Email templates and merge fields

There are two kinds of email template. Both are used to send a bulk email shot, and both support merge fields.

Type	Where	Built with
Marketing templates	Marketing → Marketing Templates	The template editor, from blocks called modules
Email stencils	Marketing → Email Stencils	A rich text editor, like writing an email

Open in Clockwork CRMEnter your Clockwork CRM address at the top of the page to open this in your Clockwork CRM.

Marketing templates

Marketing → Marketing Templates shows one card per template, with its name, its subject and a preview image. Hovering over the picture of the user on a card shows who last updated it and when. The search box filters the cards.

The ⋮ menu on each card has:

Action	What it does
Preview	Opens the finished email in a new tab
Create Campaign	Starts a new bulk email shot with this template already chosen. See Bulk email shots
Copy	Makes a copy of the template, named after the original with "Copy" and the date and time added
Edit	Opens the template in the editor. Double-clicking the card does the same
Delete	Deletes the template

Creating a marketing template

1. Go to Marketing → Marketing Templates and select Add template.
2. Choose From scratch for an empty template, or From a template to start from a ready-made design. From a template opens a gallery you can search and filter. Select a design to preview it, then Select to use it.
3. Build the email in the editor.
4. Select Save.

The template editor

The editor has a panel on the left and the email itself on the right. Clicking a part of the email selects it, and the panel shows what can be changed about it.

The panel has three tabs: Settings, Modules and Merge Fields. At the bottom of the panel:

Button	What it does
Save	Saves the template
Save & Preview	Saves the template, then opens the finished email in a new tab

The bar above the email acts on the selected module:

Button	What it does
Copy	Adds a copy of the selected module. Columns cannot be copied
Delete	Deletes the selected module

Right-clicking a module in the email opens the same Copy and Delete actions.

Settings

The Settings tab holds the settings for the whole email.

Field	What it does
Name	The template's name, up to 255 characters. Only you and your colleagues see it
Subject	The subject line of the email, up to 80 characters. It can contain merge fields
Preview Line	The preview text, up to 100 characters. Many email clients show it under the sender's name and subject

Below these are expandable sections.

Text Properties sets the default look of text. Choose the block style to change with the buttons at the top: P for normal paragraphs, or a heading level. Text modules use these settings unless you change them in the module itself.

Setting	What it does
Font Family	The typeface. Type a name or pick one from the list
Font Size	The size. Type a size, such as 14px, or pick one from the list. A number on its own is treated as pixels
Letter Spacing	The space between letters, such as 0.5px
Line Height	The space between lines, such as 1.5
Alignment buttons	Left, centre, right or justified
B and I	Bold and italic
Text Colour	The colour of the text
Margin	Space around the text block: Left, Top, Bottom and Right, such as 15px

Body Properties sets the email's background and links.

Setting	What it does
Background Colour	The colour behind the email content
Link Colour	The colour of links
Underline links	Underlines links when on

Container Properties sets the box the content sits in.

Setting	What it does
Container Background Colour	The colour of the content box
Container Width	The width of the content box, such as 800px. New templates start at 800px
Container Padding	Space inside the box: Left, Top, Bottom and Right
Container Margin	Space outside the box: Left, Top, Bottom and Right. It acts as the page margin and shows when the email is previewed

A new template starts with a grey background (#e0e0e0), a white container, blue links (#0969da) and 14px Arial text.

Advanced holds Header Content: HTML added to the head of the email, such as a link to import a web font.

Template Permissions sets which Users and Teams can see the template. A new template starts with you and the Everyone team. The template cannot be saved unless at least one user or team has access.

Testing Your Email sends a test. See Sending a test email.

Modules

The Modules tab holds the blocks an email is built from. Drag a module onto the email to add it. When a module is selected, its settings appear under the list of modules.

Module	What it adds
Text	A block of text
Image	An image, which can link somewhere
Columns	A row split into columns, to put other modules side by side
Button	A button with a link
Divider	A horizontal line
Spacer	Empty space
Social	Icons that link to your social media accounts
Unsubscribe	The unsubscribe footer. See The unsubscribe module
Item Library	A saved item from the item library. It only appears once items have been saved to the library from a landing page

Most modules have a Section Properties or Section Padding group, which sets the background colour and padding of the strip the module sits in. The settings for each module are below.

Text

Type straight onto the email. The toolbar at the top of the editing area formats the text you are working on, and includes three AI tools: AI Text Generator writes new text, and Explain this… and Rewrite this… work on the text you have selected.

Setting	What it does
Padding	Space around the text
Line Height	The space between lines
Text Colour	The colour of the text
Link Colour	The colour of links in the text
Background Colour	The colour behind the text

Image

Setting	What it does
Image Source	The web address of the image
Choose an Image...	Picks an image From your computer, From the file browser, From AI image generation or From free image search
Image Format and Image Quality (5-100)	Shown after you choose an image. Sets PNG or JPEG and the quality. Lower quality gives a smaller file
Resize Options	Thumbnail (300), Small (400), Medium (800) or Large (1200) pixels wide, or turn on Use custom width and enter a width from 100 to 2,000 pixels. The shape of the image is kept
Reset	Clears the chosen image
Width and Height	The size the image is shown at, in pixels or auto, such as 400px
Border Radius	Rounds the corners
Image Link	A web address the image opens when clicked. The link does not work inside the editor
Alt Text	Text shown if the image cannot be displayed, and read out by screen readers
Alignment	Left, centre or right
Section Background Colour and Padding	The strip behind the image

Images taken from the file browser become publicly accessible on the internet. Do not use confidential images.

