SendGrid Email Templates: How To Design And Edit Like An Expert

You may have noticed — when an email hits your inbox, that’s visually stunning, perfectly aligned with the brand voice, and makes you want to click through immediately. That’s no accident.

It’s the difference between: “Check out our spring collection” and “These jackets survived three mountain climbers and one very determined bear. See what else they can do.”

Honestly speaking, most of us aren’t coding wizards who dream in HTML. We’re marketers and small business owners who just want our emails to look drop-dead gorgeous without spending weekends learning code.

Case in point: SendGrid email templates. 

While some marketers may feel comfortable designing and coding beautiful SendGrid email designs from scratch, for those of us who aren’t web designers or email developers, SendGrid email templates provide a powerful, time-saving way to craft beautifully responsive emails that draw subscribers in. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of building SendGrid email templates, both from a blank template and an existing one. 

How To Design And Edit SendGrid Email Templates

Whether you prefer reliable SendGrid email template services or in-house or freelance developers, your SendGrind email templates must be responsive and customizable. 

Designing and editing SendGrid email templates has two paths forward: you can start with a blank slate or borrow a pre-built masterpiece. Whether you’re a drag-and-drop devotee or a code connoisseur, SendGrid’s dual editors serve you well. 

Option # 1 Starting from Scratch: Building a New SendGrid Email Design

1. First, find your way to the Design Library in your SendGrid dashboard. This is your creative capital for designing a new template in SendGrid. 

1. Look for that big, beautiful Create Email Design button and click it. You’ll be prompted to pick your editor:

• Design Editor

Perfect for beginners who don’t speak fluent HTML or anyone who loves a good WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) experience. Drag, drop, rearrange, and customize content blocks- no coding needed.

• Code Editor

For those who want to get their hands dirty with HTML, this is your canvas. Enjoy features like split-screen previews, syntax highlighting, and error flagging. You can see your edits come to life in real-time, with your code on one pane and a pixel-perfect preview on the other. 

Pro tip: Make a good call because once you pick an editor for this particular SendGrid email design, you’re locked in for that template. Can’t switch later. If you want to switch, just duplicate your design and choose the other editor for your copy.

Once you choose your editor, your blank canvas will load. Now the fun design part begins—start adding your headers, body text, images, CTAs… the works.

How Do You Use The Design Editor?

• Build email visually with content blocks-text, images, buttons, and more.
• Each block can be customized, and you can even peek under the hood to edit HTML for individual modules if you’re feeling brave.
• Rearrange sections with a simple drag-and-drop, and preview your email templates as you go. 

How Do You Use The Code Editor?

• Paste in your own HTML or craft it from scratch.
• Enjoy a split-screen view: code on one side, live preview on the other.
• Use handy features like error flagging and syntax highlighting to help keep your code clean and your emails looking sharp. 

Pro Tip: Both editors support dynamic content using Handlebars syntax. So that you can personalize emails with recipient-specific information.

Option # 2 Duplicate an Existing SendGrid Email Template

So, you’ve already got a template that’s almost perfect, or you want to riff on a SendGrid pre-built design. Then, starting from zero isn’t a great option. Duplicating an existing SendGrid email design makes sense for you. 

How do you build a SendGrid email template by duplicating a pre-built design template? 

Here’s how:

1. Head over to the Design Library and choose either:

• Your Email Designs tab to clone one of your existing email template designs. 
• SendGrid Email Designs to “borrow inspiration” from the pre-built templates. 

1. Find a design that makes your heart flutter. Click the action menu at the bottom (those three dots), and select Duplicate.
2. Before you customize the duplicated template, you’ll still need to choose between the Design Editor or Code Editor. But this time, you’re starting with a fully-formed email instead of a blank canvas.

Editing Your SendGrid Email Template (Without Breaking It)

You’ve built a few templates already and want to update them. No problem. Here’s how you do the editing part:

Here’s how:

1. Open the Design Library, find your template, and hit Edit from the action menu.
2. The template will open in whichever editor it was originally created in. Sorry, no switching editors mid-stream. Again, you can only edit a design in the editor it was created with.

So, if you originally built a template in the Design Editor, you’ll only be able to edit it there. Same for the Code Editor. 

1. But wait! What if you really, really want to use the other editor? I’ve got a workaround for you.  

• Duplicate your SendGrid email design (yes, again).
• During the duplication process, choose your preferred editor.
• Voilà! You can now edit your duplicate in the editor of your choice. 

1. If you want to experiment with significant changes, duplicate your template first. This allows you to maintain a backup of your original design.

Testing SendGrid Email Templates

No email design is complete without testing. So, for the love of all things holy, test your SendGrid email templates by sending a preview to yourself. It’s a simple hoop to jump through, but it catches any plausible issues before your email reaches your audience.

Here’s what to focus on while previewing your SendGrid email design:

• Check their mobile responsiveness because 71.5% of your customers are primarily checking emails on mobile devices. 
• Click through every link and linked image. Confirm that each URL directs to the correct page and that no links are broken or outdated. Check if the CTA buttons are large enough for human fingers on mobile screens. 
• Does your email reflect your website and social media branding? It should. 
• A/B tests different elements of your emails to optimize your emails based on real user behavior, improving engagement over time. 

But Wait—Let’s Talk About the Catch

SendGrid email templates are great for convenience and speed. But for certain areas, you might hit the wall. 

• The Visual Editor is user-friendly but restricts personalization at a pretty surface level.
• The same is the case with conditional content and native A/B testing features. Not its strongest suit. 
• Reusability is another challenge. The built-in email templates fall short of modular reusability. Swapping out a section and reusing the rest across campaigns is tough. Which is why keeping brand consistency and scaling become a pain. 

The custom and modular email templates help you overcome these hurdles. The kind you get when you partner with a specialized agency. They manifest flexible layouts, dynamic content, reusable blocks, and optimized code for your SendGrid email templates. 

That way, your emails are not only visually compelling but also technically optimized for maximum engagement and deliverability.

Wrapping Up 

The best email template doesn’t have the fanciest code or the most drop shadows. It’s the one that gets opened, read, and clicked. Sometimes, that means a clean, simple design that lets the copy do the talking. 

So yes, use SendGrid email templates to create something that looks professional. Take advantage of the drag-and-drop editor if code makes you break into hives. Or dive into the code editor if you want more control. But never forget that design is just the envelope for your message.

And if all else fails, there’s always that “Import HTML” option. But let’s pretend I didn’t mention that until you’ve at least tried the other approaches. You’ve got this!