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The cover is the first thing a recipient sees. It’s the image in the email, before they even open the card. A dynamic cover turns that cover into a page you design yourself: a background, text, logos, buttons and merge tags. Each recipient gets their own version, with their name, their company or their logo on the front.

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Static and dynamic covers

Every card has one of two cover types:

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Turn on a dynamic cover

1

Open the cover

Open your card in the editor and go to the first page, the cover.
2

Switch to Dynamic

In the left toolbar, under Change Cover, set Cover to Dynamic. Only the card’s owner sees this switch, and it isn’t available on video cards.
3

Design the cover

The editor tools are now available on the cover: Add Message, Add Image, AI Image, Background and Call-to-Action. Use merge tags in text, like Thank you, {{name}}!, or bind an image to a merge tag to show each recipient’s logo or photo.
Changes save automatically, like everything else in the editor.

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Edit, move or remove the cover image

When you switch to Dynamic, the image your cover had becomes an ordinary image on the page. Click it to move, resize, replace or delete it.
  • Remove cover image clears it in one click, so you can start from a blank cover.
  • Background sets a colour or a full-page background under everything else.
  • Change Cover replaces the cover image and keeps the position and size you gave it.

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Personalize the cover

Dynamic covers use the same merge tags as the rest of the card.
  • Text: type a tag into any text box, for example Happy birthday {{name}}. Text boxes grow to fit longer values, so a long name wraps onto the next line instead of being cut off.
  • Images: select an image, switch on Replace with merge tag and pick a tag. Each recipient’s value is an https image URL. Their image takes the spot and size of the one you placed, cropped to fit. See Image Merge Tags.
  • Fallbacks: when a recipient has no value for a tag, the tag’s fallback is used. Without a fallback, the tag is left empty.

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In CardClan emails

When you send a dynamic card from CardClan, each email shows that recipient’s cover. The image is created the first time the recipient opens the email and is reused after that. Sending a large campaign is just as fast as sending a static card. Inside the card, the cover page shows the same personalized design.

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In other email tools

You can use a dynamic cover in emails sent from other tools. Get Email Embed Code has formats for Mailchimp, HubSpot, Brevo and SendGrid. For any other tool that uses {{tag}} merge fields (for example lemlist), pick Generic.
1

Open the embed code

In the card editor’s right panel, click Get Email Embed Code.
2

Pick your email tool

Choose your platform. The cover image link is built with that tool’s merge tag format, using your CardClan tag names: for example name={{name}} (Generic, SendGrid), name=*|NAME|* (Mailchimp) or name={{ contact.NAME }} (Brevo). Your email tool’s fields must have the same names as your merge tags (in uppercase for Mailchimp and Brevo).
3

Paste it into your email

Copy the image or the embed HTML into your email template. Your email tool fills in each recipient’s values when it sends, and each recipient sees their own cover.
The image link points at your card’s cover and carries one parameter per merge tag on the cover:
Only tags that appear on the cover are used. Any other parameters are ignored. The animated GIF option isn’t available for dynamic covers, because a GIF made in advance can’t be personalized.

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Good to know

  • No broken images. If a recipient’s cover can’t be created, for example because the background image can’t be loaded, the email shows the card’s general cover instead.
  • Previews and thumbnails in your dashboard, link previews and integrations show the cover with fallback values.
  • Editing after sending (other email tools). Cards sent from CardClan can’t be edited once delivered. If you embed a dynamic cover in another email tool and then edit the card, new image loads pick up your edits. Email apps cache images, so a recipient who already opened the email may keep seeing the earlier version for up to an hour.
  • Missing values. If your email tool leaves a merge tag unfilled, the cover uses that tag’s fallback instead of showing the raw tag.
  • Switching back to Static asks for confirmation. It removes the text, logos and merge tags from the cover and restores the cover image.
  • Templates are static. A template made from a card with a dynamic cover starts with a static cover.
  • Not on the cover: GIFs, videos and music stay on the inner pages. Video cards don’t have a dynamic cover.
Keep the important text away from the edges and leave room for long names. Preview the card with a few sample recipients before sending a large campaign.