Columns

Setting	What it does
Column Type	The layout: one, two, three or four equal columns, or 1:2, 2:1, 1:3 or 3:1
Stack columns on mobile	Puts the columns one above the other on small screens
Vertical Content Alignment	Lines the contents of the columns up at the top, middle or bottom
Background Colour	The colour behind the row
Background image	Background Image Source, Background Image Sizing (Auto, Contain or Cover), Background Position and Background Repeat
Padding	Space inside the row

Drag other modules into a column to place them.

Button

Setting	What it does
Button Text	The words on the button
Button Link	The web address the button opens. The button does not work inside the editor
Border	Border Width, style, Border Radius and Border Colour
Font & Font Style	Font Weight, Font Size, Line Height, Letter Spacing and Font Family
Button Text Colour	The colour of the words
Button Background Colour	The colour of the button
Section Background Colour	The colour of the strip behind the button
Button Padding	Space inside the button
Section Padding	Space around the button: Left, Top, Bottom and Right
Alignment	Left, centre or right
Copy styles to all other buttons	Copies this button's look to every other button in the template. The text and link of the other buttons are kept

Divider

Setting	What it does
Width	How wide the line is
Border Width	How thick the line is
Border Colour	The colour of the line
Section Background Color and Padding	The strip behind the line

Spacer

Setting	What it does
Width and Height	The size of the space
Background Colour	The colour of the space

Social

Enter the address of each account you want to show: LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. Drag the rows to change the order the icons appear in.

Setting	What it does
Border	A border around each icon
Text Colour	The colour of all the icons. When it is not set, each icon uses its network's own colour
Alignment	Left, centre or right
Padding	Space inside each icon: Left, Top, Bottom and Right
Spacing	Space between the icons: Left, Top, Bottom and Right
Background Colour and Padding under Section Properties	The strip behind the icons

The unsubscribe module

The Unsubscribe module adds two lines: "This email was sent to" followed by the recipient's email address, and a link, updating your preferences, to the page where they manage their subscriptions. See Mailing lists.

Setting	What it does
Font Size	The size of the text
Text Colour	The colour of the text
Alignment	Left, centre or right
Background Colour and Padding	The strip behind the text

The unsubscribe link only appears in an email that contains this module.

Merge Fields tab

The Merge Fields tab lists every merge field, in Company Merge Fields and Person Merge Fields, grouped by field. Hover over one to see its description. Clicking a merge field copies it, ready to paste into a text module or the subject. See Merge fields.

Sending a test email

Testing Your Email on the Settings tab sends the template to you before it goes to your recipients.

1. In Send to..., enter the address to send to. Separate several addresses with commas.
2. Under Contact, choose a person or company. The merge fields are filled in with that contact's details.
3. Select Send Test Email.

A test email is sent from Clockwork CRM's own address, not from your sending address. Save the template first: the test uses the last saved version.

Email stencils

Marketing → Email Stencils holds emails written in a rich text editor rather than built from modules.

The Email Stencil List shows each stencil's Name, Subject, Last Modified, Last Modified By and Created By. The search box filters the list. To delete several stencils at once, tick them and select Bulk Delete.

The Actions menu on each stencil has Create Campaign, Copy, Edit and Delete. These work in the same way as for marketing templates.

Creating a stencil

1. Go to Marketing → Email Stencils and select Add Stencil.
2. Fill in the settings on the left.
3. Write the email in the editor on the right.
4. Select Save.

Field	What it does
Stencil Name	The stencil's name, up to 100 characters. Required
Email Subject	The subject line. Required. It can contain merge fields
Include Sender Signature?	Include adds the signature of the sending address to the end of the email. Exclude leaves it off
Permissions	The Users and Teams who can see and use the stencil. At least one user or team is required
Attachments	Add Attachments picks files from the file browser to send with every email. Select the × on a file to remove it

The Company, Person and Booking menus above the editor insert a merge field at the cursor. Hover over a merge field in the menu to see its description.

The signature is set against each sending address by an administrator. See Sender and tracking domains.

Merge fields

A merge field is a placeholder that is replaced with each contact's own details when the email is sent, such as $person_first_name$. One template then produces a personal email for every recipient.

Marketing → Merge Fields lists the merge fields available.

Column	What it shows
Merge Field	The text to put in the template
Field Name	The field it fills in. Built-in fields show the system field name, custom fields show the property group and field
Description	What the merge field is for
Contact Type	Person or Company
Actions	Edit and Delete

To delete several merge fields at once, tick them and select Bulk Delete. A template that still uses a deleted merge field will not fill it in.

Adding a merge field

1. Select Add Merge Field.
2. Fill in the form and select Save.

Field	What it does
Merge Field	The text to put in templates, from 3 to 100 characters. It cannot contain < or >
Description	What the merge field is for. Required
Contact Type	Person or Company
Field	The person or company field the merge field fills in, including your custom properties
Replacement Strategy	What happens when the contact has no value in the field. See below
Replacement Value	The text to use instead. Shown when the strategy is Replace With Value

Replacement strategies

Strategy	What happens when the field is empty
Highlight Unreplaced Merge Field	The merge field is left in the email, highlighted in yellow
Remove Trailing Space	The merge field and the space after it are removed
Remove Preceding Space	The merge field and the space before it are removed
Remove Trailing And Preceding Space	The merge field and the spaces either side are removed
Remove Line	The line or paragraph holding the merge field is removed
Replace With Nothing	The merge field is removed
Replace With Value	The merge field is replaced with the Replacement Value
Do Nothing	The merge field is left in the email as it is

Related

• Bulk email shots, sending a template to a mailing list
• Document templates, templates for documents rather than email
• Sender and tracking domains, sending addresses and signatures