6. Design Email & SMS templates

Brand Giftnote's built-in gift emails and SMS so you can launch without waiting on Klaviyo or another integration.

Written By Giftnote Team

Last updated About 1 hour ago

Brand and style your gift messages.

Quick start: notifications via Giftnote's native email builder

Recommended for launch. Avoid go-live delays by using Giftnote's built-in notifications first. You can always switch to Klaviyo, Attentive or another integration later.

Step 1: Access notification settings

In your Shopify admin:

  1. Go to Apps → Giftnote
  2. Click Settings → Notifications

Step 2: Set global email styling

Before editing individual messages, click Email design at the top of the Notifications page. It holds the "shared logo, font, colors, and sender name used across every notification email".

  • Set your Email sender name
  • Upload your brand logo (or paste a hosted Logo URL) and set its height
  • Choose your brand colours
  • Optionally set a font, a Reply-to address, and Use one accent colour on every email

You'll see a real-time preview of the default Giftnote email, with tabs for each delivery method (Send Now, Scheduled, On Delivery, On Fulfillment). Save if a save bar appears.

For every field on this page, see "Customising Email".

Step 3: Edit your gift message notifications

Back on Settings → Notifications, notifications are grouped into Gift Orders, Gift Cards, Multi Gift and Other. Each one is badged by who receives it:

  • Customer: emails to the purchaser
  • Recipient: emails and SMS to the gift recipient

The one most merchants customise first is Gift Order - Gift Message Delivered: "The gift message sent to the recipient — this is the core notification."

Open a notification and edit its template to:

  • Edit text, CTA and branding
  • Add optional images or links
  • Match your tone and style
The template editor for Gift Order - Gift Message Delivered, with Subject, Banner message and Quick insert fields on the left and a live email preview on the right

Tip: include a simple CTA or opt-in link to encourage future marketing signups from recipients.

Step 4: Enable SMS for recipient notifications (optional)

Giftnote supports SMS only for recipient messages. Two notifications have an SMS channel: Gift Order - Gift Message Delivered and Gift Card - Delivered to Recipient.

To use it:

  1. Open one of those two notifications
  2. Edit the SMS message in your brand voice
  3. Save

SMS is included on the Core and Professional plans. There is no store-wide SMS switch, but each notification that sends SMS has its own SMS on/off switch under Channels (Settings → Notifications → open the notification). Links are allowed in the SMS body.

For SMS quick fields and options, see "Customizing SMS".

Step 5: You're live

Once you've saved your templates, you're good to go.

Your recipients and customers will automatically receive the right messages based on their gift order. No extra setup or ESP integration is required.

When to use an integration instead

If you want full control via Klaviyo, Attentive or another platform:

  1. Connect the integration. Go to Settings → Integrations, set up your integration, and build your templates following our integration guides.
  2. Turn off Giftnote's emails. In Settings → Notifications, switch off the email channel on each notification your integration now sends, so recipients don't get two emails.
  3. Save.

SMS still sends from Giftnote, even when an email integration handles your emails.

We recommend doing this after launch, once everything is working and live. There are separate articles for each integration partner.