The "email variables" are essentially information placeholders for your messages. For example, placing the %%buyer_first_name%% variable in your message body (ex. "Hello %%buyer_first_name%%!" - a greeting at the beginning of the message), will replace the variable placeholder with the first name of the customer who placed the order.
For any of the link variables (see a list of all our email variables at https://www.zonmaster.com/email_templates/help), you can specify the text that should appear hyperlinked by adding a colon after the word "link" and typing in the text that you would like hyperlinked. For example, if you want customers to contact you through Amazon and don't want to use the web URL (ex. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact/contact.html?marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&orderID=FAKE-ORDER-ID), you could instead use the Contact variable like so: %%contact_link:Contact Us%%. The recipient would see the words "Contact us" as a clickable link that redirects to the Contact page on Amazon. This makes the email more visually appealing and easy to follow.
The most useful variables are %%buyer_first_name%% (replaces the code with the customer's first name), %%product_nick%% will show the name of what the customer purchased, or a shortened version if you have entered one, %%feedback_link:your text here%% (link for your customer to leave seller feedback - specific to their order), and %%review_link:your text here%% (direct link for the customer to leave a product review on the product they purchased).