Email templates

Campaigns, workflow emails, and the transactional API all send an Odden\Marketing\Models\MarketingTemplate. A template is either a list of mail builder slots, which the package compiles to responsive HTML for you, or raw HTML you supply.

Creating a template#

Build a template from slots, the content blocks of getodden/mail:

use Odden\Marketing\Models\MarketingTemplate;

$template = MarketingTemplate::create([
    'name' => 'March newsletter',
    'subject' => 'What shipped in March',
    'preview_text' => 'Three new features and a webinar invite',
    'slots' => [
        ['type' => 'header', 'data' => ['brand_name' => 'Acme']],
        ['type' => 'body_text', 'data' => ['content' => '<p>Hi {{contact.first_name}}, here is what is new.</p>']],
        ['type' => 'button', 'data' => ['text' => 'Read the changelog', 'url' => 'https://acme.test/changelog']],
        ['type' => 'footer', 'data' => ['company_name' => 'Acme Inc.', 'address' => '1 Main St, Springfield']],
    ],
]);

$template->slug;      // 'march-newsletter'
$template->body_html; // the compiled, CSS-inlined HTML
$template->body_text; // the plain-text version

Or give it HTML directly:

$template = MarketingTemplate::create([
    'name' => 'Plain welcome',
    'subject' => 'Welcome aboard',
    'body_html' => '<p>Hi {{contact.first_name}}, welcome!</p><p><a href="{{unsubscribe_url}}">Unsubscribe</a></p>',
]);

Every time a template is saved:

• If slots is set, body_html is recompiled from the slots, subject, preview_text, and theme.
• If body_text is empty, it's generated from the slots, or from body_html when there are no slots. It isn't regenerated once it has a value, so clear body_text when you change the content if you want a fresh plain-text version.
• If slug is empty, it's set to Str::slug($name). Slugs aren't unique in the database.
• A revision is recorded.

body_html can't be null, so a template needs either slots or body_html.

Attributes#

Slots#

A slot is an array with a type, a data array, and an optional visibility rule. The types come from Odden\MailBuilder\Enums\SlotType:

header, hero, body_text, button, two_column, three_column, four_column, asymmetric_columns, features, testimonial, stat_box, divider, labeled_divider, social_links, footer, html, image_banner, video_card, pricing_grid, rating_bar, countdown_timer, accordion, dynamic_feed, rss_feed, order_receipt, product_catalog, coupon_code, app_badges, and data_table.

Each type's data keys are defined by the mail builder package. A few common ones:

The footer slot links to {{unsubscribe_url}} unless you set unsubscribe_url, so campaigns fill it with each recipient's unsubscribe link.

The theme array overrides the mail builder's mail-builder.defaults, such as primary_color, font_family, background_color, and container_width:

$template->update(['theme' => ['primary_color' => '#16a34a', 'font_family' => 'Inter']]);

Conditional slots#

A slot with a visibility rule is only included when the rule matches the recipient:

[
    'type' => 'body_text',
    'data' => ['content' => '<p>Thanks for being a customer.</p>'],
    'visibility' => ['field' => 'contact.lifecycle_stage', 'operator' => 'equals', 'value' => 'customer'],
]

Operators are equals, not_equals, contains, is_empty, and is_not_empty. The field is a dot path into the recipient context:

• In campaigns, the context is contact (the contact's attributes) and company (their first company's attributes).
• In the transactional API, it's the request's context object.

Rules aren't evaluated when body_html is compiled on save, so the stored HTML contains every slot.

Saved blocks#

MarketingSavedBlock stores a single slot for reuse in an editor: name, category (default general), slot_type, slot_data (array), and created_by. The package only stores them; inserting one into a template is up to your editor.

use Odden\Marketing\Models\MarketingSavedBlock;

MarketingSavedBlock::create([
    'name' => 'Standard footer',
    'slot_type' => 'footer',
    'slot_data' => ['company_name' => 'Acme Inc.', 'address' => '1 Main St, Springfield'],
]);

Variant B#

A template can hold its own A/B variant. Set subject_variant_b, preview_text_variant_b, and slots_variant_b. On save, slots_variant_b is compiled to body_html_variant_b; if you set only subject_variant_b, the variant A slots are compiled again with the B subject.

$template->update(['subject_variant_b' => 'Three things we shipped']);

$template->hasAbTest();               // true
$template->getVariantSubject('B');    // 'Three things we shipped'
$template->getVariantHtml('B');       // body_html_variant_b, or body_html if empty
$template->getVariantText('B');

A/B campaigns use these when the campaign has no variant_b_template_id. The transactional API uses them when you pass "variant": "B", and defaults to ab_winner_variant.

