Creatives
What a creative is
A creative is a saved, named mail design: everything your recipient sees, kept together in one place. Each creative pairs:
- A front design - the artwork side of the mail piece (for a letter, an optional background behind the handwriting).
- A message - the handwritten-style text, plus everything that goes with it: the handwriting style and color, the QR code, the background printed behind the message and, for gift cards, the gift card brand and amount.
You pick a creative when you send mail, when you start a campaign, and when you send through the API or an integration. Because the front and the message travel together, you choose one thing instead of two.
Each creative is made for one mail piece:
| Mail piece | The front is called | The message side is called |
|---|---|---|
| 4x6, 6x9 and 6x11 Postcards | Front | Back |
| Magnacard | Front | Back |
| Windowed and Windowless Letters | Background (optional) | Letter |
| Notecard | Front | Inside |
| Gift Card | Front | Inside |
Each postcard size is its own mail piece, so a 4x6 creative is not offered when you send a 6x9 postcard. Make or duplicate one at the size you need.
Under the hood, a creative's front is an image template and its message is a message template. Each creative owns one of each, and you edit both inside the creative. Every template you had before creatives existed was converted into a creative.
Open the library
Go to Creatives in the sidebar.
The library shows your creatives as a grid of cards, newest first. To narrow it down:
- Mail piece tabs - All, 4x6 Postcards, 6x9 Postcards, 6x11 Postcards, Windowed Letters, Windowless Letters, Notecards, Magnacards, and Gift Cards.
- Search - type part of a creative's name.
- Show drafts - on by default. Shows ThanksAI designs you haven't saved yet (see ThanksAI drafts).
- Show hidden - off by default. Turn it on to include creatives you hid and creatives that were saved automatically (see Hidden and auto-saved creatives).
The line above the grid counts your creatives and, when there are any, the drafts in progress.
If you have no creatives yet, the page offers two ways to make one: Design one with ThanksAI and Build it yourself. See Creating a Creative.
Reading a creative card
Each card shows:
- The front design, with badges where they apply: Default (the default creative for its mail piece), Studio (designed with ThanksAI Studio), Canva (designed in Canva), Dynamic (a Street View design that changes per recipient), and PDF only (a letter that is a whole uploaded PDF).
- The name, the mail piece, the date it was made, and Hidden if it is hidden from the library.
- The start of the message. An AI-personalized message shows as "AI-personalized message".
- Its status - Ready to send, or what it still needs.
- Start a campaign (when it has both a front and a message) and Send it.
Click anywhere on the card to edit the creative. Click the expand button on the front image to preview both sides at a readable size.
Ready to send vs incomplete
A creative is Ready to send when it has:
- a message, and
- a front design - unless it is a letter. A letter's front is only an optional background, so a letter with a message is ready on its own.
An incomplete creative shows what it still needs instead: Add a front (or Add a background for a letter) and Add a message. Click either one to open the creative straight at that step.
An incomplete creative is still useful:
- In the dashboard, Send it works on any creative with at least one side. Send Mail opens with the side the creative has, and you fill in the missing side during the send.
- Through the API and integrations (Zapier, n8n, HubSpot, AI assistants), only a Ready to send creative can be sent by its creative ID. Copy creative ID appears in the card menu only once a creative is complete; until then its preview says "Finish this creative to send it by its ID".
Card actions
Click the three-dot button on a card for its actions:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Edit | Opens the creative in the creative wizard. A creative designed with ThanksAI Studio shows Edit in Studio instead and opens in the Studio. |
| Preview | Shows both sides at a readable size, with the Creative ID, Image template ID, and Message template ID, each with a copy button. |
| Duplicate | Makes a copy with its own copies of the front and message, so editing the copy never changes the original. |
| View orders | Opens Orders filtered to mail sent as this creative. |
| Campaign actions | Lists the campaign actions that mail this creative, paused ones included, each linking to the action and its campaign. |
| Copy creative ID | Copies the ID to use as creative_id in the API, Zapier, n8n, HubSpot, or an AI assistant. Shown for complete creatives only. |
| Share | Gives you a link that lets another thanks.io account add a copy of this creative. |
| Download the front | Downloads the front image (Download the background for a letter). Not offered for Street View designs, which are drawn per recipient. |
| Make default | Makes this the default creative for its mail piece, and its front and message the account's default templates for API sends. |
| Hide from library / Show in library | Hides the creative from the library without deleting it, or brings it back. |
| Delete | Deletes the creative along with its front and message. |
Make default, Duplicate, Share, Download, and Delete are covered in detail in Creative Defaults & Sharing.
