Why smart marketing teams are switching to modular email design — and how you can too.

If you’re still building emails the hard way, you’re not alone.

Most teams we speak to fall into one of three camps:

  • You use free templates from tools like Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor or Klaviyo… but they’re limiting, hard to customise, and never quite feel on-brand.

  • You work at a large company where every email starts with a Figma file from a designer, then gets built (and re-built) by a developer. It’s slow, expensive, and fragile.

  • You do have a master template, but editing it means jumping into the code every time you need to make a change. Risky. Time-consuming. Error-prone.

If any of this sounds familiar, a modular approach to email design can help.

What is Modular Email Design?

Modular email design is exactly what it sounds like: breaking your emails into reusable content blocks (called modules). Things like:

  • Headers
  • Footers
  • Hero images
  • Product sections
  • CTAs
  • Content blocks

Instead of starting from scratch — or copying an old email and wrestling it into shape — you build new emails by stacking pre-approved, brand-safe modules.

Why Use a Modular Email System?

Faster Email Production

Build emails in minutes, not days. Drag, drop, update content. Done.

Consistency Across Every Send

Modules are built once to your brand guidelines — so every email stays on-brand by default.

No More Broken Code

Your modules are tested and ready to go. No more “why is this spacing broken only in Outlook on Windows XP?”.

Empower Non-Developers

Marketing teams can build campaigns themselves, without waiting on dev resources.

How to Get Started with Modular Email Templates

Here’s a simple, practical way to get going — even if you’re starting from a basic template or messy email archive.

1. Audit Your Existing Emails

Look through recent campaigns. What content patterns keep repeating?
Make a list of reusable components:

  • Headers
  • Footers
  • Product cards
  • Buttons
  • Text blocks
  • Image + Text layouts

2. Define Your Brand Styles

Decide (or document) the rules:

  • Fonts
  • Colours
  • Button styles
  • Padding / spacing
  • Image sizes
  • Link styles

3. Create a Master Template

Think of this as your base layout — it holds together your modules but stays flexible for different campaign types.

4. Break It Into Modules

Split your master template into standalone, reusable blocks.
Each one should:

  • Work on its own
  • Be responsive
  • Follow your brand styles

5. Test Everything

Test each module in all the email clients your audience uses — Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc. Tools like Litmus or Email on Acid are great for this.

6. Build a System for Your Team

Once your modules are ready, store them somewhere easy to access and use.

→ If you’re doing this manually, that might be a folder of HTML snippets.
→ If you want to make life easier (especially for non-technical users), that’s exactly where a tool like Modular Mail comes in.

Modular Mail: Built for Teams Like Yours

Modular Mail gives you a clean, easy-to-use interface for building emails from your own branded modules — without touching code.

Perfect if:

  • You already use a master template but want to make it easier to use
  • Your marketing team wants to build emails faster, without breaking stuff
  • You want to spend less time fixing email bugs, and more time getting campaigns out the door