Structured emails and Email Builder in Xperience

Xperience by Kentico includes a built‑in email marketing feature that lets you design, send, and track emails directly within the platform.

You can create marketing emails in Xperience in two primary ways: using structured emails or the Email Builder. Each approach offers you different benefits; depending on what you want to achieve, your level of technical comfort, and the level of control you need over the final look and personalized content. If you’re a little unsure on which approach to email is best for you, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ll walk you through:

• What structured and builder-based emails are.
• The pros and cons of each approach.
• Choosing the right one for your scenario.
• A look at how you can combine both methods in advanced email workflows.

By the end, you’ll feel more confident deciding how to create emails that match your needs, whether you’re sending recurring newsletters, running targeted mail blasts, or experimenting with AI-powered content creation.

Understand structured data in emails – structure and ease of mind

Structured emails use ready-made content fields that you simply fill out. They can be as simple as a title, image, and a text field to store the email body. Or, depending on their purpose, they can contain many different fields that add data to email sections, such as a subtitle field, a summary field, and a selector for recently published articles. You could also add another section for promoting new services and then another group of fields to provide a link collection for interesting articles.

There’s no drag-and-drop interface or visual design process involved. Instead, developers build the structure and layout in advance, so you don’t need to look out for visual consistency and brand control.

To see simple or more complex structured emails in action, check out the Simple email and Newsletter email templates in the Kbank demo website. These emails are an excellent fit for high-volume, repeatable mailouts where speed and consistency matter more than layout creativity.

How structured emails work

Structured emails are built in such a way as to make them predictable, fast to use, and reliable in layout. Here’s what makes them special:

• They’re created from structured content types, and their editing resembles working with content in the Content Hub.
• You can edit them only through form fields; no visual design tools are needed.
• Developers prepare templates that handle layout and content rendering without editor intervention.
• They’re designed with business users in mind for cases when you need to quickly add your content and hit “Send”.

No hassle, all play – you can use the structure provided by the predefined sections, and focus all your creative energies on what you want to tell your audience instead of the how.

Key benefits of structured emails

The main strengths of structured emails are the time they save you, the fact that their look will always display as the developers and graphic designers intended, and the possibility of integrating automation. Let’s break down some of the most helpful benefits.

Fast and focused creation

Structured emails are designed for efficiency. You enter content into the email fields, hit publish, and you’re done.

• The template defines the styling and layout, you just enter your content and publish.
• Structured emails help when you need to move fast but not sacrifice quality.
• Ideal for regularly sent updates, newsletters, or product alerts.

Strict template control

Because developers handle the layout, you never need to worry about branding or formatting errors.

• Developers ensure everything stays on brand.
• You can’t accidentally break layouts or introduce off-brand elements.
• Great for organizations with strong brand governance.

AIRA-powered editing with Xperience AIRA

Xperience by Kentico introduces AIRA, your friendly assistant that helps make structured email creation even faster and more polished. You still provide the raw content, but you can leave the difficult task of putting everything into the right words to AIRA, nice and neat.

Save time and improve the quality of your writing with AI-assisted features:

• Summarize or rewrite content based on a prompt you give.
• Generate new content from linked data items like product or event entries.
• Stay on tone and aligned with brand voice; no manual tweaking is needed.

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Explore Email Builder and create emails that catch the eye

The Email Builder offers a visual, drag-and-drop experience for creating emails. Similar to Xperience’s Page Builder, it lets you put together content using developer-configured email widgets inside customizable email sections.

This approach is perfect if you want more flexibility in how your content looks, whether you’re crafting a one-off blast or tailoring messages for different audiences.

How does Email Builder work

Unlike structured emails, where you fill a pre-set form with your content, Email Builder gives you the freedom to build your message visually, using a what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach.

With Email Builder, you can:

• Build emails by dragging sections and widgets into place.
• You can see your layout changes as you work.
• Use widgets that provide editable fields and optional style controls.

Key benefits of Email Builder

The Email Builder gives you more creative control while keeping developers in the loop through widget restrictions and styling options. But what does that look like in practice?

Visual editing experience

You can see your email as you’re building it; no need to preview or guess.

• You can edit right on the open canvas of the builder and see changes immediately.
• See what you’re building in real time and make changes on the spot.
• Great for collaborative work between marketers and designers. Plan your email requirements with your developers, get the widgets built, and then you can take it from there.

Styling and layout flexibility

Your developers set up the widgets for you. They can even add styling options so you can adjust the color, size of the text, or the content layout without breaking the brand design guidelines.

