Allow templates to be changed after email created

Amber_Hobson · ‎02-13-2012

We have found that we will want to test out different templates, but cannot change the template once we have created an email. The biggest time that we run into this is we have our company logo template in English and French. If I want to clone an English email to simply add the French text, I cannot do this because I can't change easily from one template to another. It adds extra steps and causes me to have to have the English version open at the same time to make sure the formatting is the same. I want to have a button so that I can easily change the template once I have started working on an email.

Anonymous · ‎12-25-2014

It seems that it's been about three years since this idea has posted.
Isn't there any plan to implement this feature in the near future?

Nicolas_Bureau1 · ‎01-06-2015

I would also love such a feature. It would be very helpful in situations like rebranding that we are experiencing today. Is the implementation of this feature planned for a coming version?

Anonymous · ‎03-03-2015

For a noob to Marketo (like me) I had my instance seeded with the best practice templates. I think being able to change the template after cloning these templates into my active marketing programs will save me a lot of time.

Mikes_Jones · ‎03-20-2015

This idea was started in 2012 and still not possible!

Would be super helpful if this feature was enabled, would save a ton of time when managing engagement programs.

Anonymous · ‎06-15-2015

This would save our users so much time. Seems like it would be a basic feature.

Anonymous · ‎08-27-2015

I think it's important to keep email and page content that may change out of the template itself. I use templates as shells or framework for emails and landing pages that will work for any language. Then use Snippets and Tokens to insert and change pieces of content that may change. For example, we have one email template with the basic framework. This template has multiple editable areas where you can insert content, snippets, and/or tokens to customize and build out your email so that changing the template will never be necessary. You can update the content, then approve the email; update the token without needing to approve it; and update the snippet, then approve the email. Hope this helps! It definitely took some trial and error before learning how templates should be used.

Jessica_Ruffalo · ‎10-09-2015

I've worked in ExactTarget before and they have this feature. How it worked is that within the current email you could see what template was being used and there was an 'change template' link. Once you clicked that link you would see a new screen that had a bunch of templates that were created in your instance you could choose from. You'd choose your new template and a see a side by side comparison of the two templates, one populate with the email content and the new one empty. You could then map over the text you wanted into the new content boxes. It was easy to use and very clear!

Robb_Barrett · ‎11-18-2015

This is so easy and so possible to do already. The answer - to everything - is tokens!

Create a token in your program for Body-Copy. You have the same functionality that you have in the email editor, minus the ability to call other tokens.

Create your e-mail template. Think of it as stationary. Lay out all of the elements you want and then designate where you want the body to be and call the {{my.Body-Copy}} token there. That's all you need to do and you're done.

Now, when you need to make a new email template (works for landing pages too) all you need to do is clone in the new template to your program and preview it. The content is already there!

Example of an email template. Just about everything is tokened. This is from a Nurture stream, so I have a lot of tokens because there are 7 emails in the stream. The headline, body copy, buttons and URLs are all tokened.

Here's an example of the body copy token:

Unfortunately, I can't token in tokens so the links and images are coded in, but this is an editor easy enough for a junior marketing person to create nice looking information.

So here's the HTML in my email template for the Body portion:

And now, when I preview the email, here's the final result. Compare it to the template.

The beauty here is that when I need to change my template, literally all I'm doing is cloning in a new email from template and approving it. I don't have to touch ANYTHING inside of it. And when I need to make changes to my copy, editing the tokens means that you don't have to re-approve the emails. This is REALLY nice when you want to test templates and use the same content inside and not have to approve everything one-by-one.

So there you have it - a nice and easy way to change templates without re-creating the email from scratch. Just put everything in a token!

Mikes_Jones · ‎11-19-2015

Thanks for the input, but cloning an email means the email is now looked at as a new, unique email - which isn't good in instances like Engagement Program. It'd be nice to be able to literally switch an email template.

Grégoire_Miche2 · ‎01-23-2016

I recently discovered a use case where not being able to swap an email is really an issue : in a engagement program. Because of this limitation, if I just want to change the template to make it more compelling, I have to create new content. This means that leads with an exhausted content will receive it as a new content, and yet, it's not new...

A real problem.

-Greg