Building email campaigns

Create, edit, and style content in an engaging email to send to your subscribers.

An email campaign is an individual email made of multiple sections, stacked vertically. Each section is the full width of the email and contains your content, such as text, images, or buttons.

As you build your email campaign, click any section to open its editing options, or click + on the preview to add a new section. Your draft automatically saves as you make changes.

This guide covers how to create and edit your campaigns. If you get started and decide you want more hands-on help, you can hire a vetted Squarespace Expert. 

Tip: Register for our Engage Your Audience with Email Campaigns webinar where we’ll walk you through how to use Email Campaigns, Squarespace’s built-in email marketing tool, to grow and engage your audience. You’ll learn how to build mailing lists, create and send campaigns, and measure campaign performance with our analytics tools. 

Create a draft

To start a new draft:

1. In the Home menu, click Marketing then click Email Campaigns.
2. Click Create, then click Automations or Blast.

• Blast - A single campaign that you send to one or more mailing lists. You can choose from a number of pre-built layouts or past templates you've used for past campaigns, drafts, or automations. Alternatively, click Start Blank to create your campaign from scratch.
• Automation - A preset email that automatically sends to people after they perform a specific action, like subscribing to a mailing list or purchasing an item. You can use any template when creating an automation. To learn more, visit Sending automated campaigns.

3. Browse different template categories, or click View All for all available templates.
4. Click a template to preview it. When you find a template you want to use, click Use This Template.

You can also turn a blog post into an email campaign automatically. To learn more, visit Creating an email campaign from a blog post.

Add sections

Every campaign has a built-in header section at the top and footer section at the bottom. Click + on the draft preview to add content sections.

Note: Campaigns can have a maximum of 40 sections, including the header and footer.

Tip: Our team is always working to improve accessibility, compatibility with email service providers, and general functionality. You may notice small changes and updates to campaign sections over time.

Edit sections

To edit a section, click it in the preview, then use the right panel to make changes. With the exception of global styles, any changes you make only apply to the specific section. For example, you can create two image sections with different layouts.

• To copy a section, click the copy icon above the trash can beside the section. Headers and footers can't be copied.
• To delete a section, click the trash can icon beside the section. Headers and footers can't be deleted.
• To move a section up or down, click ↑ or ↓ beside the section.
• To undo actions, click the undo icon at the top of the preview.
• To redo actions, click the redo icon at the top of the preview.

Header

A campaign's top section is the header, which has options to display your branding and introduce your campaign. Click the header section, then use the options in the side panel to customize it:

• Choose between Image, Logo, and Text.
  • Click Image to upload an image or add an image from your library. Click Edit Image to open the image editor.
  • Click Logo to use your site's logo.
  • Click Text to add key text directly to the preview, including links or mail merge tags for personalization. The text follows your global fonts.
• Click Title to add more text and style it. This is a good place for an email title, tagline, or an introductory message. The text follows your global fonts.
• Click View in Browser to add an option to open the campaign in a browser, and to style the link.
• Use the other options to change the layout, background color, padding, and global fonts.

Footer

The bottom section is the footer, which always displays an unsubscribe link and mailing address. The footer also has options to display your branding and social icons.

Click the footer section, then use the options in the side panel to customize it:

• Click Branding to add or adjust a logo, image, or key text, including links or mail merge tags for personalization. These have the same options as the header.
• Click Legal Address to add your physical address. This pulls information from Business Information Settings, or you can add it manually. If you're not sure what address to add, visit our suggestions.
• Click Social Links to display social icons. After enabling this feature, click on the social accounts you want to display. You can choose up to five.
• Use the other options to change the layout, padding, colors, and global fonts.

How do I hide the "Powered by Squarespace" branding?

On the Starter Email Campaigns plan, Powered by Squarespace branding is always included in the campaign footer. To remove it, upgrade to a higher plan.

To remove the branding on other Email Campaign plans:

1. While editing the campaign, click the footer section.
2. Switch the Squarespace Branding toggle off.

How do I hide the unsubscribe link or my address?

It's not possible to hide the unsubscribe link or your address in the footer. These are important elements that help you bypass spam filters and comply with legal requirements like CAN-SPAM and PECR.

Including an unsubscribe link is also considered a best practice and may prevent people from reporting you as spam. If you're not comfortable sharing your personal address, we have suggestions for alternate options.

Tip: You can see who unsubscribed in email campaign analytics.

Content sections

Content sections make up the body of your email campaign. You can add the following types of content sections:

• Text
• Images
• Button
• Spacer
• Line
• Blog
• Product
• Discount

To learn more about the different options, visit Adding content to email campaigns. For images sections, visit Images in email campaigns.

Device view

To see what your campaign looks like on a mobile device, click the device view icon in the top bar. Click it again to go back to computer view.

Reuse templates

You can reuse templates of campaigns you've sent before to keep a consistent look throughout your campaigns. To do this:

1. In the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Drafts, Scheduled, Sent, or Automations.
2. Click the campaign whose template you want to reuse.
3. Click ... in the top-right corner, then click Reuse Template.

After choosing the campaign type, the new draft will open automatically, and you can begin editing. Even if you want to keep most of the campaign content the same, we recommend reviewing the new draft thoroughly to ensure your content is up to date before sending.

Change campaign type

You can use the Reuse Template option to turn blast campaign drafts into automations, or vice versa. This is also a great way to create blast campaigns that use automation layouts.

Note: When you reuse a template, review the new template before sending to ensure it’s set up the way you want. For example, some template-specific mail merge tags for email personalization may revert to default values, so you’ll need to update them in the new template.

Change a blast campaign to an automation

To change a blast campaign to an automation:

1. In the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Drafts, Scheduled, or Sent, then click the draft you want to change.
2. Click ... in the top-right corner, then click Reuse Template.
3. Click Automation and choose the automation type.

This creates a new automation from the existing blast campaign template. The original draft still exists as a separate campaign.

Change an automation to a blast campaign

To change an automation to a blast campaign:

1. In the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Automations, then click the draft you want to change.
2. Click ... in the top-right corner, then click Reuse Template.
3. Click Blast.

This creates a new blast campaign from the existing automation template. The original draft still exists as an automation.

Edit or delete existing drafts

Your draft saves automatically after you add content or make a style change. To return to the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Back.

When you're ready to return to a draft you've saved:

1. In the Email Campaigns dashboard, click Drafts or Scheduled, then click the draft you want to work on.
2. Click ... in the top-right corner, then click Edit, or delete the draft by clicking Delete.

Keep in mind, it's not possible to recover deleted drafts. Only delete a draft if you're sure you won't need it sometime in the future.

Next steps

• As you add content, keep our best practices in mind.
• To personalize your campaign with mail merge tags, visit Personalizing your email campaign.
• To learn about your campaign's general style options, visit Styling email campaigns.
• When you're ready to send your campaign, visit Sending an email campaign.