Highly Variable Newsletter Template

[Anonymous]

Howdy!

So I'm working on trying to build a template for Newsletters. We have some areas that are always the same, but the number of sections within that newsletter vary greatly (3 to 15+). My first attempt was to make an editable region that has a table in it that can be copy-pasted multiple times, but due to the design, a regular user could potentially have a lot of issues with it (if they don't have an HTML background to fix it.)

My second attempt was hoping I could make several editable regions and then make a snippet with the sections. It works a lot better, but because you can't have editable regions within a snippet, it doesn't quite work how I'd like.

I thought it'd be nice if there was a way to drag over and add sections somehow (like you can with tokens/images or form fields within forms), but that's not "a thing" yet.

So my question is, what is the best way to have variable sections within an e-mail template? Should I just try to redesign the template so that all of the sections are within one editable regions but drop the design that makes them more separate?

Here's an example of what I'm looking to do:
(In this issue is always the same, Sections vary -- note sections are broken up)
http://gyazo.com/6d97baaf6303bb7ba8be948f74c2bcf7

Here's what they'd start with:
http://gyazo.com/bea47ae46a6f19164fb2d59c3a60a2ec

Ideally, they'd somehow be able to add new sections on their own without going ot the HTML code, but I'm beginning to feel like that's impossible.

Thanks for your time and assistance!

Gregg

[Anonymous]

The key here is to make sure your template is responsive. Marketo has a newsletter template available at templates.marketo.com

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure it has to do with being responsive, as the user creating the newsletter would be adding/removing the sections based on the content they have already. It's more of a creation/internal issue then a viewing/external issue.

[Anonymous]

Hey Gregg--I have been wondering about the best way to do the newsletter bit myself. You're right--there doesn't seem to be a very good way to add/remove article sections. I have just been pulling it in and out of Marketo to add or subtract sections and using a code editor (which is not ideal).

I honestly don't know of a good way to do variable sections like this in a newsletter--and I feel like it's definitely a big gap in the email builder functionality. I'd submit it as an idea for a future release. For the time being, if you want your template to be easily editable without using a lot of HTML, you might be better served by creating a template without the chunks and just using <hr> or something to break up articles. (Definitely a buzzkill.)

I already had some time on my calendar next week to kind of tinker around with this problem. I'll let you know if I stumble onto a viable solution.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Kate! Yeah, I imagined that this would be something other users have. I'm certainly still working to try to come up with the best option as-is, but an idea suggestion might be in order -- was hoping to see some more feedback from the community before I go ahead, in case I'm missing something along the way!

definitely let me know if you come up with something, right now I think I'm going to end up having to make the bottom sections one gigantic section instead. 😞

[Anonymous]

We do something similar. I have a number of editable sections, but have designed the newsletter (and content plan for it)  in part to minimize how often I will need to remove entire sections.  One piece was to make the main sections (that would appear "In this issue") things that  would almost never be removed entirely, but rather could have lots of stories/content or just a little within the section. 

When I DO need to remove a section completely, I end up copying the HTML into dreamweaver, cutting out the sections I don't want, then "replacing" that HTML back into the newsletter.  

I've come to the realization that for anything the least bit non-standard, Marketo is challenging folks who can't manage very simple HTML (since tweaks are periodically needed in the HTML editor screen as well). 

Here is an example of what our newsletter looks like.   While not the very most ideal situation, it provides a good balance of flexibility/ease of production for me.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Meagan, that's what they did in the previous e-mail system -- and had to contact our web developers/etc each time they put one out. My goal is basically doing my best to put as much (restricted) freedom in our end-users hands, while also trying to keep to our standards. After checking out your newsletter, I can see what you mean. I'm thinking the best route is going to be something like this for me:

http://gyazo.com/032912098ad0d8fef23538deef4bb40b

Basically convert those individually designed sections into a long single section. It seems to be the best balance between the design, Marketo functionality and ease-of-use for our users.

[Anonymous]

What I ended up doing was adding commented code in the HTML to make it easier with folks with slight HTML experience to find those comments and copy from end-to-end then paste it after it over and over, or copy-paste in the RTE editor. To deal with potential spacing issues, I made all of the spacing defined within the table that's within the copy-paste area, so there is no need for line breaks of any kind. Hopefully this solves the issue to the best of our ability as the design cannot change.

I was pretty excited about it copy and pasting much cleaner than my previous revisions, so I hope this thought helps out folks as well. Still would love for editable regions within Snippets, though!