Create an email marketing campaign using Shopify Email
From your Shopify admin, you can create and send emails directly from Shopify Email. You can customize or build your own branded templates. You can also select which segment (group) of customers will receive your emails.
Draft emails are saved automatically as you edit, and aren't sent until you confirm that the email is ready. You can also schedule emails in advance to help yourself plan ahead for your store.
Refer to our guide about Shopify's best practices for email marketing for a full list of content suggestions, design tips, and strategies.
On this page
- Set up an email marketing activity
- Changing your sender email address
- Customizing your email messages
- Creating a custom-coded email with Liquid
- Creating and managing new Shopify Email templates
- Adding express checkout
- Adding special characters to emails
- Translating email content
- Send or schedule an email
Set up an email marketing activity
Shopify Email enables you to send emails to segments of customers who have subscribed to email marketing from your store. To send email campaigns to specific audiences, learn more about creating customer segments.
You need to add a subject for the email. When you add a subject, your email activity will be saved with that name. You can change this at any time.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing.
Click Create campaign.
Click Shopify Email.
Choose an email template.
Click To, and then select a customer segment.
Enter a subject for the email.
Optional: Enter preview text to customize the text that's displayed after the subject in customer email inboxes. For example,
More fresh finds for your summer wardrobe.
After you set up the email activity details, you can customize the email body content.
Changing your sender email address
The sender email address is the email address displayed in the From field in messages that customers receive from you. Some domains might require additional authentication, otherwise your sender email address might be displayed with via shopifyemail.com, or as store@shopifyemail.com.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications.
- In the Sender email section, enter your email address.
- Click Save.
Customizing your email messages
Depending on what kind of message you're sending to your customers, you can select from a variety of branded templates in Shopify Email. Some templates automatically include assets from your store, such as your logo, products, and colors.
The default content of Shopify Email templates is based on email marketing best practices, and includes placeholder text, images, and links in sections that are based on information from your store.
You can customize the body content for your email marketing activities by adding, editing, or removing sections. Changes are saved only to the specific email marketing activity that you're editing.
Add, edit or remove a section in the email content
From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing.
Click Create campaign > Shopify Email.
-
Select a template that you want to customize. You can make the following changes to the email body content:
- To add a section, use your mouse to hover over the email content where you want the new section, and then click the
+icon. - To remove a section from the email content, first click it to open editing options, and then click the trash can icon to remove the section.
- Click the section that you want to edit to review the editing options. Editing options are determined by the section type.
- To add a section, use your mouse to hover over the email content where you want the new section, and then click the
Text
| Editing options |
Changes to the text style are applied to the whole email. For example, when you set Heading 1 to use Times New Roman font, then all text with Heading 1 applied to it is displayed in Times New Roman. The text of Price can’t be changed. The price of a product has to be changed in the product itself. |
|---|---|
Button
| Editing options |
|
|---|---|
Image
| Editing options |
An image can be selected from your Shopify files, or a new image can be uploaded. |
|---|---|
| Requirements |
|
Header
| Editing options |
|
|---|---|
Product
| Editing options |
The price of a product can only be changed in the Products section where the template pulls the product detail from. It can't be changed in the Shopify Email editor. |
|---|---|
Express checkout
| Editing options |
Only one product with one variant can be selected for this section. If you have Shop Pay activated on your store, then both Buy with Shop Pay and the Check out now buttons display in the section by default. You can deselect the Shop Pay button to hide it, but the Check out now button can't be hidden. You can edit only the button size and corner style of the Shop Pay button. |
|---|---|
Gift card
| Editing options |
Gift cards need to be previously active for the store. They can’t be created or edited from the Shopify Email editor. |
|---|---|
Discount
| Editing options |
Discounts need to previously exist in the store. They can’t be created or edited from the Shopify Email editor. |
|---|---|
Image with text
| Editing options |
|
|---|---|
Multi-column
| Editing options |
|
|---|---|
Footer
| Editing options |
The footer section can't be removed. The store address and phone number are customized in your store settings. To add social media links to your email, you need to use the Brooklyn, Debut, Kagami, Minimal, Narrative, or Parallax theme. |
|---|---|
Custom Liquid
| Editing options |
You can input custom Liquid and HTML into the code editor. The code that you enter can't exceed 50 kilobyets (KB) in size. Learn more about the supported Liquid variables for Shopify Email. |
|---|---|
Preview an email before sending
- From the email editor, click Send test to preview the email as it will be displayed your customers. You can send a test email to the email address associated with your Shopify store.
- Click Review to view an overview of the email activity.
- When you're ready to send the email click Send, click Send again to confirm. If you want to make changes to the email, then click Edit Email Content.
Personalizing your email messages
You can add personalized text to your email campaigns, like your customer's first name, last name, email, city, state, province, and country. If you add personalized content to a certain section of your email message, then Shopify Email automatically uses customer information in that section, if it exists for the customer receiving the email. You can add personalized text to your subject line, preview line, and email body text. Personalization provides a more tailored experience for your email subscribers, and can improve open rates, conversions, and engagement.
You can have only two personalization values in your email's subject line and preview line. For example, in the subject line you can use First name and Last name, but not a third personalization value. You can have a maximum of ten personalization values in the email body text. You can also add default information that is used when specific customer information isn't available.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing.
- Click Create campaign > Shopify Email.
- Select a template to customize.
- To personalize a subject line, preview line, header, or body text, click the pencil icon in the appropriate section.
- Select the value that you want to personalize from the options that are displayed. For example, select
Cityif you want your email to include the customer's city. - Optional: Enter a default value that is used if the customer's information is unavailable. If you don't enter a default value, then the space for personalized text is left blank.
- Click Save.
