Beautiful emails, without a designer
Start from a designed template or a blank canvas. Drag in blocks, write with AI, preview on every device and send with confidence.
What email builder in MailNesto does
MailNesto’s email builder is where campaigns and templates are put together. You stack blocks on a canvas — text, images, buttons, columns, product rows, event cards, coupons and more — set colours and fonts once, and the builder produces table-based email HTML with mobile styles built in. No code is needed, though the HTML is always there if you want it.
It matters most for small teams who send often. A clothing store in Jaipur sending three emails a week cannot wait on a designer each time. Saved blocks, a brand kit, version history and templates for Indian festivals mean the tenth email starts from what you built for the first.
It is also where personal touches happen. Merge tags with fallbacks, blocks that appear only for certain cities or tags, and product rows filled from your store at the moment of sending let one design read differently for every person on the list.
Email builder, done properly
Drag-and-drop blocks
Text, images, buttons, columns, products, events, coupons, surveys, video, social links and dividers — arranged without code.
Mobile-ready by default
Every layout adapts to phones. Preview desktop, tablet and phone widths before you send.
Your own HTML, too
Paste or import a .zip/.html design, or edit the HTML directly. Plain-text emails are one click away.
Conditional content
Show a block only to people in a city, on a plan or with a tag — one email, personalised for everyone.
Media library
Upload once and reuse images across campaigns. Images are stored and served for you.
Products from your store
Bestsellers, new arrivals, picks for each person, what they looked at or left in their cart — filled in with live prices and stock when the email goes out.
Saved blocks
Save a header, footer or product row once and drop it into any email.
Blocks for everything a business email needs
The palette has four groups. Basic: heading, text, button, image. Layout: columns, divider, spacer, menu bar, image collage, footer. Content: video, event, coupon, testimonial, feature and bullet lists, alert, signature, NPS survey, RSS feed and products. Data: chart, KPI stats, progress bar, table, star rating and QR code.
Columns come in 1:1, 1:2, 2:1 and three-equal layouts, and you choose whether they stack on phones. Global settings — email width, page and content backgrounds, font, text and heading colours, link and button colours, corner radius and base font size — apply to every block at once, so changing your brand colour is one edit, not twenty.
- Event block with date, time, venue, map link and an optional RSVP
- Coupon block with code, message and an expiry line
- Undo, redo, keyboard shortcuts and autosave
- Media library with folders, a simple image editor and a “where is this used” check
- QR code block for entry passes, menus or booking pages
Personal details that never leave a blank
Merge tags pull each contact’s details into the subject, preview text and body: {{first_name}}, {{email}} or any custom field, such as {{city}}. Add a fallback after a pipe — {{first_name|there}} — and people without a first name read “Hi there” instead of “Hi ,”. A custom field can also have a default value for when it is empty.
A birthday stored as day and month appears as “15 March”, and an address keeps its parts — city, state, PIN code — so a sentence can mention just the city.
For lists where many people know each other, such as an alumni group, spintax varies the wording: {{spin:Hi|Hello|Namaste}} picks one option per recipient and keeps it stable.
- Merge tags work in subject lines and preview text, not just the body
- An inline fallback wins over a field’s default value
- {{preferences_url}} and {{unsubscribe_url}} link each person to their own pages
- If an email has no unsubscribe link, one is added to the footer automatically
One email, different content for different people
Any block can carry a condition. Pick a field, a rule (equals, does not equal, contains, has a value, is empty) and a value, and the block is kept only for contacts who match. Tags work the same way: show a block to everyone tagged “vip”, or hide it from anyone tagged “staff”.
This saves building three versions of one campaign. A restaurant group with outlets in Bengaluru, Chennai and Kochi can send one weekend email where the menu, address and booking button change by city, while the shared parts are written once.
Blocks can also be set to show only on desktop or only on phones. A wide comparison table can appear for desktop readers while phone readers see a short list and a single button instead.
- Rules on any contact field, including custom fields
- Tag rules: has the tag, does not have it, or any tag containing a word
- Desktop-only and phone-only blocks
Store products filled in when the email is sent
Connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store and the Products block fills itself at the moment of sending: products you pick, new arrivals, bestsellers, recommendations for each person, what they recently viewed, or what is in their cart. Choose the count, columns, category and button label. Out-of-stock and archived products never appear.
Personal modes change per recipient. If there is nothing to show — a new subscriber has viewed nothing yet — the block falls back to bestsellers or new arrivals, or hides itself, depending on what you chose. Nobody receives an empty product grid.
- Six product modes: picked, new, bestsellers, recommended, recently viewed and cart
- Product clicks are tracked and count towards revenue reports
- RSS block that pulls your latest blog posts when the email goes out
- NPS block with one-click scores from 0 to 10, linked back to each contact
Templates, saved blocks and your own HTML
The template library has designs for sales, launches, newsletters, events and festivals. The dashboard lists festivals in the next 45 days — Dhanteras and Diwali, Pongal, Holi, Eid — each with a ready template and a note on when to send.
Templates keep a version history: name a version before a big change and restore any of the newest 50 without losing the current draft. Single blocks — a header with your logo, a footer with your address — can be saved and dropped into any email. A brand kit holds your logo, colours, fonts, footer text and social links, and applies to an older design in one step.