Sending a creative
There are several ways to put a creative in the mail:
- Send it on the card opens Send Mail with the creative already chosen. A Ready to send creative opens straight at the Recipients step.
- Start a campaign on the card opens the campaign wizard with the creative chosen as what the campaign mails.
- In Send Mail, the Design step's Completed Creatives tab lists the Ready to send creatives for the mail piece you picked, with your default creative first. See Send Mail Wizard.
- In a campaign, the What step lets you pick a Ready to send creative. See Automated Campaigns.
- From the API, Zapier, n8n, HubSpot workflows, or an AI assistant, send by creative ID. See Finding Creative & Template IDs.
Each order remembers which creative it was sent as, so View orders on a card (or the creative filter in Orders) shows everything sent with it. The creative ID is not included in order API responses or webhooks.
Editing a creative changes it everywhere
A creative is one design, used wherever you've chosen it. When you edit it:
- Changes to the front save straight away and keep the same image template ID, so a campaign, Zapier zap, or API integration already using that front picks up the new look on its next send.
- Changes to the message save when you save the creative. Anything using that message sends the updated version from then on.
To try a variation without touching the original, Duplicate the creative and edit the copy.
ThanksAI drafts
When you design with ThanksAI Studio, the design appears in the library as a Draft card, marked ThanksAI, until you save it. Drafts sit among your creatives by date.
On a draft card:
- Continue designing reopens the design in ThanksAI Studio where you left off.
- Make a copy copies the draft.
- Delete draft removes the draft and its ThanksAI chat.
If the last design attempt failed, the card says so; open it to try again. Once you save the design, it becomes a creative and appears once, as a regular card. Turn off Show drafts to hide drafts from the grid.
Hidden and auto-saved creatives
Two kinds of creative are left out of the library unless you turn on Show hidden:
- Creatives you hid with Hide from library.
- Auto-saved creatives. When you send with a front you uploaded or a message you wrote during the send, thanks.io saves them automatically as templates, and each becomes a creative. These are hidden by default to keep the library tidy.
A template you save and name yourself elsewhere in the dashboard (for example, with Save as Message Template in Send Mail) also becomes a creative, and appears in the library as usual.
Hidden creatives are not deleted. They aren't offered in the creative pickers in Send Mail and the campaign wizard, but you can still send one with Send it on its card (turn on Show hidden to find it), and a complete one still sends by its creative ID. Use Show in library on a hidden creative to bring it back into the main view and the pickers.
Where creatives come from
- Creatives → New creative, built yourself or designed with ThanksAI. See Creating a Creative.
- Make creative now in Send Mail's Design step, which builds a creative without leaving the send.
- A share link someone sent you, once you click Add to my creatives.
- Templates saved elsewhere in the dashboard, such as Save as Message Template in Send Mail, and the fronts and messages a send saves automatically (hidden by default).
- Duplicate on an existing creative.
Sub-accounts
Creatives belong to the active sub-account, the same way mailing lists do. The library, Send Mail, and campaigns show the creatives of the sub-account selected in the sidebar footer. Switch sub-accounts to see another one's creatives.
Old template links
Image Templates, Message & QR Templates, and Inspirations aren't separate pages in the dashboard; everything they covered is part of Creatives. Bookmarks and links to them (/image_templates, /message_templates, and the inspiration gallery) open Creatives, and links to a specific template (from an order, a scan report, or an older share link) open the creative that template belongs to.