Skip to main content
A template can have a translation for each language your workspace sends in. When an email goes out, each contact gets the version that matches their language, and everyone else gets the default. This is separate from the language of the InstantCampaign dashboard itself. You can use the app in English while emailing contacts in French.

​
How the language is chosen

  • Each contact has a language on their record.
  • Your workspace has a list of Supported languages and a Default language.
  • The template itself is always the default-language version. A translation overrides it for one language.
When sending, the contact’s language is matched to your languages: an exact match first (pt-BR), then the base language in either direction (a fr-CA contact gets fr; a pt contact gets pt-BR), otherwise the default. Anything a translation leaves blank falls back to the default, so a translation can never leave a contact with an empty email.

​
Set up your languages

1

Add languages to your workspace

Go to Settings → General (under Workspace). Under Supported languages, click Add language for each language you send in, then choose the Default language.
2

Give contacts a language

Set the language on each contact’s record, or include it when you import contacts or create them through the API.
Until your workspace has more than one language, the Translations button doesn’t appear in the builder.

​
Translate a template

1

Open Translations

In the email builder, click Translations in the toolbar. You’ll see one card per language (the default language isn’t listed, because it is the template).
2

Enable the language

Turn on the switch for the language. A disabled translation is never sent, so contacts with that language get the default.
3

Translate the subject and preview text

Fill in Subject line and Preheader, or leave them blank to use the default, then click Save.
4

Translate the body

Click Open email editor (or Edit translated body once there is one). The builder opens in language mode, with a banner saying Editing the … translation. It starts from a copy of the default body. Edit the text and it saves as you go.
Reset from default replaces the translation’s body with a fresh copy of the default template. This is useful after you’ve redesigned the default. Click Back to translations in the banner to return to the list.

​
What’s different in language mode

Saving in language mode changes that language only; the default template isn’t touched. Some template-wide features are hidden while you edit a translation:
  • the AMP toggle (AMP is single-language),
  • renaming, approval and Version History,
  • live collaboration with teammates.
The compliance footer is still added to every language.

​
Where translations are used

In a subject-line A/B test, the test’s subject variants win over translated subjects, so the subject isn’t localized for that send. The body still is.
Duplicating a template copies all its translations.

​
Check a translation

While you edit a translation, the builder’s Preview tab shows the translated body. In language mode, Preview as… and Send Test Email use the translation too: the translated subject line, preview text and body.
  • A plain test sends the last saved version of the translation. Wait until the toolbar shows Saved.
  • Send test with this preview context sends the body you’re editing, for the contact and sample data you picked in Preview as….
If the translation’s switch is off, the preview and the test use the default language, the same as a real send.

​
Limits

  • The compliance footer that InstantCampaign adds (the “why you received this” line, Unsubscribe and Manage preferences) follows the recipient’s language in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch, and is English otherwise. A footer block in your template keeps the text you wrote.
  • Translations aren’t part of the approval workflow. Approval applies to the template as a whole.
  • AMP content is single-language.
  • In journeys, a preheader set on the email step itself takes priority over the translation’s preheader.

​
Troubleshooting

Your workspace has only one language. Add more under Settings → General, then reload the builder.
Check that the translation is Enabled, and that the contact’s language matches one of your workspace languages. A contact with no language gets the default.
For transactional API sends, the subject in your request always wins. For campaigns, a subject A/B test overrides translated subjects.