Why Your Team Is Doing the Same Work Twice in Email Design
OPERATIONS
5/8/20241 min read
In many marketing teams, email creation follows a familiar pattern:
designs are created first, and then those same emails are rebuilt again in the execution (Marketing Automation) platform.
At first glance, this seems like a structured process. In reality, it often leads to duplicated effort, slower delivery, and unnecessary complexity.
The Problem: Duplicate Work Across Teams
Here’s what typically happens:
Designers create email layouts using components from a design library
Content and visuals are added during the design phase
The email is handed over for development or setup
The same email is recreated using modules or templates
Content and visuals are added again
The result: the same work is done twice—once in design, and once in execution.
Why This Slows Teams Down
This approach creates several challenges:
Longer turnaround times for campaigns
Increased risk of inconsistencies
More back-and-forth between teams
Difficulty scaling email production
Over time, this becomes a bottleneck—especially for teams running frequent campaigns.
A Better Approach: Bring Design Closer to Execution
Instead of treating design and execution as completely separate steps, teams can streamline the process.
If reusable templates and modules already exist in the execution environment, why not enable teams to work closer to the final output from the start?
This way:
Content is added only once
The final output is aligned with the initial design
Less rework is required
What This Requires
This shift is less about tools and more about process:
A well-structured and reusable module system
Clear guidelines for how components should be used
Alignment between design and marketing operations
A collaborative workflow across teams
The Outcome
When done right, this approach leads to:
Faster campaign execution
Reduced duplication of effort
More consistent outputs
Better collaboration across teams
Final Thought
Marketing automation should simplify workflows—not add extra steps.
If your team is designing and rebuilding the same emails twice, it’s worth rethinking how the process is structured. Small changes can significantly improve both speed and efficiency.