Templates vs. Campaigns

In email marketing, you may hear people talk about layouts, designs, campaigns, messages, code, and templates. An important distinction we make at Mailchimp is the difference between our templates, which are reusable layouts, and our campaigns, which are your individual email messages.

Mailchimp makes it possible to reuse campaign designs or replicate existing campaigns, but in general, you should put reusable content in templates and message-specific content in campaigns.

In this article, you'll learn about templates compared to campaigns.

Templates

A template is a preset layout that you build your campaign on. There are many template options available in Mailchimp, but you can also create your own template to match your brand. You can even insert regularly used images, logos, or recurring content into your template, and reuse it for future campaigns.

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.

Campaigns

A campaign is the email message you design and send to your contacts. After you select a template, you'll design your campaign on top of the template layout. In email builder, you can duplicate, delete, and rearrange different types of content blocks quickly.