How to Automate Bulk Emails with eSputnik Smart Containers

Automating bulk email campaigns with eSputnik containers is one of the most effective ways to cut campaign preparation time without sacrificing content quality. eSputnik smart containers for email automation automatically pull product information from your website, including images, titles, prices, and links. As a result, email marketers spend significantly less time filling emails with content, even for large-scale promotional bulk campaigns.

In this article, we’ll take a detailed look at how to automate email campaigns in eSputnik using smart containers — from basic auto-population to advanced variable mapping and CSS selectors.

What Are eSputnik Smart Containers and Why Use Them for Bulk Emails

A smart container is a structural element of an email template in eSputnik, composed of basic smart blocks (image, text, button), whose content is automatically filled via data substitution from a product page on your website. Unlike conventional static blocks, where an email marketer manually uploads each image and enters the product name and price, a smart container fetches all the necessary data directly from the product URL.

Static blocks require manual updates for every campaign: if a price changes, you edit it by hand; if a product goes out of stock, you need to make more manual edits. A smart container reads up-to-date data from the website at the time the email is being prepared, which is especially valuable for bulk campaigns featuring dozens of product cards. If the website uses OG (Open Graph) tags that provide structured data about page content, eSputnik automatically substitutes product information into the email template, eliminating the need for manual content entry.

Key Advantages of Smart Containers for Bulk Email Campaigns:

• Time savings. There is no need to manually fill in each product card. All you need to do is insert the URL and click “Get Values.”
• Up-to-date data. Prices, availability, and images are fetched directly from the website at the time the bulk campaign is prepared.
• Personalization and dynamic content. Additional attributes (discount, size, color) can be configured for display using CSS selectors.
• Scalability. Saved modules from the module library can be reused for new campaigns without starting the setup from scratch.

Typical Mass Email Scenarios with Smart Containers

eSputnik containers, which automate dynamic email content, work effectively across a wide range of marketing scenarios. Here are the most common use cases:

• Promotional emails with product selections. Weekly or themed emails featuring new arrivals, bestsellers, or discounted items. The smart container automatically fetches current images, titles, prices, and availability status for each product card.
• Abandoned cart emails. Automated trigger messages reminding customers about an incomplete order. The container performs data substitution for the specific items in the cart, including photo, title, price, and a direct link to return and complete the purchase.
• Browse abandonment emails. Trigger-based personalized emails driven by user behavior on the website. The smart container automatically assembles a block of recently viewed product cards, including current prices and recommendations.
• Seasonal campaigns and flash sales. Bulk campaigns tied to holidays or special promotions, where accurate pricing and availability are critical. The container pulls up-to-date data on discounts, promotion deadlines, and stock levels via image fetch and URL parser.
• Monthly blog digests and content roundups. Regular newsletters featuring curated blog posts, news, or case studies. The smart container pulls the article title, preview image (og:image), short description (og:description), and a direct read-more link from the article URL, with zero manual copy-pasting. This is especially convenient for B2B companies, educational projects, and content-driven brands. Just compile a list of new publication URLs, and a fully populated email template with up-to-date article cards is ready in minutes.

Data Flow Diagram:

What You Need Before Automating Campaigns

Before launching the automation of email product cards with eSputnik smart containers, make sure the following technical and organizational requirements are in place.

Technical and Content Prerequisites:

• Product pages contain accurate, up-to-date data: title, price, image, and availability status.
• The website has properly configured OG tags (og:title, og:image, og:price) or structured data. These are what eSputnik reads during auto-population.
• A base email template already exists in eSputnik or, at minimum, has a defined visual style (colors, fonts, styles) so that any added module blends in seamlessly.
• A prepared list of product URLs to be included in the bulk campaign.

eSputnik Account Setup:

• A connected website or product feed is required for accurate data substitution.
• A verified sender domain is a mandatory condition for bulk campaigns.
• Access to the email editor and module library within the eSputnik account.

