How to use a text block in an email

How to use a text block in an email

Estimated 3 minute read

Updated Aug 7, 2025, 12:00 AM EST

Table of contents

You will learn
Add a text block to a template
AI text revision
Style a text block
Add personalization to emails
Text blocks and RTL languages
Supported characters
Additional resources

You will learn

Learn how to use text blocks in Klaviyo’s email template editor, including how to style them and add personalization tags.

Add a text block to a template

Within the email template editor, click Add content in the left sidebar, then locate the Text block.
Drag the block into the email canvas and drop it wherever you’d like it to appear.

Double-click within the text field to begin editing the text.
When you finish editing, click outside the text field to save your changes.

If you write your copy outside of the Klaviyo editor (for example, in Google Docs or Microsoft Word), paste as plain text to avoid bringing in styles that can cause design issues. Use Command+Shift+V (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+V (Windows). If the Paste formatted text dialog appears, select Paste text only to match your template’s styles.

AI text revision

The AI text revision tool is no longer available in the email template editor. You can edit your copy directly in a text block.

Style a text block

There are 2 ways to style a text block:

Using the email’s Styles panel, which sets style defaults for the entire email (recommended)
Using the block’s formatting menu

As a best practice, use the Styles panel first to apply formatting to all your blocks, then make small tweaks as needed within individual blocks. Following this process results in:

Email designs that are easier to reuse
Lower code weight (i.e., less chance of email clipping)
More consistent styles with less manual editing

Apply email-level styles

Click Edit styles in the left sidebar to open the email’s Styles panel.

The email’s Styles panel is different from a text block’s Styles tab, which controls that block’s background, padding, and border.

Scroll to Text and headings.

Choose settings for your Body text (i.e., your default paragraph formatting).
Select a different text style from the menu (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.) and select styles for it.

Repeat this process for all the text styles. As a best practice, use:
Body for most of your text
Heading 1 for your most important headings
Heading 2 for subheadings
Etc.

Apply block-level styles

If an existing block displays This block uses unsupported formatting, compare the previews before choosing Edit in updated text block to continue with adjusted styling, or Convert to HTML block to preserve the formatting and edit the block as HTML.

Select a text block within your email.
Double-click within the text field to open the styles menu.
Highlight the text you’d like to adjust. You can highlight all the text within the block, or just a portion of it.
Within the formatting bar, choose a text style (e.g., Body, Heading 1) to apply the styles you set in the email’s Styles panel, or manually select a font, font size, color, and more.

Add personalization to emails

Personalization tags are a great way to connect with your subscribers and make every email feel intentional and unique. To add personalization tags:

Add a text block or locate an existing one in your email template.
Double-click to open the formatting menu.
Click the Add personalization icon in the formatting menu.

Use the All types menu to select a type (e.g., Profile, Organization, etc.), search by property name, or scroll through the options.
Select a personalization tag. Tags without additional settings are inserted immediately.
If Set up opens, optionally adjust the settings available for your tag. For example, Default text provides a fallback when the recipient has no value for that property, and Capitalization changes how the value is displayed.
If you configured the tag in Set up, click Insert to add it.

The personalization menu offers certain limited personalization options. To add more complex personalization (e.g., event data, catalog tags, and more), learn more about message personalization.

Text blocks and RTL languages

When you type right-to-left (RTL) text, such as Hebrew, into an empty paragraph with no text direction set, the editor detects its direction automatically. This also applies to newly pasted RTL paragraphs that do not already have a text direction set.

To apply RTL formatting throughout your template, add the following code snippet to an HTML block at the top of your template:

textCopy

<style type="text/css">
      p, h1, h2, h3, h4, ol, li, ul { direction: rtl; }
</style>

This will apply RTL formatting to all text blocks in the email.

Supported characters

Klaviyo's email editor uses the UTF-8 encoding standard, which means it supports Latin characters, emojis, double byte characters, and more.

Additional resources

How to insert personalization into text blocks

Learn how to add personalization to email templates by including things like a recipient’s first name, custom properties, an unsubscribe link, and more. - How to preview and send test emails in Klaviyo

Learn how to preview and test emails in Klaviyo using the current template editor, including layout preview, personalization checks, and test sends. - Guide to the email template editor

Learn about Klaviyo’s drag-and-drop email template editor, including how to use template styles and configure each block type.

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