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:
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.
The example of email template we're showing uses our Kbank demo website that lets you try out what it's like working with Xperience by Kentico (opens in a new tab) in a safe, sandbox environment.
If you don't have your demo site yet, request it through the form at Kentico website (opens in a new tab) and request the Xperience by Kentico – Business Tutorial Kbank demo site. Once you approve the request, we will automatically send you a link to the demo site.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Structured emails are designed for efficiency. You enter content into the email fields, hit publish, and you're done.
Because developers handle the layout, you never need to worry about branding or formatting errors.
Xperience by Kentico introduces **AIRA**, your friendly agent that helps you create emails fast, and polish their content. You still provide the raw content, but you can leave the difficult task of putting everything into the right words to AIRA.
Save time and improve the quality of your writing with AI-assisted features:
The quick-refinement buttons are available out of the box. However, content generation into empty fields must first be set up for the specific email fields where you want to use it.
Your administrator or developer usually handles this setup. They enable AIRA content generation for the given field and define what other field content AIRA should use as context when generating text.
Once configured, AIRA can generate content based on prompts you give it, or on prompts configured during AIRA project setup.
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.
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:
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?
You can see your email as you're building it; no need to preview or guess.
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.
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:
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.
Feature | Structured email | Email Builder |
|---|---|---|
Editing experience | Form-based (structured content types) | Visual editor with drag-and-drop widgets and customizable sections |
Layout control | None (handled by a template prepared by developers) | Medium (customizable within widget, sections and template properties) |
Speed of authoring | Very fast | Medium (setup and layout require more time) |
Personalization by persona | Not supported | Partially supported (contact group-based widget variants) |
Design consistency | Guaranteed by developer templates | Enforced through developer-defined widget restrictions |
AI (Xperience AIRA integration) | Supported (text summarization, refinement, and generation) | Partially supported (content refinement in Rich text editor) |
Ideal use case | Recurring, simple emails with fixed layout where the focus on content is key | Emails where layout flexibility or audience-specific content is needed |
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
AIRA-powered editing is available in both structured emails and the Email Builder, so AI assistance can support you regardless of how you create your emails in Xperience.
This means you can use AIRA both when you work with predefined structured fields and when you create more flexible, visually arranged emails in the builder. Whether your priority is speed, consistency, or creative freedom, AIRA can help you shape and polish your message more efficiently.
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.
Structured and Email Builder emails offer powerful tools to support your email marketing goals.
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.