Designs from elsewhere can be uploaded as a .zip with images or a single .html file; the images move into your media library and their links are rewritten. You can also edit HTML directly or download a template as HTML or a ZIP.
- Festival calendar linked to ready-made templates
- Version history with named saves and one-click restore
- Saved blocks for headers, footers and offers
- The template list shows each template’s size and how campaigns built from it performed
Check it before anyone else sees it
Preview the email at desktop, tablet and phone widths, see how sender name, subject and preview text look in an inbox, and send a test to up to five addresses.
Before a campaign goes out, the content check scores spam signals and best practices: shouting subject lines, known spam phrases, too little text for the images, missing alt text, link shorteners, scripts, and unfinished links left at “#” or “https://” — often social icons from a template. It also warns when the HTML is over Gmail’s 102 KB clipping limit, and when your sender domain is not authenticated, because then the email cannot be DKIM-signed.
The AI review then reads it like a careful colleague — subject, call to action, tone, personalisation, accessibility — and lists the most important fixes first.
- Desktop, tablet and phone previews
- Test sends to up to five addresses
- Spam and content score with a reason for every point
- AI pre-send review
Up and running in three steps
- 1
Pick a starting point
Choose from the template library or start blank.
- 2
Design and personalise
Drag blocks, add merge tags like {{first_name}}, and set conditions.
- 3
Check and send
Spam check, link check, inbox preview and a test email — then send or schedule.
Email builder for every kind of business
A home-décor store in Jaipur builds its weekly email from a saved header and a bestsellers row; its cart-recovery email uses the same block in cart mode to show what each shopper left behind.
An institute in Kota sends a results-day email with a table of new batch timings. A tag condition shows the JEE block to students tagged “jee” and the NEET block to those tagged “neet”.
A salon chain in Pune adds a coupon block for birthday-month offers and a QR code that opens its booking page. The branch address and phone number change by city through a block condition.
A cloud kitchen in Hyderabad sends a Friday menu with an image collage, a checklist of weekend specials and a menu bar linking to each area’s ordering page.
A Navratri organiser in Ahmedabad uses the event block with venue and map link, a data table of pass prices from ₹399 to ₹1,999, and a QR code that opens the event page for anyone reading on a laptop.
A personal-finance writer in Mumbai turns her blog into a weekly digest with the RSS block and ends each issue with an NPS question.
- Template library with designed layouts
- Saved templates and folders
- Version history for templates
- Merge tags with fallbacks
- Coupon and product blocks
- Survey and NPS blocks
- Pre-send content and spam check
- Unfinished-link check
- Desktop, mobile and dark previews
- Test sends to your team
- Plain-text version generated automatically
In many email tools the builder stops at layout: anything personal means duplicating a campaign for each group or pasting product details in by hand. Festival templates for an Indian calendar are rare, and imported HTML often keeps its images on the old provider’s servers.
MailNesto puts the personal parts inside the design. Conditions on any block, merge-tag fallbacks, spintax and product rows that fill per person at send time let one email serve a whole list. Festival templates appear on a calendar weeks ahead, imported images move into your own media library, and the content check explains each point it takes off, so you know what to fix rather than just seeing a score.
Tips for better results
- 1
Set the global colours and fonts first, or apply your brand kit, before adding blocks — it is easier to judge a layout in the right colours.
- 2
Give {{first_name}} a fallback every time. Lists exported from billing software often have no first names, and “Hi there” reads better than a stray comma.
- 3
Keep the HTML under about 100 KB. Gmail clips longer emails and hides the footer, including the unsubscribe link, behind a “view entire message” link.
- 4
When you use conditional blocks, make sure people who match none of the rules still see something useful — a general block with the opposite condition works well.
- 5
Save your header and footer as saved blocks before building your second email, so every campaign after it starts consistent.
- 6
Open the festival calendar three to four weeks ahead; the note beside each festival says how early to send.
- 7
Use one main button per email and repeat it once near the end of long newsletters, then check the click map to see whether the second one earns its place.
Questions about email builder
Do I need to know HTML?
No. The drag-and-drop builder handles layout and mobile styling. If you prefer code, you can switch any email to HTML.
Can I import designs from another tool?
Yes — upload a .zip (HTML and images) or a single .html file. Images are moved into your media library automatically.
Can automation emails use designs from the builder?
Yes. Design and save a template in the builder, then choose it for an email step in any automation. You can also paste HTML straight into an automation email if you prefer.
Can I add a video to an email?
Email apps do not play video inside a message, so the video block shows a thumbnail — taken from YouTube automatically, or one you upload — that links to the video.
What happens to a product block if an item sells out?
Products are chosen when the email is sent, and out-of-stock or archived products are never included. Personal modes with nothing to show fall back to bestsellers, new arrivals or nothing, as you set.
What is spintax and when should I use it?
Spintax lets one sentence vary per recipient: {{spin:Hi|Hello|Hey}} gives each person one of the three, and always the same one. It helps when many readers compare or forward emails.
Can I send a plain-text email instead?
Yes. Switch the campaign to plain text and write it like a personal note. It goes out with no HTML part, so there is no open tracking, but links can still be tracked and UTM-tagged.
Can I restore an older version of a template?
Yes. Templates keep their newest 50 saved versions. Open the history, preview any version and restore it; your current draft is saved into the history first, so nothing is lost.