Creating Custom HubSpot Email Templates [Step-by-Step Guide]

If you’re frustrated with your email campaign process thus far and have been looking for a way to improve your email marketing game, you’ve arrived on the right page.

We’ve been doing this for a long time, not only can we recommend our favorite tool backed by real-world experience – but we’ll also be breaking things down into bite-sized pieces for you in a handy, step-by-step guide, removing the hassle. This way, by the end of the article, you’ll be able to create your very own successful campaigns using custom HubSpot email templates.

Let’s take your utilization of the robust HubSpot tools one step further and get you on your way to great email marketing, well-known in this digital age to be quite the critical component in your overall strategy!

Why You Should Be Regularly Utilizing HubSpot Email Templates for Marketing

Creating a likable email is a tough enough feat; we don’t recommend spending the effort and resources trying to take it on manually. Not every company even has an experienced developer on their team who knows the right code at the right level of expertise.

And if yours does, their schedule may not have the capacity to set you up with a fantastic email every time you want to send out a campaign – especially if you’re sending reach-outs to your lists once or twice, daily (yes, some do it that frequently).

Why is it so important to be likable, though, you might ask?

Aren’t emails just a way to quickly and easily get information out about products, services, content, deals, and news to your prospects and customers?

Do people look at them closely?

Do people care about how these marketing pieces look?

Studies show the answer to be a resounding yes. Your emails shouldn’t be getting the least focus out of all your marketing efforts – the details are more important than you may think. The majority of consumers won’t spend more than a few seconds looking at something in their inbox if it doesn’t have a certain appeal.

They want it to look and feel great, and they want to be inspired – what they don’t want is something that feels boring or looks like the company didn’t care to put in the proper effort.

The appeal has to do mainly with design and usability. Luckily, there are many different types of templates available to help you with this task, such as HubSpot email templates.

An email template is an HTML file you’ll use to build your campaigns.

A good template should allow you to copy and paste content right into the email – and it should still render correctly whether the reader is using a desktop computer or mobile device.

It also should be able to handle the various email providers, as we know everyone has their preferences, thus not all your contacts will be using the same one to view what you’ve sent.

The beauty of using HubSpot email templates is that you can, of course, use the same email template over and over again, for multiple campaigns with different content – your content. Don’t worry, thinking this is the cheap or easy way out and that your lists won’t be made to feel special by going this route.

Many templates these days will be highly customizable to fit your needs – if a template provider ever feels too limited, you may be using the wrong tool.

While some marketers may be using platforms that have pre-made templates, and that might work for them, we advise you take just a little extra time to ensure your company’s template is, well, uniquely “you.”

Not only that, but by taking advantage of templates for your email marketing campaigns, you can stay consistent, deliver a personalized experience to the recipient, and save time – requiring no additional work on your end, you can even make it so that your template is consistently updating itself with fresh content for your subscribers!

Now, we don’t have to say we like HubSpot email templates just because we happen to be a proud HubSpot partner. We chose to be a partner in the first place because, in our experience, this has bee one of the best marketing platforms we’ve found to use in our combined decades of experience, thus far. It’s proven time after time to help make the process as fast, simple – yet still incredibly successful and meaningful – as possible.

HubSpot email templates have been an effective tool for us and our clients of all industries, offering all sorts of powerful features.

We haven’t found it necessary to compromise quality whatsoever, but rather, we have been able to deliver personalized experiences for our customers, every time.

It’s now time you do the same for yours, and we can show you to create custom HubSpot email templates.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Custom HubSpot Email Templates

Step 1

Gather all the image elements of your HubSpot email templates. Make sure that the dimensions are the same size as what you have in your design. Unlike website pages, email and newsletter templates are displayed and read on email clients.

Although both website pages and email/newsletter templates are created using HTML, they have a big difference in implementation and their coding environment.

Step 2

Login to your HubSpot account, then go to the Marketing Tab > Files and Templates. Now, locate the Design Tools menu item.

On the Design Tool section, click on the Create a New File button located on the top right side of the page.

Step 3

A pop-up window will appear at this point. Select Drag and Drop, prompting another window where you can select which type of template you’ll be making.

