Email is one of the two channels the CRM sends on your behalf. It lives under Marketing → Emails alongside SMS, and every email you send from a lead profile, an automation, or a template pulls from the same place.
Templates are the point. Write the tour confirmation once, then let every automation, task, and one-off send pull from the same place.
Emails come in two flavors. Simple emails are plain text with variables, the fast daily driver for confirmations, reminders, and one-to-one follow-ups. Styled emails are drag-and-drop layouts with images, buttons, columns, and branded sections, built for newsletters, open-house invites, and campaigns you want to look polished in the inbox.
Where Emails live
Emails and SMS both sit under a shared Marketing section in the left navigation. Same setup screen shape, same idea, different channel.
Create an email template
Click New template and give it a name your team will recognize six months from now. Subject, from address, and body come next. Use variables to drop in the lead's first name, guardian name, tour date, or your center name so a single template works for every family.
Rendered with a sample lead. Real sends fill from the actual lead record.
Let AI write it for you
Not sure how to phrase it? Hit AI Suggestions to generate a full draft, or highlight any line and click Personalize to rewrite it in a warmer, shorter, or more formal tone. The AI keeps your variables in place so the personalization still fills in per-lead.
Stylized emails: drag, drop, brand it
When a simple email will not do it, switch the template type to Styled and you land in the visual builder. An empty canvas on the left, a Content panel on the right with the blocks you can drop in: columns, buttons, dividers, headings, paragraphs, images, social icons, menus, and raw HTML. Click a block to drop it on the canvas, click it again on the canvas to edit its copy or swap the image.
{{lead.first_name}} variables and fallbacks as simple emails, they just render inside a branded layout instead of a plain body.Variables with fallbacks
Every variable has a fallback for when the field is empty, so a lead with no first name on file does not get "Hi ,". Toggle a filled vs empty lead to see it in action.
Missing fields fall back to "there" so nothing ever renders as "Hi ,".
Send from a lead profile
Open a lead, hit the Email quick action, and either write from scratch or pull a template. The send logs on the lead's timeline the moment it goes out.
Send to a list or a view, now or later
Emails go out to a list of people, never to a single lead from here. That is why views matter: the view is the send list. Open an email, hit Send email, and the modal asks two questions: which list and when. Pick a saved view like "Waitlist, all ages" or a filtered group like "Tour Completed", then choose Send now or Schedule for later. Variables still fill in per lead so every family sees their own name.
The number in the modal is not the same as the view total. If a view has 60 leads but only 54 have opted into email, only those 54 are included. The other 6 stay in the view, but the send skips them.
Manage your emails after they exist
Every email lives in the Emails list under Marketing. From the row menu you can view, edit, duplicate, deactivate, or delete a template. Deactivating hides an email from automations and quick actions without losing the copy, so it is the safer middle option when you are unsure.
See where an email is used and how it performed
Open any email and you get the full picture: which automations trigger it, which meetings use it, a live preview, and a performance block with sends, opens, and clicks. Below that, Recipients lists every family who received it and whether they opened or clicked. This is how you find out if the tour reminder is actually landing.
Tips before you press send
If you write the same email more than twice, save it as a template. Keep free-form for the weird cases where a parent asks something specific.
Save emails you write more than once. Keep one free-form draft for the one-off replies.