Creating a mailing campaign in Emma

Overview
USC Dornsife templates
Creating a new mailing campaign
Using the campaign editor
Previewing, testing, and sending a campaign
Creating a template from a campaign
Additional resources

Overview

Newsletter emails that you design in Emma are referred to as mailing campaigns, or simply campaigns. In this guide, we provide an overview of your options when designing and laying out a campaign, and include links to official resources for detailed information.

USC Dornsife templates

Templates are predesigned layouts that you can use a starting point for your campaign 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, and 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 new mailing campaign

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
Click the Campaigns tab.
You are ready to create a new campaign or duplicate a past campaign.

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
Click the Campaigns tab.
You are ready to create a new campaign or duplicate a past campaign.

Create a completely new campaign

Quick guide

Click Create new campaign.
Name your campaign 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 involves creating two versions of the same campaign and sending each version to a different subset of subscribers. Its purpose is to track differences in performance (for instance, does Title A result in more click-throughs than Title 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 your campaign 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 involves creating two versions of the same campaign and sending each version to a different subset of subscribers. Its purpose is to track differences in performance (for instance, does Title A result in more click-throughs than Title 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.

Duplicate a past campaign

Quick guide

To view previously mailed campaigns, click the Sent tab.
Next to the campaign name, click the Expand icon, and select Duplicate.
A copy of the campaign is created. Click the name in the upper left and rename this new campaign.

Detailed guide (with screenshots)

To view previously mailed campaigns, click the Sent tab.
Next to the campaign name, click the Expand icon, and select Duplicate.
A copy of the campaign is created. Click the name in the upper left and rename this new campaign.

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 editor, referred to as the legacy editor (used for campaigns created prior to April 2022).

Use content blocks to add or edit content

Content blocks are your campaign's building blocks. To add text, images, or other media, drag content blocks from the Content tab into the campaign:

Quick guide

In the right sidebar, click the Content tab.
Drag your desired content block onto the campaign. 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 the campaign.
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 onto the campaign. 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 the campaign.
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 occupies 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 campaign.
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 campaign. 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 campaign.

Detailed guide (with screenshots)

In the right sidebar, click the Rows tab.
Drag your desired layout into the campaign.
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 campaign. 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 campaign.

Add personalization to a text content block

You can personalize a campaign so that, for example, emails greet individual subscribers 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:

Personalizing a campaign in Emma

Use the Settings tab to set campaign properties

In the right sidebar, click the Settings tab. This area allows you to set the properties of the overall campaign, such as the font and campaign 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.

Campaign change history (undo and redo)

To view your change history, use the history, undo, and redo buttons in the lower left area of your campaign. These buttons do not appear until you begin editing the campaign.

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.

Previewing, testing, and sending a mailing campaign

Preview a campaign

To preview how a campaign will look to subscribers, click Preview in the upper right. You can switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile modes, or set a custom size.

Send a test email

We recommend sending yourself a test email to see how the campaign will appear to subscribers. Test emails can be especially useful if you are using personalization tags, which appear as bracketed text in preview mode.

Quick guide

Click Send test in the upper right.
Fill out the required fields (you may have to scroll down to see all fields):
- To
- From
- Subject
- Signup form
Click Send test.
The test campaign is emailed to you, and you can verify that the personalization tag is rendering correctly.

Detailed guide (with screenshots)

Click Send test in the upper right.
Fill out the required fields (you may have to scroll down to see all fields):
- To
- From
- Subject
- Signup form
Click Send test.
The test campaign is emailed to you, and you can verify that the personalization tag is rendering correctly.

Review and send the campaign

Once the campaign has been finalized, you can review it, and then schedule the campaign for later or send it immediately:

Quick guide

Click Review in the upper right.
Click each section to fill it in:
- Send time: You can send the campaign immediately, or schedule it for a later date and time.
- Audience
- Subject: Automatically populated from your test email settings but can be edited.
- From
- Advanced: The associated signup form is automatically populated from your test email settings but can be edited.
If you need to revise the campaign, click Edit email on the left.
Click Review & send.
Review your settings, and click Send campaign.

Detailed guide (with screenshots)

Click Review in the upper right.
Click each section to fill it in:
- Send time: You can send the campaign immediately, or schedule it for a later date and time.
- Audience
- Subject: Automatically populated from your test email settings but can be edited.
- From
- Advanced: The associated signup form is automatically populated from your test email settings but can be edited.
If you need to revise the campaign, click Edit email on the left.
Click Review & send.
Review your settings, and click Send campaign.

Creating a template from a campaign

If you like and want to reuse your campaign design, whether it's a ongoing draft or a previously sent campaign, you can save it as a template:

Create a template from a campaign

Quick guide

Open the campaign you want to turn into a template.
Click Save in the upper right, and select Save as template.
Name the template and click Save template.
The template is now saved and will appear when you create a new campaign and select My templates in the left menu.

Detailed guide (with screenshots)

Open the campaign you want to turn into a template.
Click Save in the upper right, and select Save as template.
Name the template and click Save template.
The template is now saved and will appear when you create a new campaign and select My templates in the left menu.

Additional resources

Emma official documentation

Quick how-to videos on using the new drag and drop editor
Drag & Drop Editor (compilation of individual guides)