The larger the product catalog and the more frequent the campaigns, the greater the time savings delivered by smart containers. If you’re sending at least two or three bulk campaigns per month featuring product cards, the automation starts paying off from the very first setup.

Step-by-Step Setup of Smart Containers in the eSputnik Email Editor

This section provides a practical, step-by-step guide to configuring smart containers based on the actual eSputnik interface. Each subsection below represents a distinct step in the setup process. We recommend following them in order, using the accompanying screenshots to navigate the email editor more precisely.

Adding Product Card Modules to Your Email Template

Go to Messages → New Email. Create a new email or open an existing email template to which you want to add product cards.

To find and add a product card module:

1. Open the “Structures & Modules” panel on the left side of the email editor.
2. Navigate to the “My Modules” or “General Modules” tab.
3. Select the “Product Cards” category — this is where the ready-made smart blocks for product data substitution are stored.
4. Drag and drop the desired module into the email body.

A standard product card contains the following elements:

• Product image (image fetch).
• Product title (text block).
• Price (price block).
• A “View” or “Buy” CTA button (CTA button).

If the email already has configured visual styles (colors, fonts, spacing), they will be automatically applied to the added module.

Auto-Filling Product Cards with URLs from Your Site

Once the module has been added to the template, perform the following steps for each smart container:

1. Open the product page on your website in a browser.
2. Copy the full URL from the address bar.
3. Return to the eSputnik email editor, click on the smart container, and navigate to the “Data” tab in the settings panel.
4. Paste the URL into the “Link” field and click “Get Values.”
5. Wait for the preview to update — the system will automatically perform data substitution for all available fields.

Data automatically filled via the URL parser:

• Product image (og:image).
• Product title (og:title).
• Price (og:price or structured data).
• Direct product link with UTM parameters (if configured).

The button text is not updated automatically. If needed, edit it manually after auto-population is complete. Repeat this procedure for each container in the email.

Using Open Graph Tags and Structured Data for Stable Auto-Fill

Open Graph (OG) tags are meta markup in a page’s HTML code that communicates structured data to external systems (in this case, eSputnik) about the page’s content: title, image, price, and other parameters. If OG tags are missing or incorrectly filled in, auto-population will either fail entirely or pull incorrect information. Structured data (schema.org) serves as an alternative data source and is also supported by the platform.

Key OG fields that must be present on a product page:

• og:image — URL of a high-quality product image (recommended size: 600×600 px or larger).
• og:title — the exact product name, without extra characters.
• og:price (or product:price:amount) — current price with currency.
• og:availability or product:availability — product availability status (in stock / out of stock).

You don’t need deep technical knowledge to check whether OG tags are present and correctly configured on a product page. Simply open DevTools in the browser (Ctrl+Shift+I or F12), navigate to the Elements tab, and search for tags with the attribute property=”og:…”. Free online validators are also an option, such as Facebook’s Open Graph debugger or any OG debug service.

Extending eSputnik Smart Containers with Extra Product Attributes

Standard auto-population via OG tags covers the basic fields: image, title, and price. However, for certain product categories or marketing objectives, this may not be enough. In such cases, you can manually configure the display of additional attributes using smart variables and CSS selectors.

Examples of additional parameters worth showing in the email:

• Discount amount (e.g., “−30%”).
• Color variations or sizes (for fashion and footwear).
• SKU or product code.
• Country of origin.
• Promotion expiry date or remaining stock level.

The general logic for extending product cards works as follows: a new text block (e.g., a “Discount” block) is added to the product card in the email editor. This block is assigned an HTML class attribute (e.g., class=”Discount”). A corresponding smart variable is then created in the smart container settings and linked to a CSS selector on the website page. When the URL is submitted, eSputnik reads the value of the specified element and substitutes it into the email template block.

Tip: If you need to add several non-standard attributes at once (e.g., a discount and a promotion expiry date), repeat the procedure for each individual block and variable. Avoid trying to fit multiple values into a single smart variable.

