How I use the power of 'snippets' in my ConvertKit emails.

If you’re used to sending out emails to your subscribers, you’ll be familiar with the feeling of repeating many sections of content, across your list of emails.

Convertkit’s ‘snippets’ are a time-saver and convenience

‘Snippets‘ are reusable chunks of content you can create once and include infinitely across your emails. They remove the need for copying and pasting content from one email to another (as we’ve all done, I’m sure).

To get started, select the menu option, ‘Send‘ -> ‘Snippets‘

When you click on ‘Snippets’ you then click on the button entitled ‘New Snippet‘

Clicking on the button will present two options, ‘Blocks‘ and ‘Inline‘

Block Snippets

Block snippets, as the name would suggest, are blocks of content that stand alone within your emails, needing no other content around them for context, or to make sense.

Typical uses for block snippets include;

• Testimonials from past clients
• Signatures for emails
• Details of a promotion or event
• A product or service you sell
• Commonly referred to paragraphs (in your niche)
• A resource list

Below, you can see an example from my library of snippets. I use this one in some of my email templates, both as a sign-off and a way to promote my free membership group, ‘The Thursday Email Club‘.

Of course, in reality, block snippets can be used for any content you want, but are most useful for often-referenced content pieces.

Inline Snippets

Again, another helpfully descriptive name, these are used, not in isolation, but instead, can be used within other sections of content in your emails.

Below is an example of a use case for an inline snippet, in this instance, checking to see if my subscriber has a particular ‘tag’ (i.e. ‘Active Thursday Email Club Member’) and provide two possible snippets of text, depending on whether they have the ‘tag’ or not.

This snippet will display “Click here to log into the members’ area” if the tag is present, and will display “Click here to join The Thursday Email Club” if the tag is NOT present.

So, you can see the power of having such a snippet available whenever you need it, without having to remember the code every time.

Dynamic updates

Another benefit that using snippets brings is the dynamism with which you can easily edit a chunk of content once, and it changes in every email in which it’s being used.

Let’s take the email signature example above; if I decide to change the offering from The Thursday Email Club to another promotion, I can change it inside the snippet, and those changes will be applied in every instance of the snippet being used.

Of course, it can’t possibly change the content of emails that have already been sent, but it will change the content for the next time it’s sent to a subscriber.

Adding snippets to your emails

To add snippets to your emails is a very simple task. Just click on the ‘+’ icon that appears in the editor and choose ‘Snippet’ from the drop-down list of available email elements (see image below).

You can edit your snippets by either selecting it from within your library of snippets, or by clicking on it within an email where it’s being used.

*Note: If you edit a snippet, those changes will apply in every location the snippet is being used.

Your use of snippets is limited only by your imagination. If you can think of a good use, create the snippet and add it to your library.

??What to do now…

Log into ConvertKit, head for the ‘Snippets’ menu option and start to craft your first snippet. Once you’ve completed it, add it to your email and then click ‘Preview email’ to see what it looks like as part of your email.

Let me know what snippet ideas you come up – I’m always interested to know what others do to leverage this feature of ConvertKit.

This post originally appeared on provenflows.com/blog

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