Create an email design
Covers Marketing Campaigns v3
These tutorials cover the latest version of Marketing Campaigns. If you're using the legacy version of Marketing Campaigns, your experience might differ. To send email with the Twilio SendGrid Email API, see the API reference or the SMTP Reference.
To design your email messages, Twilio SendGrid provides templates called designs. These designs exist in the Design Library. From the Design Library, you can modify an existing design or create one from scratch using the Design Editor or Code Editor.
When you want to send an email message, choose one of the designs you stored in the Design Library. Twilio SendGrid supports two types of messaging: Single Sends and Automations.
- A Single Send is an email message that a organization sends to a defined group of recipients for a single purpose at a specific time. Purposes can range from promoting a product to distributing a newsletter.
- An Automation defines a workflow of multiple Single Send email messages sent in response to recipient actions or defined schedules. The email messages in the workflow can include receipts for purchase on a website to follow up satisfaction surveys.
To create and manage Designs, log in to the Twilio SendGrid console.
From the Design Library, you can edit, delete, duplicate, and create the design of later Single Send email messages.
In addition to storing your designs, you can browse and duplicate the pre-built SendGrid Email Designs and manage Your Images from the Design Library as well.
To learn more about managing images, see Image Editor.
Developer reference
To manage your designs, use the Design Library API.
To create a template or design, build from a blank template or duplicate an existing template.
To create a template, you can create a template from an empty design.
- Click Design Library. The Design Library page displays with the Your Email Designs tab selected.
- Click Create Email Design. The Select Your Editing Experience page appears.
- Click Select in either the Code Editor or Design Editor box.
- The selected editor displays with a blank template.
Developer reference
To upload a design, use the Create Design API.
To learn about best practices regarding HTML email design, see Cross-Platform Email Design.
You can edit any of the designs in the Your Email Designs tab. You can't edit one of the pre-built designs directly; you must duplicate the template first and make changes to your copy.
- Go to the design you want to edit.
- Click
⋮(action menu) under the design you want to modify and select Edit. - The template opens in the editor that created the campaign.
To modify that particular template after you create a design, you can't switch between the design and code editor. To switch editors, duplicate the design and select the alternate editor during the duplication process.
To deliver a Single Send, use any of your designs.
Single Sends are one-time non-automated email messages commonly used to deliver newsletters, promotions, policy updates, and more. You can either create a Single Send from a design or add a design to your Design Library from a Single Send.
- In the Design Library, select either the Your Email Designs or SendGrid Email Designs tab. The Select a Design page appears.
- Click
⋮(action menu) under the design you want to use then select Create Single Send. - Choose from either Your Email Designs or SendGrid Email Designs.
As you hover over each design, text appears under the design indicating which editor, if any, someone used to create the design. You can choose a different editor, but Twilio recommends the editor displayed. - Hover over your chosen template and click Select. The Select Your Editing Experience page appears.
- Click Select in the Design Editor box. The Design Editor page appears with a banner that states Success! You've added a new single send.
To learn how to deliver a Single Send, see How to Send Email with Marketing Campaigns.
Developer reference
To program Single Sends, use the Single Sends API.
If you have a Single Send that uses a design you would like to manage in your Design Library, you can add the design from the Single Send.
- From the left-hand navigation, select Marketing, and then click Single Sends.
- Find the Single Send you would like to create a design from, click the action menu and select Create Design.
- After clicking Create Design, a new window opens where you can select which editor you wish to use—the Design Editor or the Code Editor.
- The Design used by the Single Send will now be added to your Design Library where you can edit, duplicate, and use it to deliver more Single Sends or Automations.
To send recurring emails or drip series at a cadence you define, use Automations. You can use any of the designs in the Your Email Designs or SendGrid Email Designs tabs to deliver one of the messages in your Automation series. You can also save a design from an Automation email to your Design Library.
- From the left-hand navigation, select Marketing, and then click Automations.
- Click the action menu next to the automation you want to duplicate an email from and then select Edit.
- After selecting Edit, the Automation loads. Scroll to the email in the Automation that you would like to create a design from.
- Click the action menu, and then select Create Design.
- After clicking Create Design, a new window will open where you can select which editor you wish to use—the Design Editor or the Code Editor.
- The Design used by the Automation email will now be added to your Design Library where you can edit, duplicate, and use it to deliver more Automations or Single Sends.
To learn more about creating an Automation and assigning designs to the emails in a series, see Get Started with Automations.
The Design and Code editors are both feature rich applications that include live previews, the ability to add test data, and more. For more detailed documentation about working with each editor, see our Design and Code Editor documentation.