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Quick Start: Smart Templates

Why Smart Templates exist, how to build one, apply it, and convert from Legacy—minimal steps.

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Quick Start: Smart Templates

Why Smart vs Legacy

Legacy does not use your live Channel Preferences, Channel Schedules (recurring windows), capacity in a slot, or excluded weekdays. Smart templates do: they are campaign blueprints that still say which channels in which weeks, but on Apply the app places each item on a real day using your current rules—so you get less manual cleanup and alignment with Channels you already set up.

Create a Smart Template

  1. Templates → New → Smart Template
  2. Set Anchor to campaign Start or End:
    • Start — Week 1 is the first week of the campaign (“in” from the start); Week 2 is the next week, etc. (Allowing you to work from the start towards your event date or campaign end.) Think: "What needs to happen the first week we start promoting this event? The second week?" And so on.
    • End — Week 1 is the last week (“out” from the end); Week 2 is the week before, etc. (Allowing you to start from the event date or campaign end and work your way backwards.) Think: "What needs to happen a week out from the event? Two weeks out?" And so on.
  3. Drag channels from the left (Drag onto the timeline) onto a week’s drop line on the vertical timeline.
  4. Expand each placed channel and set how it should resolve on apply:
    • Auto or Auto (Follow Preferences) when preferences exist.
    • Follow Schedule: [schedule name] when the channel has a schedule; required (locked) if the channel is locked to schedules—you can’t use Auto in that case.
    • Choose Day — pick a weekday when the UI offers it (options hide when they don’t apply).
  5. You can drag channels between weeks, add multiple channels on the same week (each channel = one planned communication), and Save when done.

Default placement when you first drop: the app picks a sensible starting option (often Follow Schedule if locked or scheduled; Auto when preferences exist; otherwise tends toward schedule when available). Change it in the expanded card.

Apply on a campaign

  1. Open the campaign Communications calendar → + Apply Template → choose under Smart Templates (campaign must be length of template or longer).
  2. Template Preview: banner with template name; drag communications on the calendar to reposition or remove → Apply or Cancel.
  3. If something can’t land cleanly, you may see conflicts with short reasons; fix by dragging on the calendar. The resolver may adjust vs place exactly where the UI shows that distinction.

Applying Legacy still uses the old day-offset model; the product may prompt you to convert for schedule-aware placement—see Templates.

Convert Legacy → Smart

Use Convert on a Legacy card or Convert in Wizard from the Legacy apply flow. Typical steps: new Smart template name + anchor → Preview and adjust (placement per week) → Resolve conflicts (clear blocking issues) → create. You usually get a new Smart template; the Legacy copy can remain. Full walkthrough: Templates (Convert to Smart Template).

See also

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