Email sent from any unit within The Ohio State University should properly reflect the university’s brand. The use of branded templates ensures all emails are cohesive, consistent, and accessible. As such, recipients will immediately recognize a message from the university upon opening.

You should already be using appropriate Ohio State branding for all of your email messages, especially if you are adding graphic elements to the messages. The original university-branded templates are posted online at brand.osu.edu/branded-email-templates. However, we know that building HTML emails can be challenging. CFAES has created an email builder application with several easy-to-use assets for creating emails; AND our web team has created a shared Extension Email Builder website to which all Extension personnel can request access.

Note: The Email Builder has also been installed on the state website, the Learning and Organizational Development unit site, Operations unit site, and the program area state-level sites. Staff members in those units who have access to edit their Drupal website now also have access to the email builder without needing to use the shared website.

Important: This builder does not send the emails for you. The builder assembles HTML for you using Drupal interface to add in ‘modules’ like those listed on the university brand site. After you have created the email, you can preview the email in a web browser and/or copy/download the html to use with your contact list in Outlook, MailChimp, or other approved distribution method.

The web team has built in all of the current university “modules,” and you can see a listing of those at the university brand site. The team also has created a sample email that has an instance of every module in it: ceb.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/email/example-email. New modules will be added over time; and the web team welcomes feedback about content you might regularly send that doesn’t easily fit in the existing templates. However, the process of adding options to the builder is not immediate. For any email you are producing in-the-moment, you will either need to make your content work within the existing templates or modify the generated html elsewhere on your own.

Documentation for how to use the email builder can be found online at training.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/sites/cttraining/files/imce/documentation/Email%20Builder%202021.pdf. The documentation is also available once you are logged into the site. Bonnie Scranton, CFAES technical trainer, can provide training for the email builder upon request. (scranton.9@osu.edu).

For reference, if you are not located in an OSU Extension unit (but are reading this message), the CFAES email builder module is available for college users at ceb.cfaes.ohio-state.edu.

You will need to request a log-on to access the EEB module. Use the Web Request form on the CFAES Marketing and Communications website, or email the IT helpdesk to get a log on. The request form is at: communications.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/web-services.

Once you have a log-on for the EEB (eeb.cfaes.ohio-state.edu), you will have access to the modules and components that allow for template flexibility, so you can add and remove elements to meet your specific messaging needs while staying on brand.

If you have any questions, contact the IT helpdesk at cfaesits.osu.edu.