Create a message: Drag & Drop Builder

The  Builder is one of the three tools you can use in Flexmail to create a message for your audience. It is a drag-and-drop editor that allows you to easily build a message with a beautiful layout, already optimised for mobile devices.

This article will walk you through a helpful example of creating a message with the Drag & Drop Builder. We encourage you to get creative and explore even further the capabilities of our tool.

You will find the Drag & Drop Builder in your Flexmail administration panel. 

Create a message

1. Click on Campaigns, and then on Messages, to open your Message administration area. Here you will be able to see the messages you have already created, ordered by category. 

   

2. Click on Create new message.

   

3. Make sure Drag & Drop Builder is the selected option. You can name your message, select your category and your template. 
   
   
   Support tip
   The lower part of the screen will show you your templates. Each template is optimized for mobile phones - the message will recognize the device it is being read on, and it will change to appear easier to understand and follow - text will be clearer, images will be visible, etc.
   
   If you do not find what you are looking for among our templates, make sure you contact us for the possibility to create a template just for you. 

   Click on Save to start composing your message.

   

4. Now you find yourself in the message personalisation area. You will immediately notice you have two main sections here. The Canvas and a library with three main tabs:

   • Body tab (Message tab)
   • Structure tab
   • Element tab (Content tab)

Personalise the body of a message

1. The first item you can personalise is the Page title of your message. Just type in something eye-catching. It will show up as the tab name if your message is opened in a browser.
2. Next is Width. We do not recommend to adjust the width unless it is necessary because it may affect the message being mobile-device friendly. Users may have to scroll horizontally to see the edges.
3. The Allignment will position your message to the left, to the right or in the centre.
4. The Background controls the background of the body - you can enter the HEX code or use the color picker.

   

5. The Message Background controls the message background (the background of your structures with elements) - you can enter the HEX code or use the color picker.

   

6. The Font Family will help you style your text.
7. The Link Color can be adjusted to match your overall color scheme. 

Personalise the structure of a message

1. Do an overview of the available structures in the structure tab. The icons on them are pretty self-explanatory but if you feel confused hover over each structure for a short explanation of what it does.

   

2. Find a structure you want to experiment with and drag it onto your template. Start with something simple.

   

3. Structures are just placeholders for content elements. Once you have dragged the structure onto the canvas you will see further instructions in the placeholders of the structure - i.e. to upload an image, to type in some text, or to drop another content element onto it.

Personalise the elements of a message

1. Drag and drop elements onto the content placeholders.

   

2. The configuration bar on the right is your playing field. To edit any element, simply click on it and change the different parameters on the right. Because the parameters change for every element type, you have maximum flexibility when designing your email. 
       
   

Preview and Save

If you feel like you are almost finished, go ahead and Preview your message. Just navigate to the top right corner and click on Preview. The visualisation of the message will appear in a new tab in your browser. 

If you are happy with your design, now scroll all the way down and click Save one last time to make sure you are saving the final version. Ideally, you want to Save your message after every significant change you do to your message.

Video

Still not entirely clear how you can create a message with our drag & drop email builder? Watch this video:

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