Block Structure
Last updated
Last updated
Although each newsletter will have it's own block structure with it's own sections, they will all follow the same general guidelines:
Newsletters are 630px wide
One or two columns per row
White background color, with gray at the top
Footers are statically set for all newsletters - they cannot be customized on a per-newsletter basis, but can be customized globally per group.
General structure of blocks and ads remain in the same from deployment to deployment - they cannot be reordered for each deployment. In most cases, if there's nothing scheduled to a section of the newsletter, that block will collapse, but if the overall structure or order of the sections need to change, a separate newsletter will need to be built.
Throughout the documentation, you'll hear mention of "Blocks" and "Block Templates". This is how we section the newsletter into individual styles. A "Block" is the style of that section of the newsletter. See how the example below is broken down in to "Blocks":
Each block will have a specific section assigned, which is how you'll schedule content to display on the newsletter. For example, in the above screenshot, the section of the bottom block is called "Contact Us". To get the contact "Al Bower" to appear, someone had to add a newsletter schedule to the "Contact Us" section from within Base.
Scheduling Content to NewslettersEach block can have only one section, but the same section can be assigned to multiple blocks. For instance, in the above screenshot, blocks 1 and 4 could have the same section assigned - let's call this hypothetical section "News". This means if there are 2 pieces of content scheduled to "News", the first item would show up at the top in block 1, and the second item would show up down below in block 4, skipping blocks 2 and 3. This is done by assigning a Content Limit on blocks. In this example, block 1 will only allow one piece of content to display, so any other piece of content scheduled to "News" would flow down into the next "News" block.
One of the benefits to using Base Platform for your newsletters is the ease of use and speed with which the content can be delivered. Many times, companies are often forced to manually code and build each deployment they send, which can be a very time-consuming process. By automating this process, the newsletters can be broken down into a list of pre-defined sections that tell the newsletter where content should display.
Think of the newsletter structure like your website's homepage. There are likely various blocks on your homepage that correspond to sections of your website, where you can schedule content as a means of controlling where they appear on your homepage. For example, on this homepage, there are designated blocks for the sections of their website:
Each of those blocks on the homepage represent a section in the same way the newsletters will have sections. Much like the homepage, the newsletter sections don't change from week-to-week, and the structure of where each section is "baked" onto the newsletter remains the same.
The general structure of blocks and ads remain the same from deployment to deployment - they cannot be reordered for each deployment. In most cases, if there's nothing scheduled to a section of the newsletter, that block will collapse, but if the overall structure or order of the sections need to change, a separate newsletter can be built.
In the example below, "Advertisement" will always be at the top, then "Top Story", followed by "Highlights". If something's not scheduled to "Top Story", then that section will collapse, but you can't move "Highlights" above "Top Story". The section names, and order of sections are decided during the planning stages of the newsletter build.
Important to note: The styles of each block remain consistent. Think of each block as a different style. The first block pulling "Top Story" will be displayed at full-width, and all "Highlights" content will be displayed in two-columns. For additional styles, more blocks can be created.
