Email Configuration

How to set up email senders and layouts.

To start sending email in Daisychain, you'll need to have do a bit of setup.

Senders

Navigate to Settings > Channels > Email > Senders > Add to begin the three step configuration wizard which will walk you through the following three steps:

1. Setup your identity by entering your display name and email address

2. Verify your domain by adding three CNAME records to your DNS provider. If you're not sure what that means, ask your website administrator or IT department.

3. Confirmation and completion!

If you've already configured your domain in Daisychain and are just adding a new sender/name, you'll be able to automatically skip Step 2.

Layouts

A layout is the reusable "frame" that wraps the content of every email you send — the header, footer, fonts, colors, and spacing. The content you write for each individual email is dropped into the layout when the email is sent.

Your Daisychain account comes with a default Basic layout. It's simple and readable for recipients on a wide variety of email clients and devices, and it includes the things that are legally required for automated email:

• Account Name

• Mailing Address

• Unsubscribe Link

You can find your layouts under Settings > Channels > Email > Layouts.

Editing a layout

Open a layout to edit it. You'll see two tabs:

• Templates — where you edit the layout itself. There are two editors:

  • MJML Markup — the structure and content of the layout.

  • CSS — styling that applies across the layout.

• Preview — a live rendering of the email so you can check your changes before saving.

Layouts are written in MJML, a markup language designed specifically for email. MJML uses its own tags — like <mj-section>, <mj-column>, and <mj-text> — which are automatically converted into the kind of HTML that displays reliably across email clients. When you're done, switch to the Preview tab to confirm it looks right, then hit Save.

The built-in Basic layout can't be edited in place. The first time you save changes to it, you'll see Save as New Template — this creates your own editable copy and leaves the original untouched. After that, you'll have a normal Save button for future edits. Be sure your campaigns and automations are set to use your new layout.

Because layouts are MJML, you can't simply paste raw HTML anywhere in the editor — HTML placed on its own will be dropped when the email is built. To include HTML, put it inside an MJML tag:

• Use <mj-text> for text and inline formatting (links, line breaks, bold, colored spans). This is the right choice for most content, including disclaimers.

• Use <mj-raw> when you need to pass a block of custom HTML through untouched.

Anatomy of a layout

A Daisychain layout isn't a complete email on its own — it's the frame, and Daisychain drops two things into it when the email is built:

• The content of the individual email (what's written in the message editor).

• The CSS from the layout's CSS tab.

These are inserted at two special tags — <mj-partial name="content" /> and <mj-partial name="css" />. mj-partial is a Daisychain-specific tag (not part of standard MJML), so every layout must include both, or it won't work: omit the content partial and the email body will be blank; omit the CSS partial and nothing from your CSS tab will apply.

Here's the minimal skeleton every layout needs:

<mjml>
  <mj-head>
    <mj-style inline="inline">
      <mj-partial name="css" />   <!-- your CSS tab is injected and inlined here -->
    </mj-style>
  </mj-head>
  <mj-body>
    <mj-partial name="content" /> <!-- the message body is injected here -->

    <!-- Everything else — header, footer, disclaimer — is just normal MJML
         that you add around the content partial. -->
  </mj-body>
</mjml>

You can add as much as you like around the content partial (a header above it, a footer below it), style the whole thing with the CSS tab or MJML's own <mj-attributes>, and use the MJML reference for the available tags. Just keep both partials in place.

If a custom layout breaks — a blank body, missing styles, or it won't render — the quickest fix is to start from a known-good copy: open the built-in Basic layout, choose Save as New Template, and build your changes up from there. Basic always contains the correct structure.

Editing the footer or disclaimer

The footer lives near the bottom of the layout's MJML, in the <mj-text> block that contains the unsubscribe link and your mailing address. To add a compliance line such as a "Paid for by" disclaimer, add a text block in that area, for example:

<mj-text align="center" font-size="12px" color="#888">
  Paid for by [Committee Name]. [Authorization or approval line, as required in your jurisdiction.]
</mj-text>

To set the disclaimer off in a bordered box, put it in its own column with a border. The border goes on the <mj-column> (the box) and the text stays inside <mj-text>:

<mj-section padding="10px">
  <mj-column border="1px solid #000000" padding="12px">
    <mj-text align="center" font-size="12px" color="#888">
      Paid for by [Committee Name]. [Authorization or approval line, as required in your jurisdiction.]
    </mj-text>
  </mj-column>
</mj-section>

The padding on the column controls the space between the border and the text, and the padding on the section controls the space around the box.

Dynamic content with Liquid

Layouts can include Liquid tags that are filled in for each recipient when the email is sent. The default layout uses a few of these:

• {{ account.name }} — your account/organization name

• {{ account.customer_address }} — your mailing address

• {% unsubscribe_url %} — the recipient's one-click unsubscribe link

Your legal name and mailing address come from your account details and aren't edited in the layout itself. To change them, contact support and we'll update them for you — every layout that uses {{ account.customer_address }} will pick up the change automatically.