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 single abandoned cart emails at this time.
• To design a regular email with our classic builder instead, you can set it as the default builder in your account details.
• 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.
• For best results, you should only promote products from the store that's connected to the audience that will receive your email.

Choose a template

To help you get started, we’ll provide you with a basic template in the Prebuilt tab. You can begin to add content, or switch to a different template. Choose from the Saved tab to work with your saved templates.

To preview and switch templates, follow these steps.

1. In the new email builder, click Templates. Then, choose the Prebuilt or Saved tab.
   
2. Hover over the template you want to work with and click Preview to see the layout.
   
3. When you’re ready to switch, click Apply.
   
4. In the Change Template pop-up modal, you can choose Continue with existing content or Start with a clean template.
   
   If you don't want to save anything you've added to your email, choose Start with a clean template. Choose Continue with existing content to fit the content you've added to your email into your template selection.

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

Edit background color

To edit the background color of your entire email, follow these steps.

1. Click the background area next to any content block.
   
2. In the Background menu, click Canvas to choose a color for the area behind your content.
3. Click Backdrop to choose or add a second background color to the margins of your email.

Use content blocks

Use content blocks to edit the layout of your email. You can add or remove different types of blocks from your email to easily customize and rearrange the content you want to share. Check out All the Content Blocks in the New Builder to learn about each content block.

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

Add content blocks

To add a new content block, hover over your email and click the plus icon (+) where you’d like to place the block.

You’ll see the content block menu, where you can choose the type of block to add.

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

Move, remove, or duplicate blocks

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

To move, remove, or duplicate your blocks, follow these steps.

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

Enable dynamic content

When you design an email, you can turn any content block into Dynamic Content that displays only for certain recipients. This helps you target different types of contacts at the same time with a single email.

To learn more about Dynamic Content and how to enable it in your content block, check out About Dynamic Content.

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 Errors panel 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.

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 preview your email, follow these steps.

1. Click Preview.
   
2. Click the desktop or mobile icons to see how your finished email design looks on those devices.
   
3. Click Send a Test Email.
   
4. Type the email address you want to send the test to. You can include optional instructions and a personal message.
5. When you're ready, click Send Test.
   
6. When you're done, click Exit Preview Mode.
   

Save your email design

When you’re finished designing your email, click Continue.

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