Problems email marketers face that modules solve

Creating newsletters is a rather complex process that’s more like a constant race with obstacles that need to be overcome — some of which are fundamental and difficult to get around. Thus, making things simpler is one of the main desires of any marketer.

However, modules — if not a solution to problems — are nevertheless an excellent way to simplify processes. In this article, we discuss the main problems in creating emails for whole newsletters and reveal how modules can help overcome them.

Here’s a little teaser on how modules iron out common email design process difficulties:

Modules are all about speed, consistency, variability, and independence when creating emails.

Oleksandr Dieiev,

Email marketing specialist at Stripo.

#1. Slow email design process

Problem: As we said above, email design is a multistep process that requires time and commitment. For example, email researchers estimate that marketers spend two weeks on average creating a single marketing email. 

Let’s examine this part of a recent email from Volvo. Looks good, right? But what hides behind this beauty is the time that can be spent building this email the old-fashioned way — creating each card and text from scratch, placing them all in the layout, ensuring that the paddings are right, and don’t forget about the button. Now, imagine doing all of this again for different email campaigns. This all takes precious time that can be allocated to more strategic marketing tasks.

(Source: Email Love)

Solution: This problem’s solution is much simpler than it seems. A trained eye immediately will see the possibility of creating modules that will speed up the design process in the future significantly. Using the same Volvo example, you can see that this block easily can be created using only three modules, two of which have the same structure, but are simply mirrored.

This is what modules are all about: You create all of your content modules once and reuse them multiple times in future email campaigns by simply pasting them into your template. Each module is a pre-built piece of content (header, footer, product card, CTA block, etc.).

Based on our own experience, using modules significantly speeds up email creation. Instead of 2.5 hours, we spend only 30 minutes creating an email. Each of the needed blocks that might come in handy for specific email campaigns already is packed in modules, so they need only be dropped into the editor, placed in the right order, tweaked, and voilà —our email is ready. 

#2. Generic and repetitive design layouts

Problem: While preparing this material, we decided to analyze email designs to identify potential problems for email marketers. The automotive industry was the choice for a good reason: The industry, in which style and uniqueness open new boundaries and sales, turned out to be quite rigid regarding emails.

A design analysis demonstrated how patterns can be used that can be traced in many brands. For example:

• email headers often are created with only a logo attached and no menu or other functionality;
• content presentation is based on a simple structure: Image > Short description > “Learn more” button > repeat several times to the footer;
• standard footers with occasional text blocks are used (privacy policy, branch description, etc.);
• emails’ overall design in campaigns practically doesn’t change regardless of email type;
• animations, drop-down lists, and other interactive elements are kept to a minimum, i.e., everything is strict, concise, and, to some extent, basic.

We don’t want to belittle brands that take this approach, and not all brands can be packaged in the structure described above. It’s not bad, and there’s no need to rush to create a design from scratch for each type of newsletter. However, such content delivery quickly can become boring for recipients, and it’ll be difficult for them to differentiate emails from each other. This Cadillac email is an excellent collective image of standard email design in the industry.

(Source: Email Love)

Solution: Modules can become your way out of bland repetitiveness. As we mentioned earlier, modules contain all the email blocks you need, so you can create any type of email using them. But what about making different versions of them, e.g., two types of feature lists or blog article promotions: one with a simple column and one with a zigzag representation?

Here’s an example of what it can look like. We made a content module for the trending section, in which each card contains a photo and a short description. The whole card is clickable, so the recipient can be transferred to the respective article on the website. It looks pretty, and you can use it immediately for all your emails.

Let’s mix things up a little, with the same trending block and content, but now it looks fresh, with a simple changed layout and a “Learn more” button.

Building your module library is all about diversity. You can create as many modules as you like for each type of content, making your emails feel unique while delivering the same type of content. That’s why we always provide you with a library of pre-built modules, in which each basic element, starting with headers and ending with complex product cards, has several variants from which to choose and gain inspiration.

#3. Tricky brand consistency maintenance

Problem: Your brand identity is the face of your business, transmitting the emotions you want to convey to help customers differentiate you from your competitors. Maintaining brand consistency is a constant process of creating all of your content by the brand book. However, this strict approach makes it worth your while because brand consistency boosts revenue by up to 23%. However, there’s a big obstacle ahead, as maintaining consistent email designs when creating each email from scratch may be difficult.

Take a look at this email from Ford. Every tiny detail vibes with a certain style picked by email designers — fonts, colors, button shapes, spacing between content blocks — everything is tailored to Ford’s brand book and is consistent throughout its emails.

(Source: Email Love)

Creating emails from scratch locks you into a process in which you always must be attentive and check the brand book when creating each module. Was the font chosen correctly? Are these news blocks supposed to look like this? How exactly do we place social media links in the email footer? These and many other questions will haunt you throughout the entire process, and there’s a greater chance of making a mistake, particularly if several colleagues are creating emails.

