Designing an Email Campaign with AI

You can now have Caela AI design a complete, branded email for you from a plain-language description. You describe what you want, Caela builds the layout and copy, and you refine it by chatting or by editing the HTML directly.

Why It's Relevant

Designing an email that looks right in every inbox usually means fighting with layouts, image sizes, and code that behaves differently in Gmail than it does in Outlook.

The AI builder does that work for you. It produces a mobile-friendly email that renders correctly across the major email clients, uses your brand colours and logo, and keeps your personalization tags intact. You stay in control of the copy, the structure, and the code.

Choosing the AI Option

The campaign builder has five steps: Details, Template, Design, Contacts, and Summary.

On Step 2: Template, under Choose a Template, you have three options:

• Create from Scratch (Text Editor), to write your email in the text editor

• Create a Custom Design with AI, to generate a design from a prompt and refine it with AI as you go

• Choose a Past Email, to start from one of your previously designed emails, including any you built with AI

Select Create a Custom Design with AI to use the AI builder. There is a View an example link on that card if you want to see what the output looks like before committing.

Starting from a template

Selecting the AI option expands a section called Start from a template, with the helper text Pick a starting point, then tell AI how to change it.

Four cards appear:

• Start from Blank, selected by default. Describe your email and AI will build it.

• Newsletter, for sharing updates, tips, or content with your audience.

• Sales or Promotion, for promoting an offer, program, or limited-time discount.

• Event Invitation, for inviting contacts to a workshop, class, or live session.

Each of the three templates shows a thumbnail of the actual design. Hover a card and a preview icon appears over the thumbnail. Click it to open Template Preview, which shows the full template with desktop and mobile width toggles. Previewing does not change your selection.

Templates ship with placeholder content. They are a starting layout, not a finished email.

Selecting Create from Scratch (Text Editor) or Choose a Past Email collapses this section and clears your template choice.

The Design Step

Step 3: Design is headed Design Email and has two panels.

On the left is your design canvas. Above it sit two tabs:

• Preview, which shows the rendered email

• Code, which shows the underlying HTML

To the right of the tabs are the Use Custom Branding Colors checkbox, Undo, Redo, and your credit indicator. Switch to Basic Editor sits at the top right.

Before anything is generated, the canvas shows a placeholder reading Your email design will appear here. Chat with Caela on the right to get started.

On the right is the Caela AI panel, where you chat, attach files, and refine the design.

Getting Started

Brainstorm my email copy does not write an email. Caela replies I'll use your details from the earlier steps. Pick what you'd like me to write. and offers starting points such as writing an email selling one of your offers, promoting an event or workshop, creating a newsletter, offering a free resource, or re-engaging a cold list. You can also pick Something else or type your own.

Start designing my email moves straight to design. If you have not given Caela any content yet, it asks what the email should say, or offers to draft something, before it designs anything.

You cannot move to the next step until your email has content.

Chat and Design

Inside the chat box is a Chat / Design toggle.

• Chat is for talking through ideas, drafting copy, and asking questions.

• Design is for building or changing the email itself.

You do not have to manage this manually. If you ask for something that is clearly a design request, Caela switches to Design on its own and the toggle updates to show it.

Attaching Images

The paperclip icon in the chat box lets you attach files. It is available on the Design step only.

Supported file types:

• Images: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp

• Click the paperclip and pick a file.

• Paste an image straight from your clipboard into the chat box.

• Drag a file anywhere over the builder.

Tell Caela what to do with an attachment, for example to use it as the hero image.

Attached images are hosted and resized automatically to keep the email small enough to deliver well.

Using Your Brand

The Use Custom Branding Colors checkbox sits above the canvas. If you already have branding set up, it is on by default.

With branding on, Caela uses your brand colours on backgrounds, buttons, headings, and accents, and puts your logo in the header and footer. Your brand font is used where email clients support it, and falls back to the closest web-safe alternative where they do not.

Click the Use Custom Branding Colors label to open the Custom Branding Colors window.

Click Save to apply. Caela uses these values on the next generation, and will usually tell you in the chat which colours it applied.

Turn the checkbox off and Caela uses a neutral, professional default style. Turning it off does not restyle an email you have already generated. It applies from the next generation onwards.

What Caela Already Knows

Caela uses your Step 1 details on every generation:

• Campaign Title becomes the theme, and shows up in headlines and section copy.

• Email Subject anchors the intent. The body will not contradict it.

• Preheader aligns with the opening copy and is not repeated word for word.

• From Name is used as the sender identity in the header and footer.

If you go back and change any of these, the context updates immediately, but your email is not silently rewritten. Caela uses the new details the next time you ask it to change something.

Caela also uses your platform personalization tags such as {{first_name}} and {{last_name}}, and places them where they make sense. It will not invent tag names that do not exist, and your tags stay exactly as written in both the preview and the code.

Editing the Text Directly

You do not have to ask Caela to fix a typo. Click the pencil icon in the test row to edit the email text straight in the Preview.

The editable areas of the email are outlined, and you can click into any of them and type. This is the fastest way to adjust a word, tighten a sentence, or correct a name without describing the change in chat.

Editing text this way does not use any credits, and it does not appear in the chat thread. As with code edits, your edited version becomes the new starting point for anything you ask Caela to change next.

