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BillionMail Email Templates: Drag-and-Drop, HTML and AI Explained

Every campaign and every Send API email in BillionMail uses a template: the design and text of the email. BillionMail gives you three ways to make one. This guide explains each, and the few rules that keep templates out of the spam folder.

The three ways to build a template
Open Template and click Add Template. You choose how to build it here:

• Drag: a visual editor. You drag blocks (text, image, button, divider, columns) into the email. Best if you don't write HTML. The result works in most email apps because the editor produces email-safe HTML.
  
• AI: describe what you want and an AI model writes the email for you. This only works after you connect an AI model under Settings > AI Model; until then BillionMail shows "AI large model is not currently configured". Always read and edit what it writes.
  
• HTML: paste or write your own HTML. Best if you already have a design, for example exported from another tool, or you're comfortable with email HTML.
  

Give the template a clear name, such as "Monthly newsletter" or "Password reset", because you'll pick it from a list later.

Email HTML is not web HTML
If you choose HTML, remember that email apps (especially Outlook) support far less than browsers:

• Use tables for layout, not flexbox or grid.
  
• Put CSS inline (
  Code:Copy

  style="..."
  on each element). Many apps ignore
  Code:Copy

  <style>
  blocks.
  
• Keep the width around 600 px.
  
• Use full image URLs (
  Code:Copy

  https://...
  ) and always add
  Code:Copy

  alt
  text; many people have images turned off.
  
• No JavaScript, forms or video. Link to a page instead.
  

Personalisation tags
You can put subscriber details into the email:

• Code:Copy

  {{.Subscriber.Email}}
  : the subscriber's address.
  
• Code:Copy

  {{.Subscriber.FirstName}}
  and other attributes you imported. See importing contacts.
  
• Code:Copy

  {{.UnsubscribeURL}}
  : the personal unsubscribe link.
  
• Code:Copy

  {{.API.name}}
  and similar: values sent through the Send API. See the Send API guide.
  

Spell them exactly like this, including capital letters.

Always include an unsubscribe link
For newsletters this isn't optional. Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders to offer easy unsubscribing, and people who can't unsubscribe press "Report spam" instead, which hurts much more. Put

Code:Copy

<a href="{{.UnsubscribeURL}}">Unsubscribe</a>

in the footer, or turn on the Unsubscribe link option when you create the campaign. Also add your organisation's name and a contact address in the footer.

Write like a person
Spam filters look at the content too. A few habits help:

• Have real text, not one big image.
  
• Avoid ALL CAPS subjects, lots of exclamation marks and "FREE!!!".
  
• Use your own domain in links. Link shorteners like bit.ly are a spam signal.
  
• Keep the HTML small; Gmail cuts off emails above about 102 KB.
  

Test before you send
In the template list each template has Preview, Edit, Duplicate and Delete. Use Preview first, then send a test from the campaign screen to your own Gmail and Outlook addresses and look at it on a phone. For a spam score, use a tester like mail-tester as described in the deliverability guide.

Duplicate is handy: keep one "base" template with your header and footer, and duplicate it for each new newsletter instead of starting from zero.

More BillionMail guides

• Send API for transactional email
  
• WordPress email through BillionMail SMTP
  
• Import contacts, groups and tags
  
• SMTP relay with Amazon SES, Brevo or Mailgun
  
• Mailboxes and webmail
  
• Campaign analytics explained
  
• IP warm-up plan
  
• Move from Mailchimp or Sendy
  
• Add a second sending domain
  
• Send your first newsletter · DNS setup explained · Deliverability testing
  

Applies to BillionMail 4.9, October 2026. Replace

Code:Copy

example.com

and

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mail.example.com

with your own domain and mail hostname. Menu names can change a little between versions.