Experience Email Content Blocks

Experience Email offers a drag-and-drop email builder to design your email, including blocks for dynamic content and recommendations.

The available content blocks include: 

• Recommendations
• Dynamic Content
• Banner Grid
• Maps
• Menu
• Countdown Timer

Recommendations blocks

The Recommendations block enables you to set algorithms and filtering to serve users personalized content that's propagated when the email is opened. 

Configure a Recommendations block

Drag a Recommendations block from the editing pane into the body of your email, and then: 

1. Select the algorithm you want to use (for example, Popularity, User Affinity, or Similarity). 
2. Depending on the selected algorithm, additional options are displayed. For example, if your recommendation is based on popularity, you can shuffle the results to avoid serving the same recommendation from different emails the viewer opens (recommended). Other algorithms (such as Similarity) rely on context to serve recommendations, requiring that you select items to include. You can add them in the builder, or add a merge tag to the embed code to make it dynamic (for example, to add similar items into shipping confirmation emails).
3. You can exclude products that the user has already purchased to avoid recommending these products.
4. You can add a custom filter rule to pin specific products to slots, or include and exclude products by product properties (for example, don't show products that cost less than $5, or show only products from the shirts category).
5. Configure the recommendation block design: Select an item template, and set the number of items to display, in how many rows.

Custom filter rules

You can add custom filter rules that affect what recommendation is served. For example, showing only items from a specific category, or pinning an item to a specific slot. You can also use real-time filters to filter for products based on data received from the ESP through use of merge tags. 

Learn more about Recommendation Custom Filter Rules.

Customers using "lng" parameters can create localized filters. See Multi-language Support for more information.

Note that if you use filters that result in fewer eligible products than the number of slots, white images are displayed, which link to a '404 Error' page on your site (the domain is taken from the General Settings screen, so make sure that your site’s main domain is updated).

Dynamic Content block

Use Dynamic Content to target different promotions and messages to different users. Targeting can be based on either affinity or audience. When the email is opened, Dynamic Yield determines which personalized experience to serve. 

Configure a Dynamic Content block

Drag a Dynamic Content block from the editing pane into the body of your email, and then: 

1. Select a template for the first variation. You can now define design and content variables.
   
2. Save the variation.
3. In the Dynamic Content pane, set the audience.
   
4. Add another variation to target another specific audience or all users. Repeat as needed.
5. Set the priorities for your variations using the up and down arrows. Priorities determine which variation is served when a user is eligible for more than one experience.
6. Define general block settings (padding, alt-text). testing the app

Fallback

If a user is not eligible for any of the variations defined, no content is displayed. We render a 1x1 pixel instead.

Banner Grid block

The Banner Grid block is a grouping of Dynamic Content blocks, displayed as a grid and ordered by affinity. Personalized grids in email campaigns are a great way to increase user engagement and improve the overall design of emails.

Configure a Banner Grid block

Drag a Banner Grid block from the editing pane into the body of your email, and then: 

1. Edit the banner layout as follows:
   1. Set the number of columns to display (maximum 2)
   2. Set the number of rows (maximum 5)
   3. Define the gap between grid blocks (maximum 150px)

2. Create variations. You must create at least as many variations as the number of grid blocks (if you have 4 grid blocks, create at least 4 variations). The maximum number of variations supported is 30.
   1. Select a template.
   2. Edit the design.
3. Add affinity tags to each variation.
   Note that the order of the variation that you create is not the order of the display for each user. The user's affinity score for each variation determines the order of variations in the banner. The highest-scoring variation is placed in the top-left corner, and then the next highest-ranking, and so on.
   
4. Manage variation fallbacks:
   • Don’t show any content displays an empty pixel.

• Show a non-personalized grid requires you to create as many fallback variations as there are grid slots.
• You can determine the order that the fallback variations are displayed using the up and down arrows.

When the code is generated and the campaign sent, you can follow the performance of the Banner Grid block in the campaigns report.

