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Build Emails in Marketing Cloud Next

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

  • Identify where to build and edit emails in Marketing Cloud Next.
  • Create email content using layouts and components.
  • Organize components within the email editor.
  • Connect data sources for personalization.

Sign Up for a Developer Edition with Data 360 and Marketing Cloud Next

Click Create Playground to receive a special, limited-time custom playground that includes Data 360 and Marketing Cloud Next.

Note

This project requires access to a special Developer Edition that includes Data 360. These Developer Editions are only available for a limited time—be sure to complete this module before your org expires.

Prepare Your Email for What Comes Next

Digital marketer Isabelle is preparing an email she plans to personalize for Northern Trail Outfitters (NTO) customers who have upcoming birthdays. She begins by getting comfortable with the email editor and setting up a clear layout that represents the NTO brand. As she works, she adds and arranges components, selects the message purpose, and connects the data sources that she’ll use later for personalization.

As you follow the same steps, you build a well-organized email with connected data, giving you a solid starting point for adding rule-based variations and merge-field personalization.

Explore the Email Editor

Before you draft your message or add any personalization, get familiar with the email editor in Marketing Cloud Next. This is where you build your structure, organize components, and prepare the foundation you’ll use later on to create rule-based variations and insert merge fields.

As you get oriented in the editor, you work with three core parts of the interface that help you shape your email:

  • Canvas: Where you arrange the overall structure of your message.
  • Components panel: Where you choose elements—such as text, images, or buttons—to add to your canvas.
  • Properties sidebar: Where you adjust settings for each component so it appears and behaves the way you intend.

You build your message on the canvas using components from the panel and fine-tune each one in the properties sidebar.

A simplified view of the email editor in Marketing Cloud Next, highlighting the components panel, canvas, and properties sidebar to show where to build structure, add elements, and adjust settings.

Check out the email editor for yourself:

  1. In the Marketing app (be sure the app is called Marketing, not Marketing CRM Classic), select the Campaigns tab.
  2. Select New and enter a campaign name, Annual Promo
  3. Select Email from the Type dropdown list
  4. Click Save.
  5. Click the Quick Start tab.
  6. Click Select in the Single Email section.
  7. In the Send Email Message section of your campaign flow, click Edit to open the email editor. Review the canvas, components panel, and properties sidebar.

After you open the email editor, use the canvas to build your message, add components from the components panel, and adjust settings from the properties sidebar. When you understand how these tools work together, you can shape your message with confidence and prepare your email for personalization.

Create and Edit Email Content

Now that you’re familiar with the editor, start crafting your email. Set the message purpose, tailor the email template, and select the components that make sense for the message you plan to send.

Note

In this section, we show you how to navigate the email editor in Marketing Cloud Next. This work will not be verified in the challenge, but you can follow along and try out the steps.

Here’s how to do this:

  1. In the email editor, find the Message Purpose dropdown list in the properties panel and ensure that Promotional is selected (this is the default selection).
    1. Promotional messages include marketing content, offers, or announcements.
    2. Transactional messages relate to something the customer did—like a receipt or account update.
    3. Your selection determines which compliance elements the editor prompts you to include, such as a mailing address or unsubscribe link.
  2. Update the subject line and preheader.
    1. A preheader is a short line of text that appears next to or below the subject line in the inbox. It gives subscribers an early hint about what’s inside the email and can boost open rates when it complements—not repeats—the subject line.
  3. Add, adjust, or remove components—such as headings, text blocks, images, buttons, or dividers—to shape your canvas. Rearrange elements until the design is clear and intentional.
  4. Review your work, make any final adjustments, and select Save.

With your design in place, you’re ready to connect your email to the data that will power the personalized experiences you build next.

Use Identity Resolution to Create One Profile per Person

Before you go any further, it helps to understand how Marketing Cloud Next brings customer records together to form a complete view.

Identity resolution is the process of setting rules to link records in different sources that belong to the same person. The end result is a single, consistent customer profile for each person in Data 360. It's important to do this before sending email so that your team avoids sending customers duplicate email, applies consent correctly, and views each customer as one person.

To set this up, define an identity resolution ruleset, which you use to group the matching rules you want to use for email. Within that ruleset, you choose shared identifiers—such as email addresses—that show which records belong to the same person.

Note

Take these steps in your Trailhead playground to pass the hands-on check at the end of the unit.

If you’ve completed other Marketing Cloud Hands-On challenges, you may already have an active Identity Resolution ruleset.

Here's how to do it.

  1. In the Marketing app (be sure the app is called Marketing, not Marketing CRM Classic), select the Identity Resolutions tab, which may appear under More.
  2. Select New, then Create a New Ruleset, and Next.
  3. Select Individual in the Primary Data Model Object dropdown list.
  4. For Ruleset ID, enter MKT and click Next.
  5. For Ruleset Name, enter Marketing and click Save. It can take a few minutes for the ruleset to save.
  6. Under Match Rules, click Configure. Review instructions and click Next.
  7. Click Configure next to Match Rule 1, select Fuzzy Name and Normalized Email, click Next, then click Next again.
  8. Click Save. It may take a minute or so for the ruleset to publish.
  9. Check that the Last Job Status field says ‘In Progress’ after you’ve published the ruleset. If it does not, click Run Ruleset.
Note

If you notice a warning sign under Last Job Status, even if the status is ‘Succeeded’, find the Individual section under Reconciliation Rules, scroll down and click on Individual Id and toggle the Default Reconciliation Rule tab to Disabled. Then, under Field Reconciliation Rule, select Source Priority and Save.

Once your identity resolution ruleset is in place, you're ready to use that unified customer data as the foundation for all the personalization you'll build in this module.

Connect Data Sources for Personalization

Now that your layout is in place, you’re ready to confirm that your email has access to the data you’ll use later for personalization. This data powers both rule-based variations and merge fields.

In Marketing Cloud Next, personalization is driven by a recipient data graph, which brings together customer profile details—such as name, city, or preferences and, in some orgs, related event data such as purchases or sign-ups.

Here’s how to confirm that a recipient data graph is available:

  1. Navigate back to the Annual Promo campaign you created.
  2. Click Edit in the Send Email Message section
  3. In the email editor, select Data Sources in the properties panel.
  4. Review the connected data sources, including the recipient data graph.
    1. If you’ve already configured a default Marketing data graph in a previous module, you’ll see this already selected.
    2. If no recipient data graph is connected yet, don’t worry—you’ll learn how to connect and configure a data graph later in this module.
  5. Select Save to keep your data source settings.

With a data graph available, your email is ready for personalization. You’ll use this data later to create rules and insert merge fields.

Let’s Recap

You’ve set up a structured, branded email and connected the data that will power every personalized detail that comes next. With this foundation in place, you’re ready to start shaping variations and tailoring content for the audiences you want to reach.

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