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Email Builder Documentation

Content Guidelines

Strong email content is essential for connecting with your audience and driving engagement. Follow these guidelines to write clear, concise emails that align with NC State brand standards and communicate effectively with your recipients.

Email Text

Write your email copy to follow the NC State brand. The Writing for NC State page on the brand website provides writing guidelines on editorial style, respecting your audience, using the Think and Do mantra, and voice and tone.

Order

Recipients scan emails quickly, often reading only the first few lines. Lead with your most important information and calls to action to maximize visibility. Use a logical flow to guide readers toward the action you want them to take.

Length

Shorter emails render more consistently across devices and get higher read-through and engagement rates, especially on mobile devices.

In blocks that allow for more text, use 1 to 2 sentences, or less than 200 characters. Use links to direct readers to your website for more detailed information rather than adding more text.

Also avoid overloading your email with too many blocks. A long chain of blocks adds length and load time even if each individual block is short, so use only as many as your content needs.

Size

Major email providers, including Gmail and Yahoo Mail, clip emails larger than 100 KB, hiding the rest of the message behind a “View entire message” link. An email’s size is determined by the length of its HTML code, including the text and the number of blocks used.

Check Your Email Size

  1. Click the computer icon in the top right corner of the editor
  2. Click “Preview in new tab.”
  • This opens a preview page with a box showing whether your email meets the size requirements.
  • Once you publish your email, this same preview screen is where you copy your email’s HTML code to use in sending emails.
Ideal Length box in the email preview screen showing email length guidelines and a button to copy HTML code for your email marketing platform.

Block Strategy

Varying your block types improves readability and engagement. Different blocks create visual hierarchy, break up dense text, provide natural rest points for the eye and signal shifts between ideas or sections. This variety helps readers navigate your content more easily, increasing the likelihood they’ll read through your entire email.

Animated Blocks

Three blocks in the Email Builder use animation:

Use one animated block per email. Excessive animation distracts readers, increases file size and can trigger accessibility issues for some recipients. Always use animated blocks for their intended purpose: one header at the beginning of your email and a divider only within the body content.