Re: Applying Template Changes to Specific Emails / Archiving Old Versions (Classic Email Designer)

nhabischWings

We're going through some changes that will reflect on all emails going forward from 01/01/2026. We're still on the classic (old) Email Designer and I know that template changes apply to ALL emails using that any templates, but I was curious if anyone had any recommendations on ways to not apply changes to old emails?

The only thing I can think of to do this is bulk is just to leave them in Draft status and not approve the changes. Wish there was a way to lock/archive older emails.

cookiemonstersa

Hmm not sure there is a perfect solution here.

1. Duplicate the template and update the 2026 copy only, but if you want some older emails using the template to be updated, but not others, then this wont solve your issue.

2. Break old emails from the template by editing the email HTML.
"Once you open the HTML view and modify a module’s code, Marketo treats that section as custom and stops pulling updates from the parent template."
Not quick to do, and requires much more work if you want to edit or update these broken from template emails in the future.

Someone else might have a better option than these two!

View solution in original post

Dave_Roberts

This really depends on the changes that you made to the template. There's some nuance to what gets updated when you approve the draft of a template and then the email assets on that template - and what doesn't get updated.

For example, changes made to the <head> of the document - thing like <style> tags, <meta> tags or even the <title> tag will change automatically.

In contrast, things inside of a module on the canvas of an email (like images, text, etc) will not change - even if you change, update or remove the module at the template level. These kinds of changes require dragging in an updated copy of the new module to see the changes reflected.

So... in short, it depends. If you'd like to take a minute to provide some examples of what you've got now and what you expect (or don't expect) to change as a result of updating the template I might be able to help provide a few idea or sketch out a direction to head from here.