>
<h5>can use</h5>
<h6>as well.</h6>
Tables
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
< td >This is a table.</th>
< td >Tables are comprised of a number of table elements.</td >
< td >Every table will be wrapped in a “table” tag</td >
< /tr >
<td>Inside the “table” element, there will be a “tbody” element</td>
<td>And inside the “tbody” element you can start defining each row of text using the table row element “tr”</td>
<td>And inside each table row “tr” you can designate a table division (cell) “td” </td>
</tr>
<td>Have as many table rows filled with as many table divisions (cells) as you want</td>
<td>(within reason, of course)</td>
<td>Tables styling, like width and height can be edited using CSS.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
©2015 Backstop Solutions Group, LLC
BUC: Handout – BUC: Backstop User Conference 2015 | page 4
Hyperlinking to an Email Address:
When you want to hyperlink an email address, remember to use the “mailto:” html code when inserting the link into the URL
box. See image below for reference.
Additional Resources
Backstop Support Site
Study Hall: Email Distributions - https://support.backstopsolutions.com/ssh#emailD.
Free photo editing:
Pixlr - https://pixlr.com/
Stock images:
Freestock – http://www.freestock.com/
istock – http://www.istockphoto.com/
shutterstock – http://www.shutterstock.com
HTML Resources:
Treehouse – http://teamtreehouse.com/library/html
W3schools – http://www.w3schools.com/html/
Unsubscribe html code:
https://css-tricks.com/snippets/html/mailto-links/
