Use Creative Assistant for Email

It takes a lot of work to create professional, on-brand emails. Use Mailchimp's Creative Assistant to quickly style customized emails and templates with colors, fonts, images, and logos that match your own brand.

In this article, you'll learn how to use Creative Assistant when designing an email in the new builder.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• Creative Assistant for email is included with the Standard plan or higher.

• This article describes how to access and use the Creative Assistant for email in the new builder. For help using Creative Assistant for classic emails, landing pages, and classic automations, check out About Creative Assistant and Use Brand Kit in Creative Assistant.

How it works

Creative Assistant uses colors, fonts, images, and logos from your brand to create multi-channel designs. When using this feature in the email builder, we'll apply your brand to create unique, customized templates just for you.

We'll sort these templates into 5 categories to make it easy to find the design that meets your needs. These categories are Sell, Announce, Advertise, Welcome, and Educate & Inform.

While using Creative Assistant, you can add or change your brand's colors and styles. We'll apply any changes you make to the brand associated with your Mailchimp account. If you don't have a brand to import yet, Creative Assistant will show you our starter brands. You can use these to create brand assets quickly, or until you add your own to Mailchimp.

To make changes to a customized template without changing the brand styles stored in your Mailchimp account, apply the template to your email before making any style changes. You can then add it to your saved templates for future use.

Access Creative Assistant with a custom template

To access the Creative Assistant in a custom template when you create an email, follow these steps.

1. Click the Create icon, then click Email.
2. Click Regular.
3. Enter an Internal email name, then click Begin.
4. Navigate to the Content section and click Design Email.
5. On the Mailchimp Templates tab, click Custom email designs.
   
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Access Creative Assistant with the Customer Journey Builder

Use Creative Assistant for automated emails you send from the Customer Journey Builder. When you add a send email action to a customer journey map, click Select a Template in the Send email pop-up and choose Custom email designs.

Great! Now that you can see our customized templates, we'll go over how to edit your brand settings before selecting a template.

Edit colors, fonts, and buttons

Before you choose a design, use the Colors and Theme settings in the side panel to quickly choose your color palette, fonts, and button styles.

To change the colors, fonts, and button styles in Creative Assistant, follow these steps.

1. In the Creative Assistant side panel, click Colors.
   
   
2. Select a color swatch and use the color picker to adjust the color.
   
   
   Select colors within the color picker, or enter values in the HEX field to adjust a color in the palette.
3. Click Save Palette.
4. Click the Theme preview tile.
   
   
5. Use the Headings and Paragraphs drop-downs to choose your preferred fonts.
6. Use the Button Shape selections to adjust the look of clickable buttons in your email.
7. Use the Button Style selections to choose filled or outlined buttons.
8. When you're done, click Save Theme.

For more branding options, click Advanced Brand Settings to access your Brand Kit. For more information on how to use the Brand Kit, check out About Creative Assistant.

Next, we'll go over how to select one of these designs and add it to your email.

Choose your design

To use a customized design in your email, follow these steps.

1. On the Creative Assistant for email page, click the preview tile of a design to view more details.
2. On the preview screen, click the mobile device icon to see how the design looks on a mobile phone or tablet.
   
3. When you're ready to make a selection, click Apply to use the design in your email.

Awesome! Your customized template has been added to your email. You can adjust the design and style even further in the email builder, without changing your brand styles. Check out Design an Email with the New Builder to learn more.

Once you're satisfied with your email design, you can save it as a template to use it again later.