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Follow-up email drafts

Edit the follow-up email drafts saved with your funnel, then copy or download each one and send it from your own email tool.

Who can do this

Anyone in the workspace can read, copy and download a funnel's email drafts. The owner, admins and members can edit them on funnels made with FunnelCreative Commercial, and on funnels installed from a Campaign Vault pack.

Email drafts are saved with workspace funnels. A draft saved only in this browser shows the recipe's sample emails, read only, marked Sample draft and Draft only · no email is sent.

What an email draft is

Each funnel comes with a short set of follow-up emails for the people who send your form. They are drafts. FunnelCreative doesn't send email: you copy or download each one and send it yourself, from your own email app or email tool.

The tab says so at the top: Edit these drafts here; they’re saved with your funnel. FunnelCreative doesn’t send email: copy or download each one and send it yourself, or paste it into your email tool. Every draft is marked Draft · not sent.

Nothing about your leads is ever put into a draft. The drafts are the same for everyone; you add the person's name yourself when you send.

Edit a draft

  1. Open the funnel and choose the Email drafts tab. The tab shows how many drafts the funnel has.
  2. Click a draft to open it. The first one is open already.
  3. Edit the three boxes:
    • Subject: required, one line.
    • Preview text: optional, one line. The short line inboxes show after the subject. Your email tool may ask for it separately.
    • Email text: required.
  4. Check How it reads below the text. It shows the email as your reader will see it.

Your changes save automatically, like every other edit, and each save is a new version of the funnel. You can go back to earlier wording in version history. See Undo, version history and save conflicts.

Simple formatting

The email text is plain text. The note under the box, Plain text. Optional simple formatting:, lists bold, italic, bulleted lists and links. These marks work:

  • **bold** for bold and *italic* for italic
  • lines starting - for a bulleted list, or 1. for a numbered list (the note doesn’t list numbered lists)
  • a line on its own, with a blank line before and after, starting #, ## or ### for a heading (the note doesn’t list headings)
  • square brackets around some words, followed by a web address in round brackets, for a link. The address must be a full web address starting with https or http, or a mailto address.

The formatting is never turned into web code. A link is shown with its web address written out after the words, so your reader can see where it goes.

Suggested timing

Each draft shows Suggested timing: and a moment when you might send it, followed by Send manually or from your email tool. This is advice only. Nothing is scheduled.

Remove the tokens before you publish

The drafts that come with every recipe contain tokens in double curly brackets. Every draft starts with Hi {{first_name}}, and some also contain link tokens such as {{workshop_url}}. FunnelCreative doesn't fill these in, and each one blocks publishing.

In Launch setup, each affected draft appears as its own item, such as “Email draft Email 1”, with the message “Has a malformed placeholder” and the button Open email drafts.

  1. Click Open email drafts, or choose the Email drafts tab.
  2. In each draft, find every {{…}} in the Email text. Delete it, or replace it with your own words. For example, change Hi {{first_name}}, to Hi there,, and replace a link token with your own web address.
  3. Check the Subject the same way: a token there blocks publishing too. Tidy the Preview text as well, because your readers see it.
  4. Go back to Launch setup. The item disappears once the saved draft has no tokens left.

Read each draft while you're there. The recipe drafts are written for an example business, so change anything that doesn't describe your offer.

Copy or download a draft

When you're ready to send, open the draft and choose one:

  • Copy text puts the subject, the preview text and the email text on your clipboard. You'll see Copied. Paste it into your email tool. If your browser blocks copying, you'll see Your browser didn’t allow copying. Download the .txt file instead.
  • Download .txt saves a text file with the funnel name, subject, preview text, timing advice and the email text.
  • Download .eml saves an email file with the subject and text but no addresses. It is marked as unsent, so many email apps open it as a new draft. If yours opens it as a received message, copy the text into a new email instead. Add who it's for and send it. The draft says: The .eml file has no addresses: open it in your email app, add who it’s for and send it yourself.

The downloads always use the saved version. While your latest change is still saving, the download buttons are replaced by Downloads use the saved version; saving your changes first…

Keep my wording

Each draft has a Keep my wording box. Ticking it marks the draft Kept as written · in its heading.

On a funnel installed from a Campaign Vault pack, a draft with Keep my wording ticked stays exactly as it is when you apply a pack update (Update available in Launch setup). See Campaign Vault: install and use a pack.

AI writing isn’t switched on yet: you write and edit the copy yourself.

What is checked before you publish

Email drafts are part of the launch checks in Launch setup:

  • any {{…}} token, or a placeholder for a fact you haven't confirmed, in the subject or the email text
  • email text that says someone paid, was booked in or was signed up to a course. An email may say you sent something, such as a guide, because you send it yourself. The preview text isn’t checked.

Each item has the button Open email drafts, or Confirm the fact for a fact placeholder. See Honesty checks.

If a funnel has no drafts

A funnel with no drafts says This funnel has no email drafts. Write your follow-up emails in your own email tool instead. AI writing isn’t switched on yet: you write and edit the copy yourself.

Limits

  • Drafts only. FunnelCreative doesn't send email, schedule it, or track opens or clicks.
  • Subject: required, one line, at most 200 characters.
  • Preview text: optional, one line, at most 150 characters.
  • Email text: required, at most 4,000 characters.
  • Lead details are never merged into a draft.
  • The timing is advice. Nothing is sent automatically.

If an edit breaks a rule, the box tells you why, for example The subject can’t be empty., The subject must be one line., Preview text must be one line. or The email needs some text.

If something goes wrong

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