Click the pencil again to leave editing mode.

Editing the Code

Switch to the Code tab to work with the HTML directly.

Anything that would break email delivery is stripped or flagged before it renders.

You can also paste in HTML you built elsewhere. If you already have an email design outside Cohere, paste it into the Code tab and it works like any other design.

Pasting HTML uses no Caela credits. It is a manual paste, not an AI generation.

Links containing cohere.live are blocked everywhere: in the chat, in generated output, and in pasted or edited code.

Undo, Redo, and Credits

Undo, Redo, and your credit indicator stay pinned above the canvas. They remain visible however far you scroll and at any preview zoom.

Click the credit indicator to open Caela Credits, which shows:

• Credits remaining, with a bar showing how much of your allowance is left

• Monthly credits, your full monthly allowance

• Renewal date, when your credits reset

Credits reset on your renewal date and do not carry over. Your monthly allowance depends on your plan: 10 credits on Impact, 25 on Accelerate, and 100 on Transform & Scale.

Credits are used when you ask Caela to generate or change a design. They are not used when you:

• edit the HTML yourself

• load a template into the canvas

• receive Caela's opening suggestion on a preloaded template

Switching Between AI and the Basic Editor

Click Switch to Basic Editor at the top right of the Design step to move to the text editor, or Design with AI in the text editor to come back.

Either way you get a confirmation first. Your current version is saved, and you pick up from your last version in the other mode, or a blank one if you have not used it yet.

Each mode keeps its own saved version, so switching never destroys the other one. Whichever mode is active when you send is the version that goes out.

The Custom HTML Tab in the Text Editor

The basic editor has two tabs above the composing area: Design email and Custom HTML. Both are visible at all times, so you can see which one is active.

Switch to Custom HTML to paste in HTML you built somewhere else. Whatever you paste is used exactly as it is, so the email renders with that design. You can build it in any tool you like, copy the HTML, and drop it in here. It is a manual paste, not an AI generation. Custom HTML is available on the Accelerate and Transform & Scale plans only.

Reusing an AI-Built Email

Every email you build with AI is saved and can be reused as the starting point for a later campaign. You do not have to design from nothing each time.

AI-built campaigns appear in the Choose a Past Email modal on Step 2 alongside your other past campaigns, each with a thumbnail of its design and an AI-built badge so you can tell them apart at a glance.

Pick one and your design canvas opens with that email loaded, with its original layout, structure, and styling intact.

Loading the template cost nothing. Credits are only used when you reply or ask for a change. Ignore it and you spend nothing.

Using the AI Builder in an Email Sequence

The AI builder works inside email sequences too.

When you click Add Email in a sequence, a third option called Custom Design with AI sits alongside Create a new email campaign and Add a past email campaign.

The builder works the same way, with two differences: there is no campaign stepper, and it uses the sequence's own save and back controls. It pulls the subject, preheader, from name, and sending address from your sequence settings rather than from Step 1.

Each email in a sequence keeps its own mode, so one can be AI-designed and another written in the basic editor.

Testing Before You Send

A test row appears above the canvas. Enter an address in Add Email Address and click Send Test to send yourself a copy. The button stays disabled until you enter an address.

Two icons sit beside it: an eye for previewing the email without sending, and a pencil for editing the email text directly in the Preview.

Open the test on a phone as well as a computer. Every generated email is built to work down to 320px wide, to stay readable in dark mode, and to render correctly in Gmail, Apple Mail, and Outlook on desktop, web, and mobile. A test confirms it.

Good to Know

• Every generated email includes your unsubscribe link and the physical address from your settings.

• Caela can make mistakes. Check the text, links, and personalization tags before you send.

• The Emails feature, including the AI builder, is not available in the Cohere mobile app.

• The AI builder is available on eligible plans. If your plan does not include it, the option will not appear on Step 2.

Quick FAQ

Can I reuse an email I designed with AI?

Yes. Every AI-built email is saved and appears under Choose a Past Email on Step 2 with an AI-built badge. Selecting one loads it into the canvas so you can adapt it for the new campaign.

Can I fix a typo without asking Caela?

Yes. Click the pencil icon and edit the text straight in the Preview. No credits are used.

Does editing the HTML myself use credits?

No. Only asking Caela to generate or change something uses credits.

Do unused credits carry over?

No. Credits reset on your renewal date and do not roll forward.

Will my email look right in Outlook?

Generated emails are built specifically for email clients, using the layout and styling rules those clients support. Send a test to confirm before you send for real.

Can I use a design I built somewhere else?

Yes. Paste it into the Code tab.

What happens if I switch to the basic editor by mistake?

Nothing is lost. Both versions are saved separately, and you can switch back.

I changed my subject line after generating. Do I need to regenerate?

No. Caela picks up the change the next time you ask it to adjust the email. Nothing is rewritten without you asking.

Why was my link rejected?

Links containing cohere.live are not allowed in campaign emails. Use your custom domain instead.

Can I do this on my phone?

No. The Emails feature is not supported in the mobile app.

Need help?

If you get stuck or have questions, our team is here for you. Reach us anytime at support@cohere.live and we will get back to you quickly.