Map block

Use a personalized map to show users where the closest branch to them is. When the email is opened, Dynamic Yield determines which personalized map to serve based on the user’s favorite branch. 

Create a map block

1. Drag a Map block from the editing pane into the body of your email. 
2. Select a template (single or multiple location).
3. Define the map settings: Radius, radius unit, and (optional) marker image.
   
   You can select a branch to use as a sample to preview your map. 
4. Define a fallback image to display if the user is outside the maximum radius for showing a branch.
   
5. Edit the banner design (text, button, background): 
6. Save the block.

Menu block

Replace static top categories with an affinity-based dynamic menu:

• Personalize the banner to your brand identity
• Display up to 5 menu items out of a pool of variations
• Menu items are ordered and displayed to the email opener based on affinity
• The menu can be created once, and then implemented as an evergreen content block

Configure a Menu block

1. In your email editor, drag a Menu block from the editing pane into the body of your email.
2. Edit the menu layout:
   1. Set the number of menu iItems (5 maximum).
   2. Set the gap between grid blocks (150px maximum).
   3. Select the alignment.
   4. Select a separator.
   
3. Create variations.
   • Create as many variations as there are menu items (for example, if you have 4 menu headings, create at least 4 variations).
   • You can create a maximum of 30 variations.
4. Select a template.
5. Edit the design.
6. Add affinity tags to each variation.
   The menu item variation order of isn't how they'll be displayed to individual users. The user's affinity to the variations dictates the menu display. The variation to which the user has the highest affinity is displayed first (left), then the one with the second highest affinity score, and so on.
7. Manage variation fallbacks:

• Don’t show any content displays an empty pixel.
• Show a non-personalized grid requires you to create as many fallback variations as there are slots.

• You can determine the order that the fallback variations are displayed using the up and down arrows.

When the code is generated and the campaign sent, you can follow the Menu block campaign's performance in the Campaigns report.

Countdown Timer

The Countdown Timer is a dynamic block that shows the time remaining until an event starts or a sale ends. The goal is to create a sense of urgency and fuel FOMO (fear of missing out) to spur purchases.

Configure a Countdown Timer

1. Drag a Countdown Timer block from the editing pane into the body of your email.

2. Select a targeting option:

   • User Affinity: Set the affinity parameter and a fallback policy.

   • Audience

     

3. Click Create Variation, and then: 

   1. Select one of the out-of-the-box templates:

      • Countdown Block: Includes title, subtitle, and countdown timer with an optional background color.

      • Countdown Coupon: Same as the Countdown Block, with the addition of targeted coupon codes based on an ESP variable.

      • Countdown Bar: 1-line countdown with text and an optional background color.

      
   2.  Edit the design, including content, counter settings, and text and background colors. Note the following:
      • The Event Date & Time and Time Zone fields determine the end date and time of your timer in a given time zone. Create multiple variations with different end dates and time zones, as needed. 
      • Use the Show Days Count option to add a days countdown label. This label is enabled by default if the end of the event is more than 96 hours away.
      • You can schedule a countdown with an end date up to 99 days away.
      • The countdown preview is a fixed 60-second GIF based on the last time the variation was edited and saved. This means that if you come back to it after saving the variation, the countdown timer doesn't show an accurate countdown.
      

      Click Next.

   3. Select the post-event behavior: Set what to display if a user opens the email after the timer ends. Then click Next. The options are:
      • Show Zeros: Users see the finished countdown. Add a fallback URL they can click through to. It can be the same or different from the variation's target URL.
      • Add Fallback Image: Users see this image instead of the timer. Upload an image and add an optional fallback URL.
      • Hide this variation: Users don't see the promotion. An empty pixel replaces the variation.
   4. Add a fallback image. Upload an image to display to users if the variation isn't displayed for any reason. One common practice is to upload an image that displays the event's end date.
4. Save the variation. Repeat for as many variations as you need.