Does continually cloning email assets slow down the email editor?

[KevinTruong]

We produce a monthly newsletter that uses quite a lot of personalisation tokens and segmentation. We've gotten into the habit of cloning the previous month's asset and updating with new content. However over time we've noticed the email editor getting slower and slower but only for this asset, with other emails unaffected. My theory is that this email is already quite complex to begin with and us continually cloning it over and over is leading to a lot of excess code in the background degrading the experience. The solution would be to start a fresh new asset whenever we see this. Has anyone else experienced this? 

[Jasbir_Kaur]

Hi @KevinTruong,

Continually cloning Marketo email assets can potentially slow down the email editor over time. Here are a few reasons why and some tips to mitigate the issue:

Reasons for Slowdown -

Increased Asset Volume: Each cloned asset adds to the total number of assets in your Marketo instance. A high volume of assets can make it harder for the system to load and manage, leading to slower performance.

Complexity: More assets mean more complexity in managing and finding the right email templates and assets, which can indirectly slow down your workflow and the system’s response time.

Tips to Mitigate Slowdown -

Regular Cleanup: Periodically review and delete old or unused email assets. Keeping the number of active assets to a minimum can help maintain better performance.

Archiving: Instead of deleting, consider archiving old assets. This keeps them out of your active working environment but is still available if needed.

Folder Structure: Maintain a well-organized folder structure to manage your email assets efficiently. This can make it easier to find and work with the assets you need, reducing the perceived slowdown.

Avoid Over-Cloning: Instead of cloning an asset each time you need a small change, consider using tokens or modular email templates that allow for easier customization without the need to clone.

Thanks!

Jasbir

[KevinTruong]

Thanks @Jasbir_Kaur  , really useful.

I find this interesting: "Each cloned asset adds to the total number of assets in your Marketo instance." 

Presumably the same applies when creating fresh new assets, not just when cloning old assets right? We only experience slowness when working in the email asset that has been cloned over and over again over the past year or so, not in the Marketo instance as a whole. 

[Jasbir_Kaur]

Hi @KevinTruong 

Yes, right. However, cloning repeatedly can create issues. It also depends on which approach you are following:

• Are you cloning from the latest versions?
• Or every time you clone from the previous clone version?

If you edit the code of the cloned email, you can see a lot of differences compared to the original one. All these factors can slow down our cloned email editor.

[KevinTruong]

Thanks @Jasbir_Kaur. We're cloning on top of previously cloned versions. So our monthly newsletter for July for example was a clone of the June asset, which was a clone of the May asset, which was a clone of the April asset and so on. Based on the comments here, it seems like best practice for us would be to create a new template for the newsletter and use that each month to create new assets instead of cloning.

[Michael_Florin · Accepted solution]

I would cautiously say that this question is much more interesting than ChatGPT's response makes you think.

Is there an ongoing relationship between parent and clone? I think so, as the endless saga of "delete overridden tokens" shows that Marketo believes that a token is in use even if it's no longer in use in the parent program, but only in the clone. And if that is true, that would mean that the clone of the clone is also in a relationship with its grandparent.

Sorry, no final answer here, but I would recommend to not clone from a previous month's newsletter ever but always from your pristine program template for that newsletter. That is considered to be best practice anyways.

[KevinTruong]

Thanks @Michael_Florin 

There's no relationship between parent and clone that I'm aware of, unless someone else knows different. Our standard process for each monthly newsletter is to create a new program, clone the previous month's email asset over, then update the content. We do that because then we have the dynamic content segments already set up and ready to go. The fact that we only experience this in this particular asset is what makes me think the cloning is responsible.

[jsiebert]

HI, @KevinTruong - I worked in an instance where we had many users cloning the same asset and we were told it does slow down the editor. Our admin would go in yearly and delete the template that their users clone in the Center of Excellence and rebuild it.

[KevinTruong]

Thanks @jsiebert really helpful. That seems to be our experience - we've been cloning and recloning the same asset for over a year now and the slowness only started being a problem recently, so maybe that's a good idea to start fresh every 12 months.