Use Custom HTML in an Email Template

When enabled, the Custom HTML content block allows you to add your own HTML code to an email template that you are designing with the editor. It’s as simple to use as a text block.

HTML Experts:

Using your own code may affect how the design is rendered, preventing it from adjusting to the screen size (i.e. the "responsiveness" of the design). Make sure to use HTML that is email compliant and responsive. Keep in mind that custom HTML is outside of our scope of support.

Why use custom code?

There are many scenarios in which it makes sense to add your own HTML code:

Adding more customized content

You are not limited by a set of predefined parameters and can therefore have more granular control of the styles applied.

Adding HTML 5 video, anchor links, etc.

You can add content that is not available as a standard content element in the editor (HTML 5 video, anchor links, etc.).

Adding advanced effects with CSS

Get creative with animations! Animation effects are not widely supported by the email clients, but managed correctly they can help your message get viral.

Adding live content from external providers

Product recommendations, dynamic ads, personalized maps, countdowns… all of this advanced content can be easily included in a message created with our Content Designer. Just copy and paste the code provided to you by the vendor that you are working with.

How do I add my HTML code?

To add your code just drag an HTML content element into your design. It can be positioned alone, with other HTML content items, or mixed with other types of content:

The newly inserted content block will show some default placeholder text. Click on it and the right-side property panel will display the HTML code editing pane. You will find some placeholder code inside the editing area:

Paste your own HTML code or write it directly in the editing area. The system will highlight your syntax and indent your code to make it more readable.

Which HTML tags are allowed?

Note that this section applies only to custom HTML when used in the email editor. For information about using custom HTML in the Pages editor, see the section below.

When using custom HTML in the email editor, a code sanitizer will validate your code. It will automatically correct some issues such as HTML tags that are left open. It will also strip out code that isn't often supported by email clients. For example, script and iframe tags are removed since they often cause deliverability problems or security risks.

Allowed tags list:

a, abbr, acronym, address, area, b, bdo, big, blockquote, button, caption, center, cite, code, colgroup, dd, del, dfn, dir, div, dl, dt, em, fieldset, font, form, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, i, ins, kbd, label, legend, li, map, menu, ol, optgroup, option, p, pre, q, s, samp, select, small, span, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, tbody, td, textarea, tfoot, th, thead, u, tr, tt, u, ul, var

Allowed attributes list:

general attributes: style, id, class, data-*, title

a: href, name, target

img: align, alt, border height, hspace, src, vspace, width, usemap

table: align, bgcolor, border, cellpadding, cellspacing, width

tbody: align, valign

td: align, bgcolor, colspan, height, rowspan, valign, width

tr: align, bgcolor, valign

tfoot: align, valign

th: align, bicolor, colspan, height, rowspan, valign, width

thead: align, valign

li: type

map: name

area: alt, coords, href, shape, target