• Developers can make widget styling options (like spacing, fonts, and background colors) available.
• This gives you more freedom while still staying within approved design rules.
• It also helps marketing teams quickly prototype and fine-tune layouts.

Contact group-based personalization

Email Builder widgets allow you to personalize email content using Contact groups, just like you would in the Page Builder.

This means you can tailor sections of your email content to different segments of your audience, without needing to duplicate the entire email, or leave the Email Builder environment.

Email Builder makes it easy to:

• Show different content to different personas using Contact groups.
• Tailor messages for new customers, loyal subscribers, or re-engagement messaging.
• This approach is currently supported only in Email Builder.

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Comparing structured emails and Email Builder emails

Let’s compare the two approaches across different criteria. This side-by-side table can help you quickly assess which method better suits your marketing email strategy.

However, feel free to take an individual approach where you see fit. The rules aren’t set in stone, and what might work for you may be a specific case outside the scope of this material.

In short, don’t be afraid to try out both email types for different scenarios, especially if you have already downloaded your Kbank demo website and are ready to experiment.

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When to use structured emails

Structured emails shine in situations where speed and consistency are your top priorities. They’re built for repeatable tasks and are ideal when the content follows a predictable structure. You can forget difficult layout decisions, styling worries, or the risk of going off-brand.

If you’re working on emails that don’t need layout flexibility or personalization, and you just want to get the message out, structured emails are likely the best fit.

Choose structured emails when:

• You send repeatable emails like a weekly newsletter or event update.
• You want to write quickly and avoid layout or design decisions.
• Your brand requires strict consistency across all messaging, including emails.
• You want to use AIRA to streamline writing or generate content from your prompts.
• Your email editors are still learning. It’s easier if they can focus on content and not layout.
• When you want to simplify your email workflow.

Structued emails in a real-life marketing scenario

Let’s say you’re managing product updates. Every month, you want to notify customers about new features or changes in the existing product.

With structured emails, you just plug in the product name, short description, and link. AIRA helps polish your copy to perfection, and you send the email within minutes, knowing that it matches your brand template.

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When to use the Email Builder

The Email Builder is designed for flexibility. If your emails vary in structure, target different audiences, or need more hands-on control over how they look, this is where the Email Builder shines. It’s especially handy when you’re tailoring content to different groups of recipients or simply want to get a more creative editing experience.

Using Email Builder is ideal when you collaborate with designers, use a variety of content formats, or need to customize parts of your emails while staying within brand limits.

Choose the Email Builder when:

• You want a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) interface.
• You plan to send personalized email blasts (e.g., upsells for loyal users vs. how-to guides for new ones).
• Your layout needs vary across your messaging. For example, one week, you may need side-by-side images, and the next, a new hero block.
• Your emails need to stand out with customized structure and flow.

Email Builder in a real-life marketing scenario

Imagine you’re launching a multi-day promotional email blitz for your online store. You want to showcase different products and draw attention with tailored hero banners.

The Email Builder lets you mix content types, apply dynamic content for different customer groups, and visually build it all in one place.

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Combine both email approaches

Combining both email approaches can be a smart choice for many teams. When your email strategy gets more advanced, pairing structured content with Email Builder gives you the best of both worlds.

This hybrid approach balances the consistency of a ready-made layout and the creative freedom of widgets you can experiment with.

Using structured fields for stable, reusable parts of the email (like headers, legal disclaimers, or product summaries) helps you move fast. Meanwhile, Email Builder lets you personalize or customize parts of the email as needed.

For example:

• Use structured content to provide consistent headers, product blurbs, or legal text.
• Add flexible widgets to personalize content by audience or feature interactive sections.
• Ask developers to implement an advanced widget to get widgets tailored to your needs, but without the need to do more than drop in your content and be ready to send.

This hybrid setup gives you the best of both worlds because you don’t have to choose. Combine the power of both methods and benefit from structured sections with flexible widgets:

• Speed and consistency from structured fields.
• Flexibility and dynamic targeting through the Email Builder.

While this isn’t fully showcased in our Kbank demo yet, the capability is already available in Xperience, so why not explore its capabilities as your email strategy matures?

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Follow best practices when creating emails

No matter which email creation method you use, a few best practices can help you get the most value from your tools. Follow these tips to work faster and ensure your emails always look and sound just right.

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Wrap-up

Structured and Email Builder emails offer powerful tools to support your email marketing goals.

• Choose structured emails when you want consistency, speed, and AI-powered writing.
• Choose the Email Builder when you need layout flexibility and personalization options.
• When the need arises, combine both for maximum impact.

By matching the right tool to the right job, you can streamline your process and create emails that perform, without compromising on speed or brand quality.