Major updates in beta: New email builder and email scheduling

In this article:

Launch announcement and overview

Little Green Light has launched major updates to the LGL Email feature, which are currently in beta. The updates include a new email builder with expanded functionality and the ability to schedule emails.

The new email builder allows greater control over the look and feel of emails you send from LGL. You can use content blocks to add headings, text, images, buttons, and more. You can also add global design options to set colors for the page background and content background. 

The new updates also allow you to:

  • Control styling for border colors and corner styles
  • Preview emails to see how they will look on either a computer or a mobile device
  • Schedule emails to go out up to 30 days in advance
  • More clearly see which constituents are selected to receive emails
  • View an improved display of exclusions and manual constituent additions
  • Quickly view recipients’ salutation, email address, and addressee values, and edit those on the fly

Each section of this article shares highlights of the update.

Enabling the beta/new navigation on the Emails page

To try out the beta, navigate to the Mailings > Emails page and turn on the beta, as shown here:

New navigation, same 4-step email process

The Draft, Scheduled, and Sent tabs are now located along the left column of the page, rather than across the top.

Creating an email still uses the same 4-step process, with the steps located across the top of the screen. 

NOTE: Once you begin the stepped process, you will no longer see the universal LGL navigation bar along the top of the page.

Step 1 - Select and manage your email recipients

The Recipients step offers improved accessibility to recipients/exclusions. These are present so you can more easily see who is excluded and be able to better manage that list.

There are three tabs related to recipients: 

  • Recipients - Constituents who will receive the email
  • Manually removed - Constituents who were manually excluded
  • Excluded - Constituents who were automatically excluded due to being deceased, being assigned the “do not email” communications tag, or not having an active, valid email address.

NOTE: There is a built-in check for recipients tagged as "Deceased" or "Do Not Email". Whenever either of those tags has been added to a recipient's constituent record after an email is scheduled but before it is sent, a status of "No Longer Valid" is displayed for that recipient and they will be excluded from the email.

Title your email

You can change the title of your email at any point during the stepped process by clicking the title at the very top of the page. Then make your change and click the “save” icon. 

Step 2 - Create your email content

The functionality in this step has been expanded and redesigned to give you more control over how your email looks. Highlights of the update are listed below and explained following the screenshots.

  • The editor now has elements (blocks) you can add to your email. To add a new element, hover your cursor over a section break and click the “+” sign. Element options include heading, text, button, image, divider, and columns
  • Click on any Text element, and you’ll see an option for merge fields
    • You can also type two open brackets “[[” to open the list of merge fields and insert one
  • Controls are available for the look and feel of the global email and each email element

Text blocks

The previous version of LGL Email allowed you a single block of text to work in. The beta version offers multiple elements (blocks), giving you more flexibility and control. By default, you have this one block you can use to create your email. You can then add one or more additional blocks by clicking the plus ("+") symbol and making your selection/s. 


To delete a block, click the Delete (trashcan) icon for that block.

Exiting and re-opening a block

If you want to close a block or discontinue editing the email, click anywhere outside that area (for example, to the right of the content window). This action will close the block. If you want to reopen it, click in the block once more. 

Improved flexibility around inserting merge fields

When you click into a text block, LGL merge fields that are available to use become visible to the right. They work in the same way as they did previously, with favorites listed at the top (if you have designated favorites). 

You can now also add merge fields by typing two open brackets. This will automatically open a merge field dropdown list, where you can type a merge field and select it.

Text columns

You can add a block with two or three columns in your email by clicking “+”, selecting the Columns option, and then choosing the number of columns within the Columns Element, in the right panel. 

Mobile view

You can now preview how your email will look on a computer and a mobile device, which is convenient for when you’re creating an email that you expect your recipients will view on their phones.

Formatting tools

In the panel to the right of your email content, Global and Element options are available for formatting your email’s background, content background, and other aspects of your email. “Element” applies to a specific section of the email. “Global” applies to the entire email. 

For example, if you add an image block to your email, you will use the panel on the right to select the image you want to add and set the dimensions of the image.

Step 3 - Preview the email

Highlights of the update are listed here and explained following the screenshots.

  • See a list of all recipients and their Salutation, Email address, and Addressee fields
  • Edit the name information for constituents without needing to leave the page

The Preview step is now step 3, whereas in the previous version of LGL Email it was in step 4. Each email is merged and available for you to preview. 

You also have access to a list of all email recipients to the right, and you can click on a name to jump down to that email. Additionally, it’s possible to edit the name information for the recipient on the fly. So if you need to update or add an email address or change the salutation, for example, you can do that here. 

Step 4 - Schedule and send the email

Highlight of the update is listed here and explained following the screenshot.

  • Schedule emails up to 30 days in advance

The new version of LGL Email allows you to schedule an email up to 30 days in advance. Just click the Schedule button and make your date/time selection.

It’s still also possible to send your email right away by clicking the Send immediately button.

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