Messages
Write the emails you send — subject, preview text, body, personalization with merge fields, preview and test sends, and the per-message stats.
A message is the email itself: a subject line, a body, and the personalization inside it. Messages are reusable — you write one, then send it as a broadcast or from an automation step, as many times as you like.
Find them under Messages in the sidebar.
Writing one
New message gives you four fields:
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Name | Internal only — how you'll find it in the list. March newsletter, Welcome 1 |
| Subject | What the recipient sees in their inbox |
| Preheader | The preview line after the subject in most inboxes. Leave it blank and the inbox grabs your first sentence, which is rarely what you'd choose |
| Body | The email |
Name and subject are required to save.
The editor
The body toolbar covers what email actually supports: headings, font and size, text and highlight colour, bold and italic, links, images, alignment and lists. Styling is written inline so it survives the trip through mailbox clients.
Merge fields
The Field dropdown in the toolbar inserts personalization. Fields are grouped:
| Group | Examples |
|---|---|
| Contact | Name, email, phone |
| Profile | Profile details |
| Commerce | Purchase-related values |
| Community | Community details |
| Custom fields | The fields you created |
| Links | Service links — unsubscribe and similar |
Inserted fields are highlighted in the editor so you can see at a glance what's dynamic.
Tip
Personalization fails loudly when it's empty — "Hi ," — so keep merge fields to values you actually have for most contacts. Name is safe if you collect it; a custom field only a handful of people have is not.
The unsubscribe link
Every marketing email ESTAGE sends carries an unsubscribe link — you don't have to add one.
If the message has no {{unsubscribe_url}} field, a small footer is added at the bottom of each
broadcast and automation email with your business address and an Unsubscribe link, and every
send also carries the one-click unsubscribe header that Gmail and Apple Mail show next to the
sender.
To put the link somewhere of your own — in your own footer, in your brand's words — insert
Links → Unsubscribe ({{unsubscribe_url}}) where you want it. Once the message has it, the
extra footer is left off, so there is never a second one. Either way, whoever clicks it lands on
your suppression list and is not mailed again.
Checking it before it goes out
Preview renders the message the way an inbox would, with sample values filled into every merge field — so you see "Hi Test first name" rather than raw placeholders. It works before anything is set up.
Send test delivers a real copy. Pick a verified From address, then type an address or search for a contact.
Note
A test is a real send: it needs the domain authenticated, a verified sender and an allowance, and it consumes that allowance. When the button is disabled, its tooltip says which of those is missing.
The message list
Search by name, and organise with folders — New folder, then Move to folder from a row's menu or on a selection.
Each row's menu has Edit, Duplicate (the fastest way to start a new message from a working one), Move to folder and Delete. Tick rows for the same actions in bulk.
The numbers
Each message carries its lifetime performance:
| Column | |
|---|---|
| Last sent | When it last went out |
| Sent | Total attempted |
| Delivered | Accepted by the receiving server, with the rate |
| Opened | With the open rate |
| Clicked | With the click rate |
| Opt-outs | Unsubscribed after receiving it |
| Complaints | Marked it as spam |
Every one of these numbers is a link. Click Opened and you land in Contacts filtered to the people who opened this message — ready to be tagged, added to a list, or sent a follow-up. Click Opt-outs on a message with an unusual number and you're looking at exactly who left.
Messages vs broadcasts
A message is what you say; a broadcast is one act of sending it to a particular audience at a particular time. The same message can back a dozen broadcasts and an automation step, and its stats add up across all of them.