HubSpot's Email Marketing: The New Drag-and-Drop Editor

Ashlee Rolkowski on December 26, 2019

Ahhh, “drag and drop,” a simple phrase that inspires simplicity and comfort in all of us. Maybe you’ve been considering HubSpot’s platform, but wonder how easy it is to use some of the tools you rely on, like email builders. HubSpot’s new drag-and-drop editor makes what we already loved much more accessible to users. Below we’ll cover what you need to know about the latest improvement to the HubSpot email marketing tool.  

 

An Overview of the HubSpot Drag-and-Drop Email Editor

Before the drag-and-drop editor, we had email templates: basic ones included with HubSpot or built by someone else with coding expertise we don’t possess. Or we’d be stuck in design manager tweaking templates and hoping we don’t break anything. 

With HubSpot’s new drag-and-drop email marketing tool, the experience is similar to building an email in Mailchimp. You have standard modules that you can drag and drop into your email template within a predetermined set of column layouts; it’s super easy. 

Email Editor Demo

The standard set of modules includes text, images, social media, a divider and a few other commonly used content blocks. 

When you think about the elements that go into an email, you can get most of them with a combination of standard modules and column layouts. And considering how finicky different email clients can be, it’s best to keep your emails pretty simple anyway.

Overall Changes Made Easy

There’s nothing worse than wanting to make a global change to an email, but having to go through each module to make them. I mean, there might be worse things, but trust me, those moments are the worst. 


HubSpot makes that easy for us with the Design tab. Here, you can make overarching changes to your whole email (or the “theme,” as some might say). This makes it a lot easier to stay on-brand and create a cohesive look and feel throughout the email.

Hubspot Health Audit

A Better Customer Experience for Sending Marketing Emails 

Before the drag-and-drop editor, someone who doesn’t live in HubSpot like I do would have little to no flexibility. If clients wanted to send their own emails (as they often do), they could only operate within a strict template and were bound to the limitations that the template had. If they wanted more or less content, it would often be challenging to make the email look good without asking their agency for help. And while we're always happy to help, the client should have the option to make a simple change without having to call us.

With the drag-and-drop editor, all of those things are now straightforward. You can:

  1. Easily make edits without accidentally breaking something (you know you’ve broken stuff)
  2. Remove modules you don’t need and add in ones you do
  3. Create an email that is automagically mobile friendly

These features make it easier for everyone! You spend less time learning how to use the tool and more time on the fun stuff: writing emails, sending them and getting more business!

Drawbacks of the Hubspot Email Marketing Tool

I know all reviews should have a section with the shortcomings of a product or tool. I tried really hard to do that here...and maybe it’s the haze of happiness induced by the words “drag-and-drop,” but I could honestly only come up with one: lack of module options.

There. I said it. But let’s be real, they included all the ones we actually need. What more do you want to be able to do in an email? 

I take it back. No drawbacks. 

It’s a simple tool for a simple purpose. It has just the right amount of flexibility to allow for some creativity without letting you go overboard into spammy email land. 

Cool Things You Could Do Before and Can Still Do in the New Email Editor

  1. A/B Testing - Whether it’s a subject line, element of the email or different CTAs, the A/B test feature allows you to see what performs best with your audience. (Note: this feature is only available to Pro and Enterprise Marketing Hub users)
  2. Subject/Preview Text Personalization - Add personalization tokens (like First Name) to your subject line to set yourself apart and make your email more friendly (plus it goes a long way to getting that open rate you've been striving for). 
  3. Emojis! - If you haven’t tried adding emojis to your subject lines, or anywhere else in your emails, maybe you should. They are pretty fun and allow your brand personality to shine through!
  4. Smart Content Rules! - Smart rules let you change content according to a “rule” you put in place. Let’s say you’re a college who has a big email list that’s segmented out by major. You could personalize the send list and create smart rules based on majors. Then, use that rule to make the subject line and email content more applicable to the recipient and their major.
    You can use smart rules to customize your email based on a whole bunch of things: lifecycle stage, typical engagement with your email marketing campaigns, or pretty much anything else in their contact record.  This can do wonders for your click-through rates because you're giving your lead something highly relevant to them.
  5. Email Marketing Automation and Lead Nurturing - You put a lot of work into your landing pages and lead generation efforts. But what happens after someone converts into a lead?
    To brag on HubSpot for a second, they offer you some incredibly powerful tools to segment your audience and really hone in on what they want. But if you're going to use HubSpot's tools to their fullest, you have to set up some automated email campaigns. If you're maximizing your inbound marketing efforts, there are a lot of different kinds of emails you should be sending out, with different content, to different people, at different times of the wee. You can't possibly keep up with that manually in an effective way. But never fear, that's why marketing people (or their brilliant developer friends) invented marketing automation! You can create something that runs automatically and effectively nurtures the products of your lead generation efforts.

Next Level Simplicity in an Email Marketing Platform

The drag-and-drop editor takes HubSpot email marketing to the next level. The sad part is, it probably won’t get the credit it deserves. Because when you build something so simple that functions so smoothly and still offers the level of customization you need, you are likely to go about your day without noticing how easy it made your job. But as someone who has used some legitimately garbage drag-and-drop editors, I can tell with confidence — this one is great. 

 

Need help with your email marketing or overall digital marketing efforts? We’d love to help! Schedule a time to talk.

Ashlee Rolkowski
Ashlee Rolkowski
Ashlee thrives on the fast-paced environment that is marketing. She gets a great deal of enjoyment out of organizing any and all things and loves helping her clients tackle their unique set of challenges.

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