Solution: When you create modules for your library, you put all the necessary design code in them, from fonts and button roundings, to special visual elements, styles, etc. Later, when you resize these modules, you can ensure that the element you added to the email fully matches your brand’s style, and you don’t need to worry about “Do these icons have the right style?”

#4. Difficult last-minute changes and updates to campaigns

Problem: Keeping your emails up-to-date and tweaking their designs and data are part of a tricky process, particularly when you have a whole library of templates for each occasion — not to mention urgent changes when there’s no time to redesign the email. Let’s say you need to change your product cards’ style, and you have around 20 different emails with them. Or the big qualification race has been postponed, so you need to reset the countdown timer, like in this F1 email. Pretty stressful situations, aren’t they?

(Source: Email Love)

Solution: Keeping your email information up-to-date and making changes are much easier when you use modules — particularly synchronized ones.

Synchronized modules work like this: Whenever you make changes to a module within just one template or email, these changes automatically get applied to all other templates or emails in which you used this module. For example, tweaks implemented in your product card module will be implemented in all emails with that product card.

We previously demonstrated in detail how synchronized modules work in our dedicated article on modular email design: 

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Modular email design: Saving time and enhancing efficiency with smart design

#5. Costly email design

Problem: On average, email design from scratch costs from $25–$150+ per hour, depending on its complexity. Let's imagine you need 10 hours to design a simple email, at an hourly rate of $25. This email will cost you $250. As you create these emails from scratch, future emails of the same complexity still will be $250 each time. And what about a whole email campaign that comprises five or 10 emails? This budget money instead can be allocated to other strategic tasks, particularly if you’re a small company that relies on email marketing as your main method of reaching and cultivating potential customers.

Solution: Using modules, you can create all your designs once (headers, footers, banners, buttons, etc.), pack them into modules, and simply reuse them without needing to create each element from scratch every time.

Recent studies found that repurposed content is a cost-effective approach that costs 62% less and is approved by 65% of marketers.

The price of each email you create is tied to time spent on it. As the famous proverb says, “Time is money,” and modules prevail here in both aspects, i.e., why spend hours on an email when only one hour is needed? Reducing email production time shrinks the email’s final cost.

#6. Creating emails requires technical knowledge

Problem: Even though the famous email guru Mark Robbins advises all marketers to start figuring out the technical part of creating emails, sometimes this is impossible. For example, maybe your time is allocated to strategic tasks, or else technical aspects aren’t your forte. Still, emails must be created, requiring technical knowledge — or do they?

Imagine that you want to add some interactivity to your emails. You want to be like Lotus, which attaches an NPS survey to each email to remain connected with the audience and get constant feedback on its email content and accessibility. It’s a tricky task, and you can’t do it without knowing how to code it or having a dedicated email developer who can figure out how to bring your NPS survey to life. And don’t forget that each of your emails will include this survey.

(Source: Email Love)

Solution: Modules make email creation much easier. You can contact an email developer who will create all necessary modules in advance, after which you can use them in your email campaigns.

You also can create modules in our editor. When creating emails in Stripo, you can save any part of the email as a module, thereby forming your own library of modules. After that, you can create all the necessary emails simply by dragging and dropping modules into the editor. With this approach, email marketing is available to everyone.

Don’t forget about complex details, such as interactivity. Creating AMP games and other interactive elements for emails always requires highly technical knowledge and programming skills. However, ready-made solutions always are available. For example, our Interactive module generator has a whole library of various games and interactive elements. 

Anyone can create a game using an intuitive interface and then save it as a module in Stripo, or save the entire game code and use it in the tool of your choice. Email interactivity never has been so accessible.

#7. Time-consuming email testing

Problem: As we said above, email creation takes time, and email testing is another process that adds hours to the whole process, as you need to iron out all imperfections that can impact recipients’ experiences. A proper email testing process usually comprises the following steps:

1. Check content relevance.
2. Check links to ensure they work.
3. Check for correct functioning of interactive elements, GIFs, images, etc.
4. Examine the display on mobile devices for any issues with absence of mismatches and adaptability artifacts.
5. Examine how the email looks in the primary email to clients, who comprise the lion's share of your email list.
6. Send an email to your own inbox.
7. Send an email to test email addresses.

Solution: Modules are significant time-saving elements that shorten the overall time you need to spend on email testing. You create all your modules in advance, so you need to test each one separately before adding them to your library.

Important note: Even though you created and tested all your modules in advance, neglecting email testing completely isn’t a wise move. Skip tests for the simple modules that are reused unchanged (e.g., headers, footers, spacers, etc.). Overly complex modules with product cards, carousels, and other unstable elements that change from email to email should be tested thoroughly.

Wrapping up

Throughout this article, it’s clear that the email design process has many pitfalls that may seem quite serious, including the high cost of creating emails, repetitive design, difficulty with design coding, and requirements for technical knowledge. 

However, modules are the very bridge over these pitfalls that allow you to create emails more efficiently and simply, offering ease of use, variability, and speed in creating emails. This is why you should adopt a modular email design.