Walk through the building blocks that make up your email templates — what each one's for, the settings you'll find inside, and a few best-practice nudges to keep your emails looking sharp across every inbox.
Overview
If Structures give your email its skeleton, Editor Blocks are the content that lives inside it. They're the individual pieces — an image, a paragraph of text, a call-to-action button, a video — that you drag into your layout to actually say something to your recipients.
You'll find Blocks in the right-hand editor panel under the Content tab. Drop one into a Structure, click it to open its settings, and you're off. No coding required, though there's an HTML block waiting in the wings if you want to roll up your sleeves.
Each Block comes with its own set of configuration options — alignment, padding, colours, links, mobile behaviour, and so on. Some settings show up across most Blocks, and others are specific to what that Block actually does. This guide covers both.
Find the Blocks panel
Here's where to look once you're inside a template. The numbers below match the markers on the diagram.
Open the Content tab. It's the second tab at the top of the right-hand editor panel, sitting next to Appearance.
Click the Blocks row to expand it. The full library of content blocks will open out below.
Drag a block onto your email canvas, drop it into a Structure, then click it to open its settings.
Look out for the lightning bolt icon on Carousel, Accordion, and Form. These are AMP-powered blocks — they only work in supported email clients, so always pair them with a static fallback.
Where to find Editor Blocks
The Blocks available to you
Here's a quick rundown of the Blocks you'll see in the editor panel, and what each one's for.
Block
What it's for
Image
Drop in a logo, a hero banner, a product shot, or any other graphic. Supports linking, alt text, and responsive sizing so your image looks right on every device.
Text
Your everyday paragraph. This is where you'll write headings, body copy, sign-offs, and anything else that needs to be read.
Button
A clickable call-to-action with its own colour, label, and link. Use this when you want recipients to do something — "View statement", "Pay now", "Read more".
Spacer
An invisible gap to give your content room to breathe. Handy when padding alone isn't quite cutting it.
Video
Embeds a video thumbnail that links out to the full video. Most email clients won't play video inline, so this is the safest way to feature one.
Social
A row of icons linking to your social profiles. Drop it in the footer and you're done.
Banner
A combined image-and-text block, useful for headers and feature callouts where you want copy sitting over or alongside a graphic.
Menu
A simple navigation menu, great for newsletters and brochure-style emails where you want links across the top.
HTML
Drop in your own custom HTML and CSS. For experienced builders only — your code can affect the whole email, so handle with care.
Carousel
An interactive slideshow of images. Works in supported email clients and falls back gracefully where it isn't supported.
Accordion
Expandable sections that recipients can click to open. Useful for FAQs or long content you want to keep tidy.
Form
Lets recipients submit responses directly from the email. Like Carousel and Accordion, this is an AMP-powered block, so it only works in email clients that support AMP for Email.
About the lightning-bolt Blocks The Carousel, Accordion, and Form blocks are marked with a lightning bolt because they're powered by AMP for Email. They look great where they're supported (Gmail, Yahoo, Mail.ru) but won't render in clients like Outlook. Always pair them with a static fallback so every recipient gets a good experience.
Settings that show up across most Blocks
Before we get into the specifics of individual Blocks, a quick word on the settings you'll see repeated almost everywhere. Once you know what these do, you'll fly through any Block you open.
Setting
What it does
Alignment
Sets how the Block sits inside its container — left, centre, or right. There's also a mobile icon next to it so you can override the alignment just for mobile, which is handy when something centred on desktop looks better left-aligned on a phone.
Padding
Adds space around the inside of the Block. Toggle More to set padding for each side independently, or leave it as All for a uniform value. The mobile icon lets you set different padding for mobile devices.
Hide element
Stops the Block from showing on specific devices. Toggle between No, desktop-only, or mobile-only. Useful when you want a different version of a Block for each screen size.
Add an anchor link
Gives the Block an ID so other links in the email can jump straight to it. Just a heads-up: anchor links aren't supported by every email client (notably iOS Gmail and Mail, and Outlook on a few platforms), so don't rely on them as the only way to reach important content.
Image block settings
Open an Image block and you'll get controls for uploading your file, plus everything you need to make it work across devices and email clients.
Setting
What it does
Image upload
Shows your current image with the filename and dimensions. Use the swap icon to replace it with something new.
Rollover effect
Lets you upload a second image that appears when the recipient hovers over the original. Nice touch where it's supported, but treat it as a bonus rather than a must-have.
Link
Wraps the image in a clickable link. Choose Site for a regular URL and paste the destination in.
Alternate text
The text that shows when an image fails to load or is read by a screen reader. Always fill this in — it's good for accessibility and helps your email make sense even when images are blocked by default.
Size
Set the width or height in pixels. Use the lock-aspect-ratio toggle if you want to scale proportionally.
Adjust to width
Forces the image to stretch to the full width of its container. Handy for hero banners, less so for logos.
Responsive image
When switched on, the image scales down to fit smaller screens. Leave this on for most use cases — it's the easiest way to keep your emails looking right on mobile.
Quick tip on image sizing Upload images at roughly twice the size you want them to display at. This keeps them crisp on high-resolution screens (like Retina displays) without bloating your file size unnecessarily. Aim for under 1 MB per image to keep load times snappy.
Text block settings
The Text block is where you'll spend a lot of your time. Most of the formatting (font, size, bold, italic, links) happens directly in the text itself via the floating toolbar — the settings panel handles the wrapper around it.
Button block settings
Buttons are your calls to action, so they deserve a bit of care. You've got full control over colour, shape, size, and behaviour.
Mind the tap target Apple's accessibility guidelines recommend tap targets of at least 44 × 44 pixels. Keep your buttons comfortably above that, especially the primary CTA — there's nothing more frustrating than a button that's hard to hit on a phone.
HTML block settings
The HTML block is for builders who want to drop in their own code. It's powerful, but with great power comes great responsibility — bad markup here can affect the rest of your email.
Setting
What it does
Code editor
Where you paste your HTML and CSS. Stick to email-safe markup — tables for layout, inline styles, and a conservative set of CSS properties. What works in a browser doesn't always work in an inbox.
Heads up Custom HTML can affect the entire email message view. Test thoroughly across email clients before sending anything live, and keep a known-good version saved somewhere safe in case you need to roll back.
Best practice for building emails
A few habits that'll keep your emails looking good and behaving well in every inbox:
Tip
Why it matters
Always set alt text on images
Many recipients have images blocked by default, and screen readers rely on alt text to describe what's on screen. Without it, your email loses meaning for a chunk of your audience.
Test on mobile, not just desktop
Most emails are opened on a phone. Use the mobile-specific settings (alignment, padding, hide element) to fine-tune how things look on smaller screens.
Have a fallback for AMP blocks
Carousel, Accordion, and Form only work in AMP-supporting email clients. Make sure your message still reads well for everyone else.
Keep tap targets comfortable
Buttons should be easy to hit with a thumb. Don't squeeze them into a narrow column on mobile, and leave plenty of padding around them.
Use Spacer blocks for breathing room
Padding works inside a block, but Spacers give you predictable vertical gaps between blocks. Your content will feel less cramped and easier to scan.
Don't over-style
Lots of email clients strip or ignore unusual styling. Stick to standard fonts, conservative layouts, and well-supported CSS for the most reliable rendering.
Preview and send a test
Before any campaign goes out, send a test to yourself and open it in a few different clients. What looks perfect in the editor sometimes behaves differently in the wild.
