The ActiveCampaign Email Designer (launched in 2022), comes with ten Blocks that you can use in your campaigns. Blocks are the components that you can drag and drop into your campaign design to create space for things like Images and Text Boxes.
The ten Blocks that you can use in the Email Designer are:
- Image
- Text
- Button
- Spacer
- Video
- Social
- HTML for custom code
- Banner
- Timer
- Menu
This article aims to review the newest Block options in the Email Designer: Banner, Timer, and Menu.
Take Note
- The Email Designer will be available via the standard campaign workflow in both the Campaigns and Automations sections. This means creating an email from scratch by selecting "Standard" or "Automated" for your campaign type after clicking on "Create a Campaign" from the Campaigns section. You can also access the new designer by creating an Automation and adding an email
- To learn how to add content blocks to your campaign design, visit "The Email Designer Content Menu Options"
Email Designer Blocks: Banner, Timer, Menu
Banner block
A Banner can be used to add an eye-catching header or footer to your campaigns, such as a promotional banner or brand logo. To add a Banner in the Email Designer, follow these steps:
- Click on “Blocks” under the Content menu in the sidebar.
- Drag the “Banner” block from the sidebar to the desired spot in your campaign.
- Click this block in the campaign to open the Content Manager. This is where your images are housed. If you haven’t already uploaded your image to the Content Manager, you can click the banner block and click “Add File” in the modal that appears.
- Select the image you want to use.
- Select the banner to adjust image settings as preferred.
6. You can adjust settings like Orientation, Banner Height, and Filter in the settings sidebar menu. You can also link to a page related to your image and insert alt text. Lastly, you can also make the banner image an anchor link for another section of your email. These elements can be hidden from desktop or mobile.
The following dimensions — 600px by 300px and 600px by 400px — are the most popular email banner sizes. Once your banner image is added, you can make all the editing steps in any order you like. For instance, insert an additional image, add text and only then apply fonts.
Timer block
A Timer can be used in a campaign to countdown to a customer event, such as a flash sale. To add a Timer to your campaign, follow these steps:
- Click on “Timer” under the Content menu in the sidebar.
- Drag the “Timer” block from the sidebar to the desired spot in your campaign.
- Click on the Timer container in your campaign to trigger the sidebar settings menu.
4. In the settings menu, you can set the end date and exact time that you want your countdown timer to use. You can also set the time zone, background color, timer size, font/size, and other settings.
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- NOTE: The timer time zone will not necessarily reflect the contact’s local time. It will only reflect the time zone that you set it to.
5. If you would like to set an image for when the timer expires, you can toggle the “Expired Timer Image” button and select an image from the Content Manager to appear. This is optional but a great addition for many use cases such as showing the customer a coupon code is no longer active.
Menu block
You can use the Menu block to create a set of menu options. For example, you can use the Menu block to link to various product pages and name the menu items with product categories.
To add a Menu block to your campaign, follow these steps:
- Click on “Menu” under the Content menu in the sidebar.
- Drag the “Menu” block and drop it into the desired spot of your campaign.
- To customize the number of menu items in your campaign, scroll to the bottom of the sidebar menu and click “Add Menu Items.” By default, ActiveCampaign offers three menu items but there is no limit to the number of menu options you can add. Please note that after 11 menu options, the line will wrap to the next line.
- Now in the sidebar settings menu, you can customize your menu. First, you need to choose whether to use icons, links, or both. “Icons” stand for the images in the menu; while “links” stand for the names of the menu tabs.
5. Once you select the links type, you can customize all other elements of your menu. This includes menu names, URL links, font, image, background color, and more.
6. If you want to hide some elements for mobile, just click the “Hide on mobile” icon.
7. Lastly, these menu icons can be used as anchor links to redirect the customer to a different part of the email.