Add and Remove Modules in Email Builder

[srichter]

As a previous Eloqua user (not saying I liked Eloqua by any means) I used to have the ability to add or remove modules from an email when building in the email creator. I find it a little annoying that I have to build a template if I need to swap or add/remove a simple module from my email. I feel there should be a master template options that allows you the freedom to add/remove/swap a moule as you please once you've hit the "create email" button. 

[srichter]

Hi @srichter and the rest of the contributors here,

Thank you for your comments and insights. I am setting this to delivered as we now have the drag and drop editor in email. We are also building a feature soon which will allow you to save your drag and drop email as a template which will make this even easier for your email management and creation.

Best,

Shane

[Nigl2000]

My ad firm has been frustrated with the same thing. We want to create one template with multiple rows that would account for lots of different layouts. Use that as a master template, then in the email builder delete and/or duplicate rows (modules), and re-order them up and down the email as needed. The workflow currently exists in the landing page builder, but not for emails. Customer service has told us there is no way to do this currently? If we have to clone, then edit a template for every single new email that gets created across dozens of clients, it's not a "template," and we'll have to continue directing our clients to use a different company until this feature is added.

[MichelleFink]

This problem makes it very difficult to move from Mailchimp to Hubspot when sending emails and newsletters. We have a monthly newsletter that is sent out to clients with a standard template layout that we follow. One HUGE issue is that I have the entire newsletter content/copy in place and then someone might want to include something extra (outside of the normal template) for just that month and there is no way to add an additional module to the email. We can add that section to the template and then create an email from that template again but then you lose ALL of your content and have to start over when it was nearly completed.

[pixelauthor]

 This is a no-brainer, and it's very confusing why this is not already in place. It doesn't seem to be a difficult change - adding support for boolean and choice field control modules in the email builder would solve this. We also need this so that we can move away from custom-coding each email and into a more efficient, templatized workflow. Hubspot, please implement this. Soon.

[EbenM]

I'd like to add my support to this idea. We're making some tweaks from email to email and having to make a different template just to (for example) swap two blocks is a pain.

[skma21]

I completely agree. We are moving from MailChimp to HubSpot and being able to very quickly add and remove content blocks would be a HUGE improvement. The people I work with do not know code and having a MailChimp style drag and drop type interface would be wonderful. 

[kelly-d]

Completely agree, we've recently changed from mailchimp to Hubspot and this seems a very basic functionality that should be incorporated. It's available in most email providers and it's baffling that this is not available in Hubspot.

[folked]

Completey agree. I am managing more than 100 users from different countries. Currently I have to maintain > 5 templates per language (e.g. english template 1, english template 2, english template 3 ....). Instead I would prefer to just offer an english master version containing "all modules" and have the user decide which modules to use in her/his email.

The Design Manager already works like this (delete/clone modules within  tempalte). Why not the email editor??? 

[CarolineFellows]

 agree I want to throw my support behind this to. Seams completely illogical to me that this isn't the way it works. 

[AirswiftRob]

I wholeheartedly agree. The email designer is very inflexible without the ability to amend modules. I cannot understand why this isnt a standard feature

[pixelauthor]

To all looking for this feature: it's been added (in a limited capacity) with the new design manager beta, via the new boolean field. You can add html blocks and just contain them with this field, and then creators will have the ability to turn these code blocks on and off within the email creator. They still can't rearrange them (why?!) but they can enable/disable them, which is a start.

[MichelleFink]

@pixelauthor is there any additional documented info on this feature from Hubspot? I am not sure this is what the thread is looking for. Does this allow you to add/remove modules after you have selected "create email" and are editing within the email builder? Also, looking for this field in design manager and don't see it so we must have to opt into the beta version somehow?  

[pixelauthor]

@MichelleFink, the boolean field is just available to email modules now too - it seems to be the same one that was used for pages before. Their documentation is here: https://designers.hubspot.com/docs/cos/custom-modules. Yes, the on/off switches are displayed in the email builder and will toggle those sections when used - I've tested it. Lastly yes, you do need to opt in to the beta: https://designers.hubspot.com/design-manager-beta 

[MichelleFink]

@pixelauthor thank you!!! Super helpful.

[AlexAndrew]

I see this non-modularity as a pretty big fail in your product design, dear Hubspot. How is someone supposed to deliver a template to a client for multiple purposes, so that the client can choose the modules he/she needs for a specific situation?

The current process design is basically forcing clients to hire a person everytime they want to adapt a custom html/hubl template which actually already exists, but is not editable for them as non-coders.

Am I seeing this correctly? The only solution right now is to actually develop modules and ship them via a drag and drop template. I see a problem in the case of emails with mobile breakpoints where you need access to the head section of the base template which the client is using. Do I miss something here? 

Happy to here other opinions and ways to go for shipping a modular (email) templates to a client and giving them the possibility to pick specific modules for their needs.

[BethanyRP]

Absolutely agree!  Please make this feature.

[samarcher]

Formatting emails and figuring out how to make templates work for us is by far our biggest pain point with Hubspot. Even our front-end devs struggle with getting Hubspot email templates to behave

[Qamera]

Agree. This is a standard user need and expectation.

My needs are

1.Easily add and remove modules to any given email as I am authoring it. (i.e. not having to open multiple tabs in my browser)

2. Avoid creating multiple templates each time I add or remove a module for a given email implementation.

[jrwthetreegroup]

100% need this. I use plain text marketing emails as part of lead nurturing and I want to send emails that appear to come from different team members. I want to create one central email Template then in the email builder I can easily remove the email signature/s I don't want to use. We should have module functionality the same as the website tool when editing an individual website page.

[schesley]

Adding to this, I agree. This should be standard and obvious, abolsutely require the ability to add and remove modules to any email while creating it. Otherwise the solution is what, clone templates and make any edits needed in a template first, then write your email? Nonsense, we're just getting started with Hubspot, and already we miss our 1) previous sales CRM, and 2) mailchimp. How many concessions do we make in the hopes that Hubspot will deliver on its expected need for us (to connect the dots from attribution to sales won)? If its this hard to setup, it's not worth it.

[hharjula]

I really hope this problem could be solved asap and become a standard feature. It is very annoying the way it is today, and harming additional sales for many customers who have used other email newsletter tools with more editable design layouts.