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Using the Designer Tool

Updated

The Designer Tool is where emails, landing pages, and the templates for both get built.

On this page:

What it builds

One tool covers four things: one-off emails, one-off landing pages, email templates, and landing page templates. Templates are built in advance so they can be reused; one-off content is built directly.

Where you meet it

The Designer Tool appears at the Template and Design steps of the creation process. The Template step only applies when creating an email or landing page from an existing template; building a template itself starts at Design.

Choosing an Email Template in Insightly — The screenshot shows the Template step of an email creation wizard, with three tab options visible: Layout Templates, Custom Templates, and Themed Templates. This step allows users to select a pre-built or custom email layout before proceeding to the Design stage.

Building content

Choose a prefabricated template or design your own, then customize the layout and content. Preview and save from within the tool before publishing.

Email Designer Design Tab With Custom Row — The screenshot shows the Design step of Insightly’s email builder, with a text content block selected and row property options visible in the right panel. This helps users understand how to add and manage content blocks and row settings when building a custom email layout.

With rows added to a template, click Show Structure to review the template’s overall layout.

Display Conditions let a row show or hide based on recipient criteria. Click Open Builder under the row’s Dynamic Content section to configure them.

Email Design Row Dynamic Content Settings — The email designer’s Design tab is open, showing a two-row layout with the right panel displaying Row Properties, including a Dynamic Content section with a display condition builder. This is relevant for users learning how to apply display conditions to individual rows in an email, allowing content to show or hide based on recipient criteria.

Custom Rows let you save a content block (a header, footer, or other reusable component) for reuse across other emails via copy-paste. Click the row’s save icon to open the Custom Row dialog; this is email-only, not available for landing pages, but works on every Marketing plan.

Custom Row Creation Dialog in Insightly CRM — This screenshot shows a modal form for creating a custom row, with fields for Name, Category (defaulting to “Header”), and Tag, along with a Save button. This would help users understand how to add and configure custom rows within their Insightly CRM layout settings.

🎬 Video tutorial:
A walkthrough of Custom Rows.

⚠️ Watch for broken merge fields in preview. A misconfigured mailing address field can render as “Our mailing address is: , ,” with the actual address missing.

Blank mailing address merge field error — The email preview shows “Our mailing address is: , ,” with empty fields where the address should appear, indicating a merge field configuration problem. This would matter to readers because it demonstrates what a broken or unconfigured mailing address field looks like in an Insightly email template.

Insightly adds an unsubscribe link to the footer of every email automatically, separately from any link you place in the body.

⚠️ The footer link cannot be edited. It is added to every email whatever the template does.

The footer carries three things: the unsubscribe link, the organization’s name, and the organization’s address. The name and address are pulled from System Settings > User Interface > Company Settings.

⚠️ An unpopulated Company Settings page produces a blank footer for recipients. The name and address simply do not appear. Since those details are what the footer exists to carry, check Company Settings is filled in before the first send rather than after.

⚠️ Respecting an unsubscribe is a legal obligation. Where a Prospect unsubscribes, is marked Do Not Email, or opts out, their preference has to be respected to stay compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act in the Americas and the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe. A suppression list is the reliable way to capture everyone who has opted out of marketing communications; contact preferences are also visible on the Prospect record.

Two links can be added to content from within the Designer Tool:

  • Unsubscribe link, in addition to the automatic footer one above. Add a row to house it, add a text content element to that row, click the text box, open the Special Links dropdown, and choose Unsubscribe Link. Click the link text and then the hyperlink option in the text editor to edit its properties. See Unsubscribe Page for what a recipient sees after clicking.
Inserting an Unsubscribe Link via URL Dialog — The image shows an “Insert link” dialog box in Insightly’s email editor, where a user has entered the merge tag {{unsubscribe}} as the URL and “Unsubscribe Link” as the display text. This demonstrates how to add a functional unsubscribe link to an email template using a dynamic merge tag.
  • View in browser link – lets recipients open the email as a web page, which matters when images or layout don’t render in their email client. Clicks in the email are tracked, with the exception of the View in Browser link itself.

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