Modular Email Designs: What Makes Them So Effective?

How long does it take you to create the average marketing email?

62% of email marketing teams spend two weeks or more crafting a single email. While 23% juggle up to 5 emails in production simultaneously.

And let’s not forget the cost factor. The monthly spending for sending 4 email templates is around $1700.

No wonder designing is the biggest challenge during email production.

With so much time turning an email template into a full-blown, ready-to-send email, more brands are migrating to modular email architectures and reaping significant improvements.

• Modular email designs are ranked among the top three strategies for improving email performance.
• Modular email designs can accelerate email production by 5 times.
• 77% of marketers who’ve made the switch report significant improvements in their email programs.

Impressive right? There is more to it. Let’s dive into the concept of modular email design to understand why it’s worth adopting for email marketers.

What is Modular Email Design?

Visualize a module as a single, versatile LEGO brick. A piece that has a specific purpose. Just as one can use a LEGO brick in various ways to build different structures, email modules act as the building blocks of your campaigns.

Each module is independent and serves its purpose. The best part is that they are reusable, making them the best bet for efficient email creation.

In emails, a module could have different types. A header, a hero image, a text block, a CTA button, a product showcase, a footer, and so on. Each module is a custom element created and then used as you please and as often as you like.

Not only that, you can easily customize your modules by editing their content. Change the text on a CTA module to “Order Now,” and it is ready for a promotional email. Or, edit the hero image module and swap the image out for something more relevant to your seasonal campaign.

This flexibility is great as you can tailor your message based on the purpose without redesigning from scratch.

A fully responsive, modular email template is built from a collection of modules. In LEGO terms, a template is a LEGO set—a collection of LEGO bricks (modules) that work together to build something specific.

Just as you have different LEGO sets for building cars, houses, or spaceships, you’ll have different email templates for promotions, newsletters, welcome emails, or transactional messages.

Here’s an example of a modular email template:

Source: Email Uplers

Clear so far? Great! Let’s move to the next level.

Modular email architecture. Imagine it as a LEGO Master Builder’s Toolkit. It’s a complete toolkit with a library of all kinds of LEGO bricks (modules), along with the guidelines for creating gorgeous emails. The modular email architecture means you can create all kinds of emails for your business needs.

What Are The Benefits of Modular Email Designs?

Ten minutes. Just ten minutes to build an email template with a modular design system, says Litmus’s Email and Content Growth Marketing Manager, Carin Slater.

However, there is much more to modular email design than just speed. It radically facelifts how marketing teams create and manage their email campaigns. As in:

Accelerated Email Creation

The most magical words you can say to your marketing folks—say goodbye to building emails from scratch. Or no need to write custom code for every minor change. Try that, and they will love it.

Modular email templates turn the email creation into an intuitive assembly process. Simply select pre-built content blocks from a library, arrange them in the desired order, and the email is ready.

It gets even better. These modules come pre-tested, eliminating the need for extensive testing with each new email.

Smart Cost Management

The beauty of modular design also lies in its cost-efficiency. Sure, the initial setup requires investment and resources to design and develop your module library. But the long-term savings are substantial. Once you create modules, you can reuse them until the end of the world!

Maybe not, but the point is that the modules are useful across many different campaigns. This helps eliminate the ongoing costs of custom template designs and new email coding.

Brand Consistency

Imagine having your brand guidelines automatically built into every email you send. That’s what is possible with modular email designs. The idea behind this is that you create your modules and align them with your brand book once. Thereafter, every email maintains consistent design elements – from typography to layout. You can even lock in specific elements like color palettes to maintain brand integrity across all communications.

Unmatched Flexibility

Flexibility is second nature to modular email templates. The system’s mix-and-match nature allows you to adapt your emails quickly without starting over. This flexibility proves invaluable when your marketing needs shift unexpectedly, which they often do.

Swift Last-Minute Changes

Speaking of flexibility, last-minute changes are the bitter truth of every marketer’s life. They know the importance of having a Plan B. Modular design makes last-minute changes feel more like simple updates than emergency redesigns. Whether you need to tweak a tiny detail or overhaul entire sections, changes that once required complete rebuilds now take just minutes.

Responsiveness

Every module in the modular design system is pre-coded and tested for responsiveness. So that any email you create you know will automatically work beautifully across all devices. And you save a lot of time that goes into troubleshooting display issues.

Future-Proof Design

Modular email design is built for tomorrow’s challenges. The system allows for easy template duplication and editing, creating backups and iterations without technical complications. This adaptability ensures your email design system grows with your business needs.

Wrapping Up

The popularity of modular email design as a leading email marketing trend is no coincidence. It delivers what modern email marketing needs: a streamlined email production that saves time and money while maintaining brand standards. Plus, you don’t need technical expertise to get started.