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All right. Let's talk about email design. You know that feeling when you're building an email from scratch and you spend ages adjusting, spacing, tweaking corner radius and getting all your colours just right? It's a bit like assembling flat pack furniture. Technically it's doable, but wouldn't it be nice if someone had already done the hard work for you?

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Well, that's exactly what layout blocks do. They are pre-designed collections of elements in common patterns that you already use in emails, saving you time and helping you create beautiful professional emails faster. In this lesson, we're going to show you how to use layout blogs to streamline your email creation process. And here's a tip. These layouts work brilliantly with the Brand hub feature, which we’ll mention shortly to automatically match your organisation's style.

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You might be used to text blocks in emails, those individual elements you drag in to design your email. With traditional blocks, you typically spend quite a bit of time arranging them, adjusting the spacing, corner radius, colours, and everything else to suit your brand.

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Layout blocks change this. They're basically collections of existing blocks arranged in common patterns you frequently use in emails. Think of them as ready made sections rather than individual building blocks.

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Let's build a real newsletter together. Say you're a community organisation sending your monthly member update. I'll show you each layout block as we use it, so you can see exactly when and why each one is helpful.

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Every good newsletter needs a header. Let's drag in the header layout block first. This layout includes your logo on the left and links to your website on the right. You can select these links and change where they point. You'll want to update these to your own URLs, perhaps one to link to your community website and another one to your portal or resources page.

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Now let's add a paragraph layout block. This is perfect for your opening message. This layout comes preset with a heading and body text. The spacing is already configured beautifully. You might use the heading for something like “From the president” or “This month in our community”, and then write your welcoming message to members in the text area. If you decide you don't need the heading, you can simply remove it and just use the paragraph text.

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The beauty here is flexibility without fussing with spacing. Let's say you want to spotlight a member or highlight an upcoming initiative. This is where the call out card shines. Drag in a call out card layout block. This gives you space for an image and a description. Upload a photo of your featured member or initiative. Write a compelling description and you've got an eye catching section that draws attention exactly where you want it.

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Need to share more details? Well, drop in another paragraph. Layout block. You might share information about membership benefits, upcoming changes to the community, or important updates members need to know.

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Here's something brilliant because these are columns. You can reorganise your entire email structure using the up and down buttons. Changed your mind about the order? Well, then just select the column and shift it. No fiddling with spacing or alignment, just click and move.

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Now perhaps you've got 3 or 4 upcoming events or resources you want to share. This is perfect for the button list layout block. Drag this in and you'll see it gives you several buttons in an organised layout. Each button can link to a different event, resource, or opportunity.

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Replace the placeholder text with your titles, maybe workshop leadership skills, member directory, update, volunteer opportunities, annual survey and set where each button links to. This is a clean, scannable way to present multiple options without overwhelming your members.

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If you're running a member gathering, networking event, or annual conference, the event card layout is incredibly handy. Whilst it's designed for events with space for date, time and event title, you don't have to use it exclusively for that purpose.

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You could adapt it for any time sensitive announcement like membership renewal deadlines or AGM dates. The pre formatted structure makes it easy for members to quickly grasp the key details.

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Every newsletter needs a clear next step. Let's drag in the Call to Action Layout block. This gives you a prominent well styled button. Perhaps your call to action is register for the event, renew your membership or read the full story.

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Update the button, text and link and you've got a clear path for your members to follow. Like the other layouts, this is a column so you can shift it up and down if you want to position it differently in your email.

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Finally, every professional email needs a footer dragging the footer layout block. This is pre-formatted and ready for you to customise with your contact details, social media links, and unsubscribe options. All the spacing and styling is already sorted.

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And just like that, you've built a complete newsletter. What would have taken ages of tweaking, spacing, adjusting styles, and getting everything aligned has been done in minutes. The idea is simple. Come into each layout block. Replace the placeholder content with your actual message. Update your links and you're done. The structure and styling are already sorted.

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Now you're probably thinking this looks great, but it doesn't match my brand colours or style. That's where the Brand hub comes in. Layout blocks are designed to work seamlessly with the Brand hub, which is a central location where you can set your brand colours, fonts, logo, button styles, and more.

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Once you've configured your Brand hub, all these layout blocks will automatically use your brand colours, fonts, corner styles, and other design elements. This means that you can create beautiful on brand emails in minutes without any manual styling.

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Important note, until you set up your Brand hub layout blocks will use system colours. You will see a notification prompting you to complete your brand setup. We strongly recommend doing this to get the most out of layout blocks.

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To learn how to configure your branding, check out our Brand hub lesson which walks you through the entire setup process.

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If you find yourself creating similar emails regularly, save your layout as a template with the placeholder text still in place. Then next time you need to create a similar email, you can simply duplicate the template and replace the content.

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So there you have it. No more flat pack furniture assembly for your emails. Layout blocks give you pre-built sections that speed up your email creation process, and when combined with the Brand hub, they automatically match your organisation style.

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The result? Beautiful professional emails in a fraction of the time. Thanks for watching and to explore how to set up your brand colours and styles. Check out our Brand hub lesson.

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