Overview
This guide uses written steps and video walkthroughs to help you create, design, and edit a newsletter in Emma. Note that newsletter and campaign are both terms referring to the email you send using Emma: we use the term newsletter colloquially, but in Emma you'll see them labeled as campaigns (short for mailing campaigns).
USC Dornsife templates
Templates are predesigned layouts that you can use a starting point for your newsletter, instead of beginning with a blank page. Dornsife offers four branded templates for your convenience. To preview a larger version, click the template links below:
Once you select a template, you can customize it by adding, editing, and deleting content, and editing design properties.
Department-specific branding
Want to use a department- or unit-specific logo? Go to https://mydornsife.usc.edu (make sure you're connected to Ethernet, USC Secure Wireless, or VPN). Select USC Dornsife Graphic Identity Downloads. Click Expand All and then click Logotype Downloads under your department. You will be able to download square or horizontal versions of the logo in JPG and PNG formats.
Creating a newsletter
Quick guide
- Go to https://home.e2ma.net and log in with the following credentials:
- Username: Your @usc.edu email address
- Password: The password you created during setup, which may not be the same as your USC NetID passphrase
- You may be asked to enter a verification code, which Emma sends to your email.
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- You are ready to create a new newsletter or duplicate a past one.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Go to https://home.e2ma.net and log in with the following credentials:
- Username: Your @usc.edu email address
- Password: The password you created during setup, which may not be the same as your USC NetID passphrase
- You may be asked to enter a verification code, which Emma sends to your email.
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- You are ready to create a new newsletter or duplicate a past one.
Create a completely new newsletter
Quick guide
- Click Create new campaign.
- Name the newsletter and click Continue. By default, Regular email is selected.
- Unless you are doing advanced marketing testing, you will never select A/B Test. A/B Test creates two versions of the same newsletter to send to different subsets of recipients. Its purpose is to track differences in performance (for instance, does Subject Line A result in more click-throughs than Subject Line B?).
- Select a template:
- To create a new layout: Click Start from scratch in the upper right.
- To use a Dornsife template: Select Shared templates in the left menu, and select an option.
- To use a template you created or modified: Select My templates in the left menu, and select an option.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Click Create new campaign.
- Name the newsletter and click Continue. By default, Regular email is selected.
- Unless you are doing advanced marketing testing, you will never select A/B Test. A/B Test creates two versions of the same newsletter to send to different subsets of recipients. Its purpose is to track differences in performance (for instance, does Subject Line A result in more click-throughs than Subject Line B?).
- Select a template:
- To create a new layout: Click Start from scratch in the upper right.
- To use a Dornsife template: Select Shared templates in the left menu, and select an option.
- To use a template you created or modified: Select My templates in the left menu, and select an option.
Using the campaign editor
This guide uses Emma's drag and drop campaign editor. If your screen differs significantly from the screenshots and videos below, you may be using Emma's older "legacy editor" (used for newsletters and templates created prior to April 2022).
Legacy editor will retire on January 15, 2027
On Jan. 15, Emma will retire its legacy editor. If you are still using newsletter templates created with the legacy editor, you will need to take action before Jan. 15 to recreate your templates in the Drag and Drop Editor.
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Legacy Editor (action required): Editing panel appears on the left side; “Legacy” label appears after the email name in the Campaigns tab. Any templates you've built in the legacy editor will no longer be available for use after Jan. 15, so we recommend rebuilding them using one of the four Dornsife-branded templates.
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Drag and Drop Editor (no action required): Editing panel appears on the right side; “Editor” label appears after the email name in the Campaigns tab.
Use content blocks to add or edit content
Content blocks are your newsletter's building blocks. To add text, images, or other media, drag content blocks from the Content tab into the newsletter.
Quick guide
- In the right sidebar, click the Content tab.
- Drag your desired content block into the newsletter. Some useful blocks include:
- Text content blocks: Title, Paragraph, List
- Media content blocks: Image, Video, Button (used for links)
- Organizing content blocks: Menu (creates a table of contents), Divider
- Click any content block to edit it.
