Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced have been announced – and with it came the prospect of new features for Account Engagement (Pardot) customers. Salesforce is investing in developing their Marketing Automation offering in core and we are seeing increasing developments in this space.
As things develop, new functionality has been released as part of the Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced editions. The new Email Builder is one of those features that pretty much every marketer will likely use.
What’s the New Email Builder All About?
Built on the same user interface as the Lightning Email Builder functionality, there are a few key differences around styling, responsiveness, and publishing. It is available when creating Email Content only (not Email Templates).
How Do I Get Started?
To access the new Email Builder, you can simply click on the existing ‘Edit in Builder’ button on any Email Content page. You can convert some of your existing templates, but you may find it easier to start from scratch.
Before clicking Edit in Builder, make sure you have a subject line set.
From there, you’ll have the option to use the existing or new builder functionality. Select New Email Experience.
The interface will look slightly different to what you’ve seen before, but you’ll notice that it still has a similar page structure, with Components on the left and the preview in the middle.
What Are the New Features?
There are new components available, which include a Divider, Heading and List. Images are under the ‘Media’ section and the Layout options are also in the same panel. Dividers are something that we had previously used HTML to add, so this is a nice feature to include out of the box and the text styling makes for easier email building.
On the right-hand side, you can edit all of the core aspects of an email in one easy view. Preheader text, subject lines, and more can all be edited here, compared to previously where you would have to go back to the Email Content page to set the subject line.
Under the ‘Style’ section, there are also many more color options which can be set, again reducing the need to set these up in the code of your blocks.
When it comes to adding sections, the ability to customize the size and spacing remains. There’s also this useful checkbox, which allows marketers to decide whether or not they want columns to stack. In the old builder, this wasn’t possible in the UI, so for small logos in email footers (which I didn’t want to stack), I would have to use custom HTML. It’s exciting to see that this new feature reduces the need for custom code.
There is a six-column layout, with social media icons centered, previewed on Desktop, and the same layout, this time previewed on Mobile. We can see here the images aren’t stacked.
Text editing
In the new Email Content Experience, you can type and edit straight into the preview, as seen below:
Merge fields also have a slightly different look, with references to Data Cloud’s Unified Individual, which opens up far-reaching possibilities for marketers.
Preview
The preview feature available here is much slicker than before and allows you to select a sample recipient as well as a segment. You can use this feature to check for things such as merge fields and dynamic content; something which is sure to save Marketers a lot of time.
The Preview function is linked from within the builder, which feels much more intuitive and also includes the option to Test.
Publishing
To make Email Content available across Account Engagement, you will need to Publish, which can also be scheduled. The ability to Schedule Unpublish is an incredibly useful feature, especially for those working in large teams or with an approval process.
It’s a great way to plan for emails to become unavailable so that they don’t accidentally get sent out. For example, if you are running a competition, you may want to schedule unpublish a day before the deadline date, so that people don’t accidentally send it out afterwards.
Summary: What Next?
Personally, the one thing I am waiting for is custom fonts (which I really hope are on the roadmap soon). That, along with the option to reuse blocks of content, would provide a competitive offering.
There is the option to migrate old templates to the new builder, but I have come across some limitations to this, as the design doesn’t always translate well. I would advise that you experiment with a few templates and get used to the features. If you find they meet your needs, then have a go at creating a template and take it for a spin.
Longer term, I expect we will be seeing enhancements here and the old builder eventually retired, so it’s well worth having a go in advance of that. It will feel familiar to anyone already using the Lightning Builder and taking the time now will set you up to benefit from what lies ahead. The improvements we’re seeing bring what previously required HTML to the drag-and-drop builder.
This will undoubtedly empower more marketers to create email templates that do more.