Challenges with Making HTML Email Content Editable in Marketo

[BrunoPacheco]

We've been working with emails crafted in HTML and are encountering difficulties in making the content fully editable within Marketo. While we can edit the textual content without issues, we're facing significant challenges with certain sections of the email—specifically, our inability to duplicate or remove parts as needed. For various emails, there's a need to either add or eliminate segments.

In an attempt to address this, I've tried to manipulate the HTML by incorporating Marketo-specific tags to enhance editability of these blocks. Unfortunately, this led to a multitude of errors, encompassing both invalid modules and syntax issues. I sought to rectify these by conducting a comprehensive code review through GPT-4 chat assistance, which resulted in corrected code segments. Despite this, the errors persist, and the overall structure remains suboptimal.

Given these circumstances, I'm pondering our next steps and would appreciate your insights. Would it be more prudent to adopt an alternative template, possibly one sourced from the community, or should we consider engaging a developer specializing in email design to refine the HTML?

Thank you in advance for your guidance and suggestions.

[Christiane_Rode]

If you're editing the code of the email (not the template in Design Studio, but from within the editor) certain edits will break an email from its template which may be causing some of the issues you're describing. This help document may provide some additional insights into your issues: Edit an Email’s HTML.

[Dave_Roberts]

Email can be tricky to code b/c it's always evolving so it's hard to trust existing resources, especially when they are free (you often get what you pay for in email code - "buyer beware"). I also am not even a little bit surprised that AI wasn't able to solve the issue you laid out b/c it sounds nuanced and requires some "real intelligence" in the context of how the system works to figure out. I'd recommend finding an experienced Marketo email developer (not just any ol' email developer) to help solution for your specific situation. Often when you've got complicated business-specific outcomes in mind, the best way to get something like that to work (if/when it's possible in the first place) is to work with someone who has an advanced understanding of the current state of email development AND the Marketo system.

It sounds like what you're running into might be a limitation of how the modules are designed using the Marketo syntax. It might be possible to show/hide specific elements of the module, or even create redundant variations of the modules which could be swapped out in the email to include/exclude specific areas of content. If you're able to provide a more complete example of what you're trying to accomplish here (screenshot, description, issue) folks in the community might be able to help identify the issue you're facing but it's very likely that you'll want to have your email template edited to either add some show/hide functionality or new modules to suit this use case. 

[Jo_Pitts1]

@BrunoPacheco ,

coming at this from the perspective of someone who has developed highly advanced email templates for many clients, I'd simply say STOP!!!!!!!

Take the time to get a properly functioning template built that supports the business and minimises (ideally down to zero) the amount of HTML editing you're doing.

I've got clients all over the world using templates I've built and they never need to edit HTML.  

Anything else means that you've got developers involved in every email build (which involves time and cost), a significant testing burden (if all you are doing is working inside the constraints of a well built template you should only be testing for visual appeal, not technical functionality), and risk at every single step.

Cheers

Jo