Like all email marketing managers, you want high quality, engaging email templates that reflect a brand’s messaging, identity, and voice. But with so many email template builders to choose from, creating the perfect newsletter template can be challenging.
Sure, you could code HTML email templates by hand. But this can be time consuming and cost prohibitive. It also makes it difficult to make minor changes to the code without the developer’s input—unless you have your own coding skills. Then there are the hours spent maintaining and testing your code to ensure it’s compatible with all major ESPs. If you have the time and budget for this, all props to you.
Alternatively, you could use one of the templates provided by your ESP. Most email providers offer basic templates for you to use in your own campaigns. However, these have limited customization options. Plus, when you switch to a new provider, you’ll have to redesign all of your templates from scratch. It’s far from ideal, and acts as a way to lock you in to a certain provider.
A middle ground that we recommend, is to use a robust and versatile drag and drop email template builder that offers good layout options, clean code, and responsive email templates that you can easily take with you to a new provider.
How Does an Email Template Builder Work?
With a drag-and-drop email template builder, you’ll see a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface, where you drag different elements together to create a final version of your email template. This is a great way to build a HTML email template without writing a single line of code.
Email template builders tend to have a ton of customization options so you can make small adjustments so the template reflects your brand perfectly. You’ll be able to preview what your responsive email template looks like both on desktop and mobile.
When you’re happy with how it looks, you can download the template as a HTML file that you can upload to your email provider. Please note: many email profivers do not allow you to use HTML templates on their free accounts. If you have a free account, you will likely need to use one of the free templates provided by your ESP.
Our Favorite Drag-And-Drop Email Template Builders
Koble
Koble is a multi purpose all-in-one template builder for all kinds of newsletters. There’s an impressive number of over 200 unique modules you can use with the editor to create just about any style of email you can imagine.
The fully responsive hybrid structure templates are compatible with most ESPs and browser email clients. Koble focuses on email coding to improve compatibility and to make sure that your emails land in the inbox.
What we like best about Koble is their long record in business and the frequent updates added to the builder. Free updates, a flexible table structure, and test send functionality, makes Koble a hard act to follow. And with so many positive ratings and reviews, you can be confident the templates created in Koble will be top quality.
MailBuilds
This bestselling multi-purpose WYSIWYG email template builder comes with 17 unique templates (titled the “Multimail” bundle) and 217+ modules. It has some powerful features, such as unlimited variations, duplication and deletion, which you can use to create killer emails in just a few clicks.
MailBuilds offers extensive compatibility with all major ESPs and works flawlessly on all mobile devices. You can change your modules and colors on the fly and make changes in real time. The clean code and premium designs can be readily put to use with the drag and drop builder, making template creation a cinch!
In practice, MailBuilds is extremely intuitive and easy to use and you can quickly turn your ideas into campaign-ready templates in seconds. The builder feels very robust and the modules add some neat functionality which will increase your user engagement.
Again, check out the hundreds of positive reviews MailBuilds has received before buying to give you confidence that this is the right choice for you.
Belega
This modern looking template builder from Belega has been designed to create flat, responsive, attention grabbing emails. Like many of the other builders on the list it offers excellent compatibility with email marketing service providers and ESPs.
Beluga is relatively inexpensive for all that it has to offer and features some neat touches that make it stand out from the crowd. It comes with a clean interface that makes layout creation a piece of cake and you can change your color scheme of your designs with a single click.
There’s also quite a few unique features under the hood, such as the fully functional Google Fonts API and project file management to share templates with your team.
Add to this realtime changes and a waterfall flow style show and you have all the elements you need to create professional and on-brand designs that will wow your subscribers.
Notify
If you are working with eCommerce and transactional emails you’re going to love Notify. It’s a fully responsive, multipurpose online email builder with over 30 notification templates built-in. The templates are compatible with many ESPs, including MailChimp, Constant Contact, GetResponse, AWeber, Campaign Monitor and more. These templates are perfectly suited to an eCommerce-based business model.
You’ll find templates for registration, customer sign-in, welcome emails, add to cart / abandoned cart, sales, surveys, password reminders, along with many others. There’s also ample customization options to accommodate your (or your clients’) font choices, icons and colors. The promotional email templates included can be customized in next to no time so you can hit the ground running when working on marketing sprints.
The builder is incredibly easy to use and allows for real time modifications so you can make the templates reflect your brand values without having to dig through lines of code. Each template is tested in Litmus so you can use Notify for mobile apps and notifications as well as for product sales.
Metrospective
If you’re in the market for high-end email templates that you can use with any email sending service that supports HTML upload, Metrospective could be just the ticket. The 160 stamp builder with compatible prebuilt templates will give your email a professional look that’s guaranteed to look amazing in the inbox.
What you are paying for here is an extensively tested set of customizable, responsive email templates that will impress your clients and increase your open rates and conversions. They can be combined with the online drag and drop builder which comes as a paid add-on to the service. While you won’t be able to host this on your own server you will get full access to all of the templates, plus 20 prebuilt layouts you can customize to suit just about any purpose.
Metrospective will appeal to HTML coders who need production ready files, as well as to those who prefer to use the online builder to add their own design flair to create the perfect newsletter.
Deciding On an Email Template Builder
All of the drag and drop email template builders on this list offer you a way to quickly create high-end email templates that are error-free and look great in the inbox. They reduce the time spent on email creation and allow you to work your magic in record time. They also provide a great way for you to share your ideas with your team and make changes to your designs in real time.
These professionally created and heavily tested templates not only give you peace of mind but also free up resources so you can concentrate on the brand message and hit the send button sooner.
And finally, it’s great to know that you own the templates you create, and can export these in a format that’s compatible with your ESP.
If you value your time and are looking for a guaranteed way to impress your readers and your clients, as well as improve your workflow, there’s really no reason not to start using them.
While you’re here, you might also like to read: 17 Ways to Monetize Your Email List.
Please note: if you click through and buy any products or services we recommend, we may earn a commission. This does not influence the products we recommend.
