Design an Email with the New Builder

Mailchimp’s new email builder gives you the tools to quickly design beautiful campaigns. Start with one of our stylish templates, mix and match content blocks, and customize it with your own images, text, and branding.

In this article, you’ll learn how to design an email with the new builder.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• The new email builder is a beta feature. It's available for regular email and customer journey emails. The new builder is also available in the classic automations single abandoned cart emails and automated welcome emails.
• If you have a Mailchimp Store, a supported e-commerce store, or custom API 3.0 integration, you can use product content blocks and abandoned cart blocks with the new email builder.
• This article tells you how to use our new builder. For more information on our classic builder, check out Design an Email with the Classic Builder. To switch builders, check out Switch Your Default Email Builder.

Select a template

After you create a regular email campaign, select a template to start your email design. Choose between Mailchimp templates, a previously sent email, your saved email templates, or more.

Depending on your plan, you may not have access to all of the template options. To find out what features are included in each plan, check out our pricing page.

Here are the different template categories and what they include.

• Mailchimp Templates Our templates offer a starting place for your designs. Choose between one of our options, use the Creative Assistant to work your brand assets, or start from scratch.
• Saved templates This tab includes any email designs that you previously saved as a templates for use in future campaigns. Select a template from Saved Templates, and edit the content and design how you want.
• Recently Sent Emails Choose one of your recently sent emails as inspiration for a new campaign. We'll create an exact copy of the email's content and design, so you can edit it as needed without starting over from scratch.
• Draft Emails Use a draft email to choose a design you’ve started work on, but haven’t saved or sent. We'll create an exact copy of the email's content and design, so you can edit it as needed without starting over from scratch.

If you’ve designed a 1 column email with the classic builder, you can use it with the new builder. When you use a classic email in the new email builder, we'll try to pull your previous design into your new layout.

Change template

After you choose your email template, you can change it at any time. To change your email’s template, click the Save and exit drop-down, then click Change template.

In the Change Template pop-up modal, you can choose Continue with existing content or Start with a clean template.

Nice work! Next you’ll choose your email’s styles, then add and design your email’s content.

Choose email styles

Use options in the Styles tab to choose the default style options for the email, text, links, and dividers. After you choose your email’s styles, make more detailed choices in individual content blocks.

To choose default styles for the email, text, links, and dividers, follow these steps.

1. Click the Styles tab.
   
2. Click the Email drop-down, then choose the email’s default Background color and Body color, or add a background image to your email. When you’re done, click the drop-down to close it.
3. Click the Text drop-down, then choose default font, size, and color for each text level.
   When you’re done, click the drop-down to close it.
4. Click the Link drop-down, then choose the default Link color. When you’re done, click the drop-down to close it.
5. Click the Button drop-down, then choose the default Button shape, Button size, Button color, Button border, and Button font. When you’re done, click the drop-down to close it.
6. Click the Divider drop-down, then choose the default Height (px), Style, and Divider color. When you’re done, click the drop-down to close it.

After you choose your styles, any new content you add to the email will match those style choices. Change the styles for your email at any time.

Change the styles of individual content blocks without also changing default styles of your email. When you edit an individual content block’s style, it applies to that content block only. You can make changes to a campaign’s default styles and the styles of individual content blocks will remain unchanged. Click Restore default styles within a Text, Button, or Divider content block to match the defaults in the campaign’s Styles tab.

Add content blocks and layouts

Use content blocks and layouts to format and design your email. Add or remove different types of blocks to easily customize and rearrange the content you want to share. Add a blank or prebuilt layout to create columned sections for your email.

In this section, we'll go over how to add, move, remove, and duplicate your content blocks and layouts.

Add content blocks

Content blocks are the building blocks for your email’s design and message. Check out About Mailchimp's Email Builders to learn about each content block.

To add content blocks to your email, click Add, then click the Content tab. Drag and drop the content block you want to work with directly into your design.

After you add a block, use the editing menu and toolbar to customize it to fit your design. Click an existing block to access its editing options.

Add layouts

Layouts create columned areas for the content you include in your email. Blank layouts are empty of content blocks. Prebuilt layouts have content blocks chosen to help you get started.

To add a layout to your email, click Add, then click the Layouts tab. Drag and drop the layout you want to work with directly into your design.

When you add a Prebuilt layout, you’ll also choose from the available Image & Text or Text & Text options.

After you’ve added a Layout, fill in the columns with your designs and content blocks.

Move, remove, or duplicate blocks and layouts

You can move most content blocks and layouts anywhere in your template, or remove them as needed. You can also duplicate them to create an exact copy.

To move, remove, or duplicate blocks and layouts, follow these steps.

1. Click the block or layout you want to work with.
2. In the toolbar, click and hold the drag icon to move the content block to a new place in your email design.
   
3. To delete the selected block or layout, click the trash icon.
   
4. To make an exact copy of the selected block or layout, click the duplicate icon.
   

Review suggestions

As you add content to your email, we’ll suggest ways to help you improve your message. If we find any issues, like a broken link or merge tag, we’ll mark them with an exclamation point icon.

Click the Optimize tab to see the types of issues, as well as the total number of issues of each type.

These numbers update as you resolve each issue. Toggle the sliders on or off to control which types of suggestions to show. To learn more about the Optimize tab, check out About the Content Optimizer.

Undo and redo changes

While you’re working on your email’s design and content, you can undo and redo any changes you’ve made.

To undo a change, click the undo arrow icon.

To redo a change that you’ve undone, click the redo arrow icon.

Preview and test your email

When you’ve finished designing your email, preview and test it to make sure everything looks right. To learn more, check out our article Preview and Test Your Email Campaign.

Save and exit

When you’re finished designing your email, click Save and exit.

Nice! You’ll be taken back to the campaign checklist where you can continue to set up your email as needed.