How To Create & Use
Email Content Templates

Content Templates are reusable email body copy & layouts — the text, images, and structure inside your email. Combine them with a Design Template that supplies the logo bar, colors, and footer.

Content Template vs. Design Template

Every email in Get Shouting may use one of each. They are separate and mix-and-match freely.

Content Template Design Template
Controls Body copy, headings, images, columns, CTAs inside the email Logo bar, brand colors, fonts, header/footer images, CTA button preset
Found at Email → Content Templates Email → Design Templates

You can swap the Design Template on any Campaign without losing your content, and vice versa.

Creating a Content Template

  1. Go to Email → Content Templates (/email/content-templates).
  2. Click Create Content Template.
  3. Give it a Name — shown only in the picker, not to email recipients.
  4. Write your body copy in the editor, or paste HTML directly into the editor body. The <HTML> button in the toolbar is an info tooltip listing allowed tags.
  5. Optionally set a Default Subject Line and Preheader — these auto-fill when a campaign applies this Template but can be overridden per campaign.
  6. Click Save.

The Template is immediately available in the Content Template picker in the campaign and journey editors.

Personalization Variables

Get Shouting supports two styles of personalization tag. Both are replaced per-recipient at send time — they work in the subject line, preheader, and body copy.

Double-brace style: {{firstName}}  |  Square-bracket style: [contact name] — both resolve at send time. Bracket-style tags survive HTML sanitization and are a safe option for plain-text areas.

Contact Variables

Variable What it inserts Fallback if missing
{{firstName}} Contact's first name "there"
{{lastName}} Contact's last name empty string
[contact name] Full name (first + last). Bracket style — safe for plain text "there"

Brand Variables

Variable What it inserts
{{brandName}} Your brand's display name
{{brandUrl}} Your brand's website URL
{{brandColor}} Your brand's primary hex color value (without #) — useful for inline style="" color attributes
[brand name] Your brand name — bracket style, safe for plain text
[brand logo] Your brand logo as a responsive <img> element — use to repeat the logo inside the body copy

Product Variables

Product variables are populated from the contact's customProperties or from journey enrollment metadata. They are particularly useful in abandoned-cart or product-recommendation journey emails.

Variable What it inserts
[product] Product name from the contact's record or journey trigger
[product url] URL to the product page — wrap in an <a href="[product url]"> link
[product image] Product image as a responsive <img> element — renders the product photo inline

System Variables

Variable What it inserts
{{unsubscribeUrl}} Per-recipient unsubscribe link. Already included in the standard footer — only add this manually if you want a second unsubscribe link inside the body
{{footerYear}} Current 4-digit year — useful for copyright lines: © {{footerYear}} {{brandName}}
{{physicalAddress}} Your sender's configured physical address — already in the standard footer

Custom Contact Properties

Any custom field stored on a contact can be used as a variable using the {{fieldName}} syntax, where fieldName exactly matches the key in the contact's Custom Properties. If the field is missing for a given recipient, the tag is silently removed.

{{loyaltyPoints}}  →  1250
{{city}}  →  Austin
{{memberSince}}  →  March 2024

Property names are case-sensitive. {{City}} and {{city}} are treated as different fields.

Example Uses

Personalized Greeting

<p>Hi {{firstName}},</p>
<p>Thanks for being part of the {{brandName}} community.</p>

Renders as: "Hi Sarah, Thanks for being part of the Acme Co community."

Personalized Subject Line

{{firstName}}, your exclusive offer is waiting

Subject line personalization uses the same variable syntax and works for both campaigns and journeys.

Abandoned Cart Email

<p>Hey {{firstName}}, you left something behind!</p>
[product image]
<p><strong>[product]</strong> is still waiting in your cart.</p>
<p><a href="[product url]">Complete your purchase →</a></p>

[product image], [product], and [product url] are populated from the journey enrollment's product data.

Loyalty Reward With Custom Property

<p>{{firstName}}, you have <strong>{{loyaltyPoints}} points</strong> to redeem.</p>
<p>Use them on your next order at <a href="{{brandUrl}}">{{brandName}}</a>.</p>

{{loyaltyPoints}} maps to a custom contact property. If the field is empty for a recipient, it is removed cleanly.

Using Custom HTML in a Content Template

Paste or type HTML directly into the Editor body. The <HTML> button in the toolbar is an informational tooltip that lists allowed tags; it does not switch the Editor to a code view. The Editor parses and renders your HTML inline as you type. The rendering engine adds the document shell, logo bar, and footer CTA at send time; Brand colors and fonts are applied from the Design Template.

Allowed HTML Tags

p   br   strong   b   em   i   u   ul   ol   li
a   span   div   h1   h2   h3
img   table   tbody   thead   tfoot   tr   td   th   hr

Brand Color in Custom HTML

Reference CSS variables with a hex fallback so colors update when the Design Template changes:

<h2 style="color:#009933; color:var(--main-color);">Section heading</h2>
<div style="background:#1A1A1A; background:var(--accent-color); padding:16px;">
  Accent block
</div>

For the full HTML guide including image requirements, multi-column table layout, and CSS variable reference, see Writing Your Own HTML in the Design Templates guide. Note that if you want to define a custom layout shell (columns, section structure), write that HTML in a Design Template instead — Content Templates are for reusable body copy.

Applying a Content Template

In the Campaign Editor

  1. Open a campaign at Email → Campaigns → Edit.
  2. In the editor toolbar, click the Content Template picker.
  3. Select your Template from the list. The body copy loads immediately.
  4. The subject line and preheader auto-fill from the Template's defaults if the campaign fields are currently empty.
  5. Edit the body copy directly in the editor — changes apply to this campaign only, not the saved Template.

In a Journey Email Step

  1. Open the journey and locate the email step card.
  2. Select a Content Template from the dropdown on the step card.
  3. The Template's copy is used as the starting body for that step's email. Edit if needed inside the step editor.

Managing and Updating Templates

  • Edits to a saved Template do not affect campaigns that have already been drafted or sent. A campaign's copy is copied from the Template when the Template is applied. From that point on, the campaign copy is independent.
  • To update ongoing messaging (e.g. a changed offer or policy disclaimer), edit the source Template and then re-apply it to active draft campaigns.
  • To duplicate a Template for variation testing, open the Template menu and choose Duplicate.
  • Deleting a Template does not affect campaigns or journey steps that were already created from it — their saved copies remain intact.

System Templates (provided by Get Shouting) appear alongside your brand's own Templates in the picker but cannot be edited or deleted by brand users.

Next Steps