Creating a custom-coded email with Liquid
If you want to use custom Liquid code in the creation of your email, then you can either add a custom Liquid section, or create an email entirely from custom Liquid code.
All emails created with custom-coded Liquid must include the {{unsubscribe_link}} variable. If you've opted in to open tracking, then the {{open_tracking}} variables is also required. Custom-coded Liquid emails can't exceed 500 KB.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing.
Click Create campaign > Shopify Email.
Click Code your own.
Optional: If you have a file saved to your local device with the code that you want to use, then click Import. Imported files must be
.htmlformat.Enter your liquid code.
Optional: Click Review for a preview of how your email is displayed to customers.
Learn more about the supported Liquid variables for Shopify Email.
Creating and managing new Shopify Email templates
All emails that you create using Shopify Email can be edited and customized. You can save custom templates to use as a starting point for future campaigns.
Create and save a custom email template
You can create and save custom templates to use as a starting point for future campaigns.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing.
Click Create campaign > Shopify Email.
Click Create template.
In the Shopify Email editor, edit your template.
Select Save as Template.
Name your template.
Click Save.
Templates are saved under Email > Templates.
Using a custom template
You can use your custom templates for any future marketing campaigns.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing.
Click Create campaign > Shopify Email.
Select your template from the My Templates section. After you select your template, you can follow the steps to create an email marketing campaign.
Editing a custom template
If you need to change an existing template, then you can edit it from the Templates list from the Email app.
Steps:
- From your Shopify admin, under Apps, navigate to Email > Templates.
- Click the overflow menu button to open the available options for the template that you want to manage.
- Click one of the following:
- Click Duplicate to duplicate the selected template.
- Click Create email to create a marketing campaign from the selected template.
- Click Delete to delete a template.
Adding express checkout
You can add express checkout to your email, which allows customers to purchase products through a direct checkout link. With this section, you can select a product or product variant, and create a Check out now button. If you have Shop Pay activated on your store, then a Buy with Shop Pay button also displays.
When customers use express checkout, they bypass the product and cart pages for an accelerated checkout experience. Using accelerated checkout can increase customer conversions.
The express checkout buttons apply only to a single product, but you can add more than one express checkout section to an email.
Adding special characters to emails
You can add international characters to email subject lines and text.
Email subject lines support emojis.
Translating email content
Emails are only sent in the language that you write them in and aren't automatically translated. You can create customer segments to target a specific audience of your customers based on language.
Send or schedule an email
It's a good idea to proofread your email content before you send the email. Shopify doesn't check for misspelled words or other errors. You can send a test email to yourself to review what the email looks like in an inbox.
When you go to send or schedule your email, there is a suggested future time that's displayed with a Suggested badge beside it. The suggested time is based on Shopify's data and optimized for the best click-through rate. If you choose to send your email at the suggested time, then it might lead to a better conversion rate.
Send a test email
- From the email editor, click Send test.
- In the Email addresses section, enter up to five email addresses that you want to send the test to, one at a time.
- Click Send.
Review and send your email now
- From the email editor, when you're done editing your email, click Review.
- Optional: To make additional edits, click Edit email to go back to the editor or Exit to go back to the previous page.
- Click Schedule send.
- Select Now. If there is a cost to send the emails, then an estimated cost is displayed.
- Click Send to send.
Schedule an email
When you're done editing your email, you might want to schedule it for a later date. If you've reached an email limit, then you can schedule the email for the next available day.
You can choose to schedule the email for a custom time, or a suggested time.
Steps:
- From the email editor, click Review.
- Click Schedule send.
- Do one of the following:
- To choose your own custom send time, click Custom date and time and enter the details in the Send date and Send time fields. If there is a cost to send the emails, then an estimated cost is displayed.
- To choose the suggested time, optimized for the best click-through rate, click the option that has the Suggested badge beside it. If there is a cost to send the emails, then an estimated cost is displayed.
- Click Schedule.
Cancel or reschedule a send time
You can cancel a scheduled email to stop it from sending at the chosen time. You can also reschedule it for another time.
Steps:
- From Shopify Email, click the campaign.
- Click Edit send date.
- Do one of the following:
- To cancel the email from being send at the scheduled time, click Remove send date.
- To reschedule, choose a new time and date, and then click Save.
Email limits
Email limits determine how many subscribers you can email during a period of time. These are determined by several factors, and help prevent deliverability issues.
The number of emails you've sent in a day is calculated by how many emails were delivered to individual subscribers that day, rather than the number of email campaigns you have sent.
Do one of the following if you encounter an email limit:
- Schedule an email for the next available date.
- Create customer segments and tailor your email to certain segments. Strategic marketers build email marketing around their audience. You can create customer segments to target specific subscribers with specific campaigns, or to split up your list into smaller segments.
You might be able to increase your email limits by improving your delivery metrics. The following factors affect delivery metrics:
- Bounce rate: The bounce rate indicates how many of the emails that you send out are "bounced" or returned to you.
- Spam rate: Bounce rates, engagement from your subscribers, and if your customers marked your email as spam or junk can all affect whether or not your email is viewed as spam by an email provider.
- Unsubscribe rate: If a customer clicks Unsubscribe in an email from you, or marks the email as spam, then they'll be removed from your list.
- Click rate: Click rate is calculated by dividing unique clicks by the number of emails delivered. Learn more about email best practices to improve click rates.
- Cart addition rate: The cart addition rate is the percentage of visitors who place at least one item in their cart during the session.
- Conversion rate: The conversion rate is the percentage of subscribers who follow your email's call-to-action after reading your email, like buying the product you advertised in the email.
If you have questions about scheduling or segmenting customers, then you can contact Shopify Support for further assistance.