Yes, you can provide your own HTML for a campaign instead of using a template. Here's how:
- Click create campaign on the Dashboard or Campaigns page of your account.
- Choose regular ol' campaign, A/B split campaign, or RSS-driven campaign, depending on the type you'd like.
- In the Design step, click the select button under Import option. Then choose paste in code.
- In the HTML editor, paste the code you'd like to use.
- Check the box to use our automatic CSS-inliner if you have embedded CSS. We'll automatically inline your CSS code so you don't have to do it manually.
- Make sure you've included the MailChimp unsubscribe link, MonkeyRewards badge (for free accounts), and other information required to comply with our Terms of Use and anti-spam laws. For reference, the merge tags and code for the MailChimp MonkeyRewards badge and unsubscribe link are provided on below the code box so you can insert them into your code.
- Click popup preview to view a preview of your campaign in a browser window.
- Click send test to email tests of the HTML portion of your campaign. This is strongly recommended to ensure that your HTML renders as expected in email programs. Here are some additional campaign testing tips.
- Click next or import code to move to the next step once you're satisfied with the HTML portion of your campaign.
- Look over the plain-text version of your campaign. The plain-text generator will automatically convert the links and content from your HTML campaign to a plain-text version. Here's some information about why you should include a plain-text version.
- If you've made edits to the HTML version of your campaign by editing the provided HTML or changing from a template to pasting code, click the Copy text from HTML button to re-generate the plain-text content.
- Click next to continue to the final step where you can review your campaign, send additional tests, and send or schedule delivery.
Notes
- If you chose one of our Templates when you originally created the campaign and want to provide your own HTML instead, click change template above your campaign content, and then choose the paste in code option.
- Since you're providing your own HTML, don't forget that you'll need to host your own images on your server (no free servers - there will be bandwidth issues). And make sure you're coding all links as absolute links that are directly pointing to your server. More tips for coding HTML emails here!