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kenmckown
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March 15, 2024
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Marketo Email Template Question

  • March 15, 2024
  • 4 replies
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I am working on building out Email Master Templates, I am trying to find some documentation on what carries down into emails from the Master Template.

 

What modules or items will spider down to existing emails, like what is the criteria.

 

For example, I updated a social image in the template, and it never updated in the email template. Does the module in the template have to be setup a certain way, I understand why general text will not carry down into emails, but what exactly needs to be set to make sure it carries down to ALL emails.

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Best answer by Dave_Roberts

The criteria for this is actually pretty straight-forward:

1. Anything in a module will not carry thru to the individual emails. As far as I know there's a kind of separation between the bay of modules on the right side of the editor (which will get updated) and the actual modules that are drag-n-dropped into the canvas to create an email layout (which will not get updated).

 

2. Anything that's not in a module and instead hard-coded into the template will change once the template and email asset are reapproved.

 

In your case, if you changed the social icon at the template level and that wasn't inherited thru to the emails once you re-approved them, it'd suggest to me that you're editing the social image within the context of a module. 

 

CHEAP TRICKS:
Let's say you've got a case where you want to replace the old bird logo for Twitter with the new X icon, since this one has been coming up more recently. In that case, you might have an image uploaded to your design studio called something like:
icon-social-twitter.png

One way to think about this change would be to swap out the image above w/ something like "icon-social-x.png" but that would mean that you'd have to go into each email asset and remove the old module in the canvas (which doesn't update) and add in the new module from the module bay (which does update).

Instead, you could use the "Replace File/Image" feature and load the new "X" icon in place of the old bird icon but keep the file name the same. In this case, you'd name your new image "icon-social-twitter.png" (or whatever the existing filename for the image is) and make sure it was the exact size (height/width) as the existing image. Then you'd go into Images/Files folder and find the existing file called "icon-social-twitter.png" and use the "Replace Image/File" feature to load the new file in place of the old file. In this way, you only update the file and nothing on the template needs to change so it'll be a seamless transition without any of the overhead. This works b/c the emails and templates are still calling to the same file using the same name, but now there's a different image in that place so nothing else needs to be updated.

4 replies

Dave_Roberts
Dave_RobertsAccepted solution
New Participant
March 18, 2024

The criteria for this is actually pretty straight-forward:

1. Anything in a module will not carry thru to the individual emails. As far as I know there's a kind of separation between the bay of modules on the right side of the editor (which will get updated) and the actual modules that are drag-n-dropped into the canvas to create an email layout (which will not get updated).

 

2. Anything that's not in a module and instead hard-coded into the template will change once the template and email asset are reapproved.

 

In your case, if you changed the social icon at the template level and that wasn't inherited thru to the emails once you re-approved them, it'd suggest to me that you're editing the social image within the context of a module. 

 

CHEAP TRICKS:
Let's say you've got a case where you want to replace the old bird logo for Twitter with the new X icon, since this one has been coming up more recently. In that case, you might have an image uploaded to your design studio called something like:
icon-social-twitter.png

One way to think about this change would be to swap out the image above w/ something like "icon-social-x.png" but that would mean that you'd have to go into each email asset and remove the old module in the canvas (which doesn't update) and add in the new module from the module bay (which does update).

Instead, you could use the "Replace File/Image" feature and load the new "X" icon in place of the old bird icon but keep the file name the same. In this case, you'd name your new image "icon-social-twitter.png" (or whatever the existing filename for the image is) and make sure it was the exact size (height/width) as the existing image. Then you'd go into Images/Files folder and find the existing file called "icon-social-twitter.png" and use the "Replace Image/File" feature to load the new file in place of the old file. In this way, you only update the file and nothing on the template needs to change so it'll be a seamless transition without any of the overhead. This works b/c the emails and templates are still calling to the same file using the same name, but now there's a different image in that place so nothing else needs to be updated.

Jo_Pitts1
Jo_Pitts1
Community Manager
March 17, 2024

@kenmckown,

When you make any changes to a template (and I do mean ANY) all emails that use that template will go back to draft.

This is where things get interesting:

  • If you make changes to the TEMPLATE (not the modules), these changes will be reflected when you approve the draft
  • If you make changes to the MODULES, these changes are only reflected when you (to @saurabhgoyal_gn's point) remove and re-add the module. 

Now, here is something interesting to note (and it's risky, so take VERY careful note).  Often, the module in an email has text already added, images specified etc.  IF you are handling the text etc as Marketo variables as opposed to editable areas, it is far quicker to go into the code, delete the module there, and paste it back in, ensuring it still has the same ID.  That way it takes on all the existing variable values.  This is NOT a recommended approach, but one I use a lot.  YMMV and the risk is high.  The speed of updates can make it very worthwhile however.

 

Cheers

Jo

Darshil_Shah1
Darshil_Shah1
Community Manager
March 15, 2024

I think you meant that the image never got updated in the email asset (and not the template) using the template.

 

 

Slight correction and addition to the above comment. An email template consists of two types of modules: editable and non-editable modules. Any updates made to the editable modules don’t get carried over to the subsequent email assets until you remove and re-add that module to the email. However, for the non-editable modules, any updates to the module in the template get carried over to the emails once both template and email asset(s) are approved (no need to re-add the updated module in the email asset). You might have updated an editable module in your case, due to which the corresponding module in the email assets didn’t update on its own upon approving the asset. You will see the changes once you re-add the module in the email asset. This is by design as editable modules, as the name suggests, can have content (text, image, etc.) different from the content defined in the template.   

    SaurabhGoyal_GN
    SaurabhGoyal_GN
    New Participant
    March 15, 2024

    Hi @kenmckown - 

    I wanted to inform you that when making changes to a module on the template level, it does not directly update the dependent emails.

     

    It is important to note that when you make any edits to the email template, all dependent emails will go into 'approved with draft' mode.

     

    To ensure that the changes are reflected in the module within the email, please follow these steps:

    1. Approve the email template.
    2. Delete the module (where the changes were made on the template level) from the email.
    3. Drag the same module again into the email.
    4. The changes should now be visible at the email level.

    5. Approve the email. 


    Thanks,
    Saurabh
     

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