You know why LEGOs are genius?
It's not just that kids love them (though stepping on one barefoot at 2 AM might make you question that love).
It's because with a handful of basic blocks, you can build anything. A castle today, a spaceship tomorrow, a robot next week – all from the same versatile pieces.
No need to buy a different set for every creation when you understand how to use what you've got.
That's exactly what modular email templates do for your email marketing.
With a smart collection of pre-built content blocks, you can construct an endless variety of email campaigns.
And your email turnaround time drops by 5x because you're not reinventing the wheel every send.
This is gold when the current email marketing landscape demands that brands pump out more high-quality emails in less time than ever.
Modular email templates are meant to face this challenge. Modular emails are capable of doing so much more, though.
Let’s understand how you make your email design system scalable with the help of modular email templates.
What are modular email templates?
Handle it in-house or rope in Modular email template services, building modular email templates will help you optimize email building, the biggest blocker for 41% of marketers.
Modular email templates are a collection of modules. Modules are pre-built, reusable email elements—headers, footers, product cards, banners, CTAs, and more.
They’re editable so you can customize them with your brand's fonts, colors, and styles.
Once you create and save them in your content library, you can mix and match these modules to build beautiful emails quickly.
These modules can be reused across campaigns—whether you're sending newsletters, promotional offers, transactional emails, surveys, or you name it.
You pick the modules you need and put together the perfect email for your campaign.
Why modular beats traditional templates
The concept of modular email design has an upper hand over email templates we’ve been using for years. How’s that?
The conventional email templates, especially those designed using drag-and-drop email builders, have been popular when you need pre-built designs for different occasions.
But still, you have to spend time creating them from scratch for different use cases. Often, they are practically useless unless you edit them for special campaigns.
And, when you have to add or delete sections from the template, you are back on depending on the developer and designer to help you with it.
Modular email layouts are not so restrictive in nature.
The philosophy here is that you have the independent content blocks ready and use and reuse them while building emails requiring the relevant section.
When created, all the modules follow your brand book and accurately reflect your branding.
Because each block can be used without making changes, they stay the same in each send, unless you consciously edit them.
Even with styling staying the same, you can always edit the content for elements like product blocks, which are different in different campaigns.
How useful this could be when you’re among those 62% of email marketing teams that take two weeks or more to build an email.
And along with time, email volume is a factor, too. 23% of teams juggle multiple email designs, 5 to be precise, at a time.
Do the math. That’s juggling a dozen tasks at once, without dropping the ball. Automation can take the efficiency game to the next level for modular email designs.
Some email builders, such as Stripo, offer synchronized modules that let you update all your modular email templates at once.
Now, how many emails does a company typically use to stay in touch with customers?
Think about all types: welcome emails, order confirmations, cart abandonment, re-engagement, etc. An average online store may use over 50 different emails.
Now imagine you’ve rebranded. Your logo changed or your social media links are updated.
Without modular templates, you'd manually update all 50 templates. That's time-consuming, and mistakes are inevitable.
When your modules are synced, updating one spot updates them everywhere. No need to tweak each email individually.
Just update the module once, and it automatically reflects across all templates that use it. That means faster turnarounds and fewer chances for mistakes.
"Ever since we started using a modular design system, my email production time has been cut down significantly," says Carin Slater, Email and Content Growth Marketing Manager at Litmus. "Emails that used to take me hours now can be done in half the time! Combining the modules I created with the Litmus Design Library has increased my productivity so much that I can create some emails in as little as 10 minutes!"
Step-by-step: Building modular email template layouts
Scaling email design has more to do with building a reusable and flexible system rather than churning out more emails faster.
Designing modular email templates should ideally start when you have an email design system in place with well-categorized email modules.
While your module library will keep growing with your email marketing, the most often used content blocks should be ready from the start.
So that you do not start from square one with each build.
Here’s the list of some modules that would be part of any modular email template by default:
- Preheader module
- Header module
- Hero image module
- Text block
- CTA module
- Footer module
Once you have enough modules, you can start building brand-consistent modular email designs with the following steps:
1. Define brand styles
Set up a consistent visual language with colors, fonts, and images that mirror your brand’s vibe.
That’s how all your modules look brand-consistent, no matter how you combine them in modular email layouts.
2. Create reusable modules
Design and code each module as a standalone component. Focus on versatility. Modules should be easy to update and rearrange.
Use a grid system to maintain alignment and spacing, and ensure all modules are responsive for mobile devices.
3. Build a master template
Develop a “master” modular email template that incorporates all your modules.
This master template is the blueprint from which you can “cut” and save individual modules for future use.
Oleksandr Dieiev, Email Marketing Specialist at Stripo, explains it perfectly:
"Before modules became real, I used the master template differently: I actually created a template that contained blocks I would definitely use in emails. A kind of pre-module stage. But now, the master template is a conditional guideline for how modules can be used in emails. It's a template assembled from different variants of typical modules, so you can see how everything works together."
4. Assemble and test
Combine modules as needed to create new modular email layouts. Go all in to test your modular email templates across different email clients and devices.
The last thing you want is rendering and accessibility issues shocking you later.
5. Maintain and evolve
Regularly review your module library. Which modules are always in rotation? Which ones are gathering dust?
Retire the outdated, add new ones as your campaigns evolve.
And keep your documentation so up to date that even the newest team members can jump in without feeling lost.
When modular email templates are the best choice
When your email marketing program is at the stage where speed, consistency, and adaptability become deciding factors, you go to modular email templates.
This also rings true if your email team perpetually juggles frequent campaigns.
Weekly newsletters, flash sales, or segmented customer journeys, and the list keeps extending.
That’s when modular email templates deliver the most value.
With them, what can be a painstaking process can be turned into a streamlined, almost plug-and-play experience.
Imagine this: instead of building each email from scratch, you simply select pre-built modules—like headers, product showcases, or CTAs—from your library and arrange them as needed at scale.
That’s a huge slash in production time, some teams report going from hours to minutes per campaign.
What’s more, last-minute changes are the norm in email production. Modular emails feel like they are meant to address this smoothly.
Even when you’re fighting a tight deadline, swapping out a module or updating content without worrying about breaking your design or brand consistency is a breeze.
Modular templates are a winner when you need to maintain a strong, unified brand presence across a high volume of emails.
With brand guidelines baked into each module, every email you send looks polished and on-brand. Regardless of who assembles it.
For organizations with multiple designers or marketers, this is a bliss.
If you're running automated email flows – onboarding sequences, cart abandonment reminders, seasonal campaigns – modular email templates make personalization and scaling easier.
Need a special holiday banner or a unique offer block? Just drop in the relevant module.
Want to A/B test a new layout? Swap modules in and out to see what works or doesn't, without recoding the entire email.
In short, modular email templates are the best choice when you want to:
- Accelerate email production and reduce costs.
- Maintain productivity through those last-minute campaign needs.
- Update template content to meet the changing goals.
- Adapt quickly to last-minute changes or new marketing needs.
- Scale personalized and automated email programs with ease.
Wrapping up
Modular email templates offer immense design flexibility by breaking up your email design into various modules.
If coded properly, editing the modules is super easy, too.
You make changes to the module, and that change will apply to all future campaigns in the most fuss-free manner.
This level of efficiency adds up to massive time and cost savings.