Select Email and type in your preferred file name for your email template on the field provided, then press the Create button.

Step 4

HubSpot will redirect you to the Design Tool development section where you can do all the customization of your HubSpot email templates. Be creative – stay on-brand and remember, you need something that will draw in your customers and prospects. Keep in mind the average person’s attention span is alarmingly short, especially when it comes to something they know is a piece of marketing.

Step 5

On the right sidebar, press +Add. This section contains all the elements you can add in your HubSpot email templates. Select the element then drag and drop it on the center column where your template grid is located.

Step 6

On your template grid, if you need to break a section into columns, right click on a section then click “Split module.” If you need another row, you can always click “Duplicate module.”

And, if you need one column to be wider, locate the divider between the column and drag it to your desired size. Don’t forget to save your HubSpot email templates after you’ve made your adjustments, as you don’t want to lose your work if there were to be a sudden crash.

Step 7

To edit the properties of your email template elements, click on the module on your template grid and click the “Edit” tab on the right-hand sidebar. In the module properties, you can set your text color, background color, and more. You can also add your inline CSS styling. Yes, it has to be inline CSS – most email client readers, whether online or software, require CSS to be embedded.

Step 8

After you’ve set all your CSS styling module properties, click on the “Preview” button. If your HubSpot email templates are now the design that you desire, then you’re ready to build your email campaign. Make sure you’re happy with what you see before moving along.

Step 9

Go to the Marketing tab and select “Email” on the menu items. You’ll be redirected to the Marketing Email section. Once there, on the right top corner, click on the “Create email” button.

Step 10

A pop-up box will now appear. Choose the Classic editor so you can use the email template that you just made.

Step 11

You will be prompted to select a base template. Select the HubSpot email templates that you created.

Step 12

A pop-up box will appear. Assign a name for your email campaign then press the Create Email button.

Step 13

This time, the email template that you created earlier will be displayed with editable fields and WYSIWYG interface. In this section, you can add and edit the content of your HubSpot email templates – but you’ll first want to fill up the fields above the template.

Step 14

To add content, simply click on the module areas.

Step 15

The module will turn into a text editor where you can then you can edit and style your text content.

If you need to assign colors to the text of your email, on the text editor toolbar, click on text color button and select your desired color for your text. If you want a background color for your text block or paragraph, click the text background color button just next to the text color button.

Most of the tools for text formatting you can find in the text editor. You can change your text to bold or italic format. You can set the alignment of your text to align left, center or right. Feel free to try them out.

Step 16

If the content is an image, like a banner, click on the image icon and you’ll see a pop-up sidebar to select or upload the image you need. Just remember, as, in Step 1, your images should be the exact dimension or size you intended to display on your HubSpot email templates. Adding an image that is wider or bigger will stretch the template, which could start to make things look wonky. Avoid this – consistency is key.

Step 17

After you add your content, save the email campaign, then press the Next button. You’ll be taken to the Settings page where you’ll select the Subscription type and Campaign for your email blast. After selecting your preferences, click again on the Next button.

Step 18

The next page is the Recipients page, where you can select an email group listing or input individual email address to whom you will send your email campaign. Once you have assigned your recipients, press the Next button. Remember always to use proper segmentation in your marketing efforts.

Step 19

On the Review page, be sure to check every detail. If there’s an error, now’s the time to fix it – a Resolve button should appear. If everything is in order then press the Next button.

Step 20

On the Sending options page, you’ll have 3 options. You can Send Now and your email campaign will be sent immediately, or you can schedule it to coincide with a marketing campaign.

Congratulations – You Now Know How to Create Your Custom HubSpot Email Templates!

We invite you to now take this information and run with it. Experiment and test – see what works best for your company and clients, and what doesn’t. You know how best to customize a template that will suit your brand.

Ideally, you might be looking to set this up as soon as today! It’s an integral part of any truly comprehensive marketing strategy. If you’re still feeling like you could use some assistance though, our helpful consultants are merely a phone call away.

If you’re not ready to jump on a call, you should read up on this in the meantime: our FREE downloadable guide will help you discover the fundamental rules of effective content creation and learn about creating content that drives traffic, ultimately converting those precious leads you crave.