EvaluateTemplateAbTestsAction compares the variants across every campaign that uses the template and stores the winner:

use Odden\Marketing\Actions\EvaluateTemplateAbTestsAction;

$result = app(EvaluateTemplateAbTestsAction::class)->execute($template, 'click_rate');

$result['winner'];     // 'A' or 'B', saved to ab_winner_variant
$result['confidence']; // e.g. 'Low (Sample < 100)'

The second argument is click_rate (the default) or open_rate. The result also has variant_a and variant_b (sent, opens, clicks, open_rate, click_rate) and sample_size. confidence is a rough label from sample size, not a statistical test; use AbTestSignificanceCalculator for that.

Revisions#

Every save that leaves the template with slots or HTML records a MarketingTemplateRevision with the next version_number. It copies the subject, preview text, slots, theme, HTML, and text (both variants), plus notes and created_by (the authenticated user's id).

$template->revisions;  // newest first

$template->createRevision('Approved by legal');  // an explicit snapshot with notes

$revision = $template->revisions()->where('version_number', 1)->first();
$template->restoreRevision($revision);

restoreRevision(int|MarketingTemplateRevision $revision): bool takes a revision model or a revision id (not a version number). Restoring saves the template, which records another revision.

Translations#

MarketingTemplateTranslation holds per-locale content: locale, subject, subject_variant_b, preview_text, preview_text_variant_b, body_html, body_text, and slots.

$template->translations()->create([
    'locale' => 'fr',
    'subject' => 'Les nouveautés de mars',
]);

$template->getLocalizedSubject('fr');       // 'Les nouveautés de mars'
$template->getLocalizedSubject('de');       // falls back to the template subject
$template->getLocalizedSubject('fr', 'B');  // subject_variant_b, or subject

getLocalizedSubject() is the only place translations are read. Campaigns and the transactional API always send the default content, so to send a translation, read its fields yourself.

Merge tags#

Merge tags are placeholders like {{contact.first_name}}. How they're filled depends on how the email is sent.

In the mail builder#

The package registers three groups with the mail builder's MergeTagRegistry, with sample values for previews:

The registry is what editors show as the tag list. Register your own groups the same way:

use Odden\MailBuilder\MailBuilder;

MailBuilder::mergeTags()->register('Order', [
    '{{order.number}}' => 'Order number',
], ['order' => ['number' => 'A-1001']]);

The mail builder's interpolator, used by the transactional API and previews, supports:

• Dot paths into the data, nested (['order' => ['number' => …]]) or flat (['order.number' => …])
• Spaces inside the braces: {{ contact.first_name }}
• Filters: upper, lower, capitalize, title, trim, date:"M j, Y", currency:"$", number:2, pluralize:"item","items", truncate:50, and default:"there"
• Conditionals: {% if order.gift %}…{% else %}…{% endif %}

MailBuilder::interpolate('Hi {{ contact.first_name | default:"there" }}', []); // 'Hi there'

A tag with no value is left in the email as written.

In campaigns#

Campaigns don't use the interpolator. They replace only seven tags, which must be written with no spaces: {{contact.first_name}}, {{contact.last_name}}, {{contact.email}}, {{company.name}}, {{unsubscribe_url}}, {{campaign.subject}}, and {{campaign.name}}. See The compiled message for their fallbacks.

Other tags from the registry, such as {{contact.job_title}} and {{sender.name}}, as well as filters and conditionals, appear unchanged in campaign emails. Workflow emails replace the first five of the seven. In both, the values are HTML-escaped with e(), so contact or company data containing < or & can't add markup to the email.

Smart content#

Smart content shows different copy to different contacts. It works in campaign and workflow emails (it's applied by EvaluateSmartContentBlocksAction), not in the transactional API.

Blocks. Adjacent [smart …]…[/smart] blocks form a group. The first block whose rules all match is shown; otherwise the [smart default] block, or nothing:

[smart tier="tier_1"]<p>Your account team will be in touch.</p>[/smart]
[smart min_score="100"]<p>Book a call with sales.</p>[/smart]
[smart default]<p>Read our getting started guide.</p>[/smart]

Inline tokens. {{smart:rule=value?shown if true:shown if false}}:

<p>{{smart:stage=customer?Upgrade to Enterprise:Start your free trial}}</p>

Rules:

Comparisons ignore case. With no contact, blocks fall back to the default and inline tokens to the false branch.

use Odden\Marketing\Actions\EvaluateSmartContentBlocksAction;

$html = app(EvaluateSmartContentBlocksAction::class)->execute(
    '[smart min_score="100"]Hot[/smart][smart default]Cold[/smart]',
    $contact,
);

The action also accepts an @smart(…) … @endsmart syntax, but it doesn't work: the directives are turned into text that is never evaluated. Use the [smart] form.

