Types of templates#
A number of email templates are in use on each network which are delivered based on events triggered by the member.
Some examples:
Transactional mails
Transactional mails are immediate, high priority, event driven, and are sent from an email ID belonging to the "main" domain of the Network Site.
- Signup verification email
- Welcome email post successful signup
- Reset password
- Notification when significant action occurs on a post - eg comment, answer to a question, certain number of poll votes etc
- Event registration
- Form submission
- New subscriber
- ...
Bulk (broadcast) mails
Bulk mails are batched and low priority, and are sent from an email ID belonging to a subdomain of the Network Site to prevent affecting the sending credibility. Read the detailed help article on broadcast mails:
Overriding templates#
A common set of base templates are used for all Network Sites. Certain templates which have the scope for more elaborate information to be shared with members can be customized by the Network Operator.
You may disable your custom template at any time, and the system will automatically switch over to the base template.
Important information before you start#
There is only 1 template per purpose and its used for all notifications for events triggered by a member. Examples:
The template for Welcome mail (welcome_nn_2) is used for all members when they sign up via email.
The template for Event registration (event_confirmation_2) is used when any member registers for ANY EVENT. Event specific information should not be in the template, but added in the optional additional info field when creating the event.
The template for Digest Mail (post_digest_nn_sub_1) is used for all members and subscribers.
The only exception is the form workflow template - 2 of these (form_submit_workflow_1 and form_submit_workflow_2) are made available on each network.
Editing the templates#
Each template automatically uses the following
- Primary accent color configured in the Hero Dashboard > Network dashboard > Visual config
- Network site short description in the Hero Dashboard > Network dashboard > Essential config
Certain email templates which have the scope for more elaborate information to be shared with members can be customized (aka "custom template") by the network operator via the Email templates item on the Communication Dashboard.
The email templates table shows which templates are available for editing. View and/or edit a template by clicking on the Edit button on any row.
Need the ability to edit more templates? Contact us with your use case.
Step 1
This opens up the email body Rich Text Editor, which allows the email body to be modified with any custom text and images.
In order to maintain a robust system and allow efficient and quick changes, only the email body is editable, not the entire template.
The Editor allows high quality emails to be quickly built using the formatting options on the toolbar. One can also insert images, and responsive media cards by clicking the button on the toolbar.
We strongly suggest inserting only a few selected marquee links as media cards which will show a visual link preview.
For all other links, please select the relevant text and insert the link via the toolbar to create a standard link text.
It is best not to insert raw links directly into the text which will show up as: https://demo1.maincross.org/p/radio-city-christmas-spectacular-tickets-vgs57noocetdotl?refBy=M2E3OWIxMmYyOA
Step 2
At any time, click the Update Preview button to see how the new email would look like. Great care is taken to make the email preview look very similar to how it would render across many different email clients - however rich HTML emails are akin to rocket science and every email client has its own quirks (here's looking at ya, Outlook you slob).
Toggle the button to see how the email would look on a larger and small screen.
Step 3
If you want to see how the email looks like in real email clients, you may send test mails out. This step is optional.
Any abuse of the test mail sending system is taken seriously. All bounces and complaints are monitored by us.
Step 4
When you are happy with your new email template, hit the save button so you don't lose your work.
Note that you may just save the template without enabling it.
If you enable it, your custom template will take effect as soon as you save it.
You may disable your custom template at any time, and the system will automatically switch over to the base template.