- When a block is selected, a toolbar appears in the lower right of the block, which you can use to view or edit comments, delete the block, or duplicate the block.
- A directional icon also appears on the right edge of the block. Hold and drag this icon to move the block up or down.
- You can also make edits to the block's properties. When a block is selected, its properties appear in the right sidebar. Different properties appear depending on the content block type, and you can customize them if you like, including properties such as:
- Text blocks such as Title, Paragraph, and List: Font size, paragraph spacing, line height
- Image blocks: Alt text (a description of the image for accessibility), corner rounding
- Divider blocks: Line style and color
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- In the right sidebar, click the Content tab.
- Drag your desired content block into the newsletter. Some useful blocks include:
- Text content blocks: Title, Paragraph, List
- Media content blocks: Image, Video, Button (used for links)
- Organizing content blocks: Menu (creates a table of contents), Divider
- Click any content block to edit it.
- When a block is selected, a toolbar appears in the lower right of the block, which you can use to view or edit comments, delete the block, or duplicate the block.
- A directional icon also appears on the right edge of the block. Hold and drag this icon to move the block up or down.
- You can also make edits to the block's properties. When a block is selected, its properties appear in the right sidebar. Different properties appear depending on the content block type, and you can customize them if you like, including properties such as:
- Text blocks such as Title, Paragraph, and List: Font size, paragraph spacing, line height
- Image blocks: Alt text (a description of the image for accessibility), corner rounding
- Divider blocks: Line style and color
Use rows to create multicolumn sections or set background colors
By default, each column block takes the full width of the newsletter. However, the Rows tab is available if you want to create a multicolumn layout, either for the entire newsletter or for specific sections:
Quick guide
- In the right sidebar, click the Rows tab.
- Drag your desired layout into the newsletter.
- To add content, click the Content tab, and then drag a content block into the column you want to add it to. You can add multiple content blocks in each column.
- To edit the row properties, select the row in the newsletter. Its properties appear in the right sidebar. Some useful settings:
- Row background color: Change the background color to make the row stand out more.
- Columns structure: Drag the separator between columns to adjust column widths, or click + Add new to add another column.
- Padding: Increase or decrease the amount of whitespace.
- To return to the single-column format after adding a multicolumn row, select the Rows tab. Then, drag the single-column layout into the newsletter.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- In the right sidebar, click the Rows tab.
- Drag your desired layout into the newsletter.
- To add content, click the Content tab, and then drag a content block into the column you want to add it to. You can add multiple content blocks in each column.
- To edit the row properties, select the row in the newsletter. Its properties appear in the right sidebar.
Some useful settings:
- Row background color: Change the background color to make the row stand out more.
- Columns structure: Drag the separator between columns to adjust column widths, or click + Add new to add another column.
- Padding: Increase or decrease the amount of whitespace.
- To return to the single-column format after adding a multicolumn row, select the Rows tab. Then, drag the single-column layout into the newsletter.
Add personalization to a text content block
You can personalize a newsletter so that, for example, emails greet individual recipients by name ("Dear Tommy Trojan" instead of a more generic "Dear subscriber"). To do this, you will need to add a personalization tag to a text content block:
Use the Settings tab to set newsletter properties
In the right sidebar, click the Settings tab. This area allows you to set the properties of the overall newsletter, such as the font and width. You can also override these settings within individual content blocks.
Save, undo, and redo changes
Autosave and manual save
By default, the campaign editor saves your changes every 60 seconds. To manually save changes, click Save in the upper right, and select an option.
Newsletter change history (undo and redo)
To view your change history, use the history, undo, and redo buttons in the lower left. These buttons do not appear until you begin editing.
Your change history is available on a per-session basis. This means that if you navigate away from the campaign editor (for instance, you save and close the editor, go to a different website, or simply refresh the page), you will lose your change history.
Testing and sending a newsletter
Once you finish designing and adding content, you can send yourself a test, and then prepare to send the newsletter to all of your recipients:
Creating a template from a newsletter
If you want to reuse a newsletter design, you can save it as a template. You can do this for ongoing drafts as well as previously sent newsletters:
Additional resources
Emma official documentation