Previewing a template#

ContactPersonaPreviewService::preview() compiles a template's slots for a real contact or a sample persona, with visibility rules and merge tags applied:

use Odden\Marketing\Services\ContactPersonaPreviewService;

$preview = ContactPersonaPreviewService::preview($template, 'trial_user');

$preview['compiled_html'];
$preview['visible_slots_count'];
$preview['hidden_slots_count'];

The second argument is a Contact, a contact id, or one of the built-in personas: vip_customer, trial_user, or churn_risk. The result also has persona_label, context, plain_text, and total_slots.

For a real contact, the context uses flat keys (contact.first_name, company.name, …), and company fields are only included if the contact's companies relation is already loaded. Only slots are previewed: a template without slots compiles to an empty layout.

Dynamic images#

Two routes return SVG images generated from query parameters, for use in an <img> tag. They're rendered when the email is opened, so the image is current each time.

Countdown timer. GET /marketing/images/countdown-timer.svg (odden.marketing.images.countdown-timer)

After until passes, every digit shows 00.

Badge. GET /marketing/images/badge.svg (odden.marketing.images.badge) draws an attendee badge with name (default Valued Guest), company (Acme Corporation), role (VIP Attendee), and color (#4F46E5). Its footer reads "OFFICIAL ODDEN SUMMIT ACCESS PASS" and can't be changed.

$src = route('odden.marketing.images.countdown-timer', [
    'until' => '2026-12-01 17:00:00',
    'label' => 'SALE ENDS IN',
]);

<img src="{{ $src }}" width="560" height="130" alt="Sale ends December 1">

Both are public and send no-cache headers. Many email clients, Gmail among them, don't display SVG images, so check your audience's clients before relying on them.

AMP for email#

The mail builder can compile slots to AMP for Email markup with MailBuilder::amp($slots, $options). Neither campaigns nor the transactional API attach an AMP part to the messages they build, so adding one is up to you.

Two public endpoints in the api group accept submissions from AMP forms. Both are CSRF exempt and limited by throttle:odden-public.

They follow the AMP for Email CORS rules. The request's Origin must be in odden-marketing.amp.allowed_origins; any other origin, or none, gets a 403 with no CORS headers. An allowed request gets Access-Control-Allow-Origin set to its origin, AMP-Email-Allow-Sender set to the request's AMP-Email-Sender header, and Access-Control-Expose-Headers: AMP-Email-Allow-Sender. Credentials aren't allowed. The default origins are the AMP email clients':

// config/odden-marketing.php
'amp' => [
    'allowed_origins' => ['https://mail.google.com', 'https://outlook.live.com', 'https://mail.yahoo.com', 'https://mail.aol.com'],
],

Set ODDEN_MARKETING_AMP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS to a comma-separated list to replace them. The package tells Laravel's global CORS middleware to skip these two routes, so your config/cors.php doesn't override their headers.

Feedback. POST /api/marketing/amp/feedback (odden.marketing.amp.feedback)

If token matches an NPS response, its score, feedback, and responded_at are saved. Otherwise nothing is stored.

{"status": "success", "message": "Thank you! Your feedback has been recorded.", "score": 9}

RSVP. POST /api/marketing/amp/rsvp (odden.marketing.amp.rsvp)

The contact comes only from token, never from a submitted email, and the endpoint never creates contacts. Issue the token for each recipient when you build the email, and put it in a hidden field of the AMP form:

$token = $event->rsvpTokenFor($contact); // "{contact id}.{HMAC-SHA256 keyed with app.key}"

<input type="hidden" name="token" value="{{ $token }}">

A token is valid only for the event it was issued for. With a valid token, the contact's registration for the event is created or updated:

{"status": "success", "message": "Your RSVP has been saved successfully.", "event": "spring-summit", "rsvp_status": "attending"}

A missing token returns a 422. An unknown event, or a token that's wrong or was issued for another event, returns a 403:

{"status": "error", "message": "This RSVP link is invalid or has expired."}

See Events and gated assets for events.

Other renderers#

Odden\Marketing\Services\EmailBlockRenderer is a simpler HTML renderer, separate from the mail builder, used by the Filament plugin's preset picker. render(array $blocks) accepts flat blocks of type hero, columns, features, testimonial, cta, footer, or text, and renderPreset('product_launch') renders a built-in preset. New templates should use slots.