Code School for Marketers

Learn core coding concepts in our 6-week interactive course.  If you know Account Engagement and want to add HTML & CSS fundamentals to your toolbox… this is designed for you.  

Code literacy is one of the skillsets that separates the good from the great in marketing operations.

Sercante’s Code School for Marketers will empower you to add pizzazz to your emails that goes beyond Account Engagement’s out-of-the-box templates. This 6-week course is built specifically to give you the skills to create the perfect emails in Account Engagament.

Whether you’re pretty new to HTML & CSS or self-taught and looking to level up, we’ve got you covered.

Requirements

  • Access to a Account Engagement org with an Administrator login

  • A working camera and mic to participate through Zoom video chat

  • Some familiarity with HTML and CSS (as in, you’ve seen it before — no need to be an expert!)

  • Willingness to learn and participate

  • We recommend students plan to commit a minimum of 4-5 hours a week to this course, including the scheduled two-hour lecture session, the optional one hour open office hour, and a recommended one hour of self-paced learning.

Upcoming Course Dates:

  • Thursdays, January 25 – February 29

  • Wednesdays, June 5 – July 17

All classes are from 12pm – 2 pm ET and all open office hours are from 12 pm – 1 pm ET.

What you’ll learn

Lesson 1

  • Introductions

    • Housekeeping items
  • HTML document

    • What type of applications do we need to write code
    • HTML building blocks
    • Standard HTML set up for emails
  • Email layout patterns

    • Starting with design
    • Thinking in modules
    • Commonly use HTML tags for layout
    • Fluid vs fixed design

Lesson 2

  • Email layout pattern review

  • Adding content to layouts

    • Semantic markup
    • Images, headlines, paragraphs, lists, hypherlinks, buttons
    • Content positioning & text alignment
  • Structure vs Presentation

    • HTML attribute or CSS property
  • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

    • Anatomy of a CSS rule set
    • CSS placement (external, internal/embedded, and inline styles)
    • CSS cascade – which style gets the final say

Lesson 3

  • CSS resets

    • What are they for
    • When to customize
  • Responsive layouts

    • CSS media query – what is it used for
    • Mobile first design vs desktop first build
    • Fluid design vs rigid design (reinforced)
    • Column stacking vs scaling
    • 2 column design

Lesson 4

  • Responsive Layouts Review

    • Infinite column designs
    • Designs without tables
  • HTML / CSS review

  • Render testing

    • Soft error & acceptable fallback
    • Troubleshooting email applications
    • Placeholder content vs actual
    • Testing service vs live test

Lesson 5

  • Account Engagement regions & region types

  • Variable tags

    • Handlebar Merge Language
  • Testing

    • Verifying correct region types
    • Changing content with Account Engagement’s WYSIWYG
    • Send test emails

Lesson 6

  • Final project review

  • Custom Enhancements

    • Webfonts
    • Background images
    • Progressive enhancements
    • Email inspiration & community groups
  • Course wrap-up