How to send a plain text email

Overview

Plain text emails are a great way to connect personally with your contacts. Read on to learn about Sendlane's plain text email editor.

In this guide

• Plain text email builder versus visual builder
• Create a plain text email
• Save a plain text email as a template

Plain text email builder versus visual builder

Use cases

The visual builder is intended to create high-quality, visually stunning marketing emails, while the plain text editor is intended to create personal, text-focused emails.

Use the plain text builder to create emails that strengthen a personal connection to your brand. Welcome emails, company history, requests for feedback, apology messages, and thought leadership are great candidates for the plain text email editor.

Visual builder exclusive elements

Elements like the abandoned cart and other dynamic blocks are unavailable in the plain text editor. We recommend reserving plain text emails for messages not solely focused on inviting contacts to make a purchase.

Footer

Your company name and business address (as set in the sender profile used for the email) and an unsubscribe link appear in the plain text email builder's footer as the last line in the email. This line cannot be edited.

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Create a plain text email

Creating plain text emails is the same for automations and campaigns. You must create a plain text email within the campaign or automation builder; plain text emails cannot be created directly from the email template center.

Available styling

The following styling options are available in the plain text builder:

• Brand fonts
• Text color, size, alignment, and formatting
• Ordered and unordered lists
• Images*
• Tagged links
• Emojis
• Personalization and templating syntax**
• Coupons**
• Custom data**
• HTML editing

*When you upload an image, you can change its size in the visual editor only upon upload. After you've saved your image, use the HTML view to adjust your image's size further.
**Click the thunderbolt icon in the menu bar to access these features.

To create a plain text email:

1. Create a campaign or automation
2. Fill in your campaign or automation's general, audience, and advanced settings
3. Click Create Email
4. Click Start From Scratch
5. Click Text Builder
6. Compose your email
7. Click Save & Continue
8. Continue scheduling your campaign or activating your automation

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Convert a plain text email to HTML

Plain text emails can be converted to HTML, but HTML emails cannot be converted back to plain text.

To convert a plain text email to HTML:

1. Click the gear icon
2. Click Convert to HTML
3. Click Convert

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Save a plain text email as a new or existing template

The visual builder, HTML builder, and plain text builder all use the same method of saving as a template.

You must create a plain text email within the campaign or automation builder; plain text emails cannot be created directly from the email template center.

To save a plain text email as a template:

1. Click the gear icon
2. Click Save as New Template
3. Enter a descriptive name for your template
4. Click OK

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