Mapping Variables and CSS Selectors to Email Blocks

This feature serves as the foundation of the variable-mapping mechanism in eSputnik. Each smart variable within a smart container is linked to a specific element on the website page via a CSS selector — a unique “address” of an HTML element on the page. Don’t be put off by the technical terminology. A marketer with no coding background can easily complete this step without additional help.

Simplified variable mapping algorithm:

1. Add a text block to the product card in the eSputnik email editor and assign it a class via the HTML editor (e.g., class=”Discount”).
2. In the smart container settings, click the “Configuration” icon, add a new element, and specify the variable name (Discount) and its value (discount).
3. Open the product page in a browser, activate DevTools (F12), select the target element (e.g., the block displaying the discount percentage), and copy its CSS selector via the context menu: Copy → Copy selector.
4. Paste the copied CSS selector into the corresponding field of the mapping rule in eSputnik.
5. Click “Validate rule and save.” If the selector is correct, the system will fetch the value from the page and display it in the email preview.

Important: Most modern websites use standard CSS selectors, so a single smart container configuration will typically work across all pages sharing the same structure. If certain pages use non-standard or dynamic attributes, a separate configuration or a new container will be required.

Scaling and Reusing Automated Email Structures

One of the greatest strengths of eSputnik smart containers is the ability to save configured modules to the module library and reuse them in new bulk campaigns, without reconfiguring everything from scratch each time. A finished module with correctly set up smart variables can be updated or saved as a new email template in the module library with a single click.

Practical scaling scenarios:

• Duplicating emails for new campaigns. Have a ready-made promotional email with smart containers? Duplicate it, swap in new product URLs, and an email with fully populated, up-to-date product cards is ready to send in minutes.
• One structure for different segments or languages. A saved module can be used in multilingual bulk campaigns or adapted for different audience segments simply by substituting different product URLs relevant to each segment.
• Replacing URLs or feeds without changing the layout. When the product range is updated or a seasonal campaign launches, simply update the links within the containers — the entire email template layout and styles remain intact.

Best Practices for Automated eSputnik Campaigns with Smart Containers

• Always send a test email before the final launch — verify that product cards render correctly, with accurate prices and availability.
• Check price accuracy and product availability immediately before sending — data is fetched at the time of setup, not at the moment the recipient opens the email.
• Keep the number of products per email reasonable — 4 to 9 product cards is optimal. Too many cards overload the email template and reduce conversion rates.
• Regularly verify OG tags and CSS selectors after website updates — changes to page structure can break variable mapping.
• Run A/B tests — experiment with the number of product cards, button placement, price formatting, and subject lines to improve campaign performance.

Common mistakes to avoid:

• Broken product links (page deleted or unavailable) — always validate URLs before sending.
• Empty fields in product cards (missing OG tag or incorrect CSS selector) — configure a fallback value or default text.
• Wrong language or currency in cards during multilingual bulk campaigns — always verify that the URL matches the language segment of the target audience.

Final Thoughts

eSputnik smart containers are a powerful tool for automating mass email campaigns, enabling marketers to dramatically reduce campaign preparation time without compromising content quality or relevance. By automatically fetching data from the website via OG tags and CSS selectors, an email marketer can build an email featuring dozens of up-to-date product cards, with accurate prices, images, and links, in just a few clicks.

The advanced variable mapping mechanism and support for non-standard attributes via custom CSS selectors open up extensive possibilities for personalization (discounts, promotion deadlines, sizes, availability) that can be automated without developer involvement. And saving modules to the module library allows the entire approach to scale across the email channel: configure once, reuse across hundreds of bulk campaigns.

Ready to set up automating bulk email campaigns with eSputnik containers and finally eliminate manual content entry? The Livepage team will help you work through the technical configuration of smart containers, correctly implement OG tags and CSS selectors, and build a scalable email automation structure that runs without constant marketer involvement.

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