What is a WYSIWYG Editor (for Emails)?

Understanding the Basics: Before WYSIWYG

To truly appreciate WYSIWYG editors, it helps to remember what email creation was like before they became common. The process was often more technical and less accessible to the average marketer or business owner.

The “Old Way”: HTML Coding for Emails

At their core, most visually rich emails are built using HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). In the past, if you wanted a custom-designed email, you or a developer would need to write this HTML code manually.

This presented several challenges:

• Complexity: Email HTML is notoriously finicky. Different email clients (like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) interpret code in their own ways. Writing HTML that rendered consistently across all these clients was (and still can be) a specialized skill.
• Time-Consuming: Hand-coding emails, testing them, and debugging rendering issues took a significant amount of time.
• Technical Barrier: This approach created a high barrier to entry. Marketers and small business owners without coding skills were reliant on developers or very basic templates.

The Need for a Simpler Solution

Clearly, there was a strong need for tools that would allow anyone to create beautiful, effective emails without needing to be a coding wizard. Businesses wanted to react quickly, send timely promotions, and maintain brand consistency without a lengthy development cycle for every email. This need paved the way for visual editing tools.

What Exactly is a WYSIWYG Editor?

So, what is this tool that changed the email design landscape? A WYSIWYG editor provides a visual way to create and edit content, making the process much more intuitive.

Breaking Down “What You See Is What You Get”

The acronym WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” This phrase perfectly captures the core promise of these editors: the content and layout you see on your screen during the editing process closely mirror the final appearance of the email when it reaches the recipient. You are essentially working on a live preview of your email.

Core Functionality

A WYSIWYG email editor allows users to manipulate design elements visually rather than by writing lines of code. You can typically:

• Type and format text (change fonts, colors, sizes).
• Insert and position images.
• Add buttons and links.
• Create columns and adjust layouts.
• Change background colors and more. All these actions are usually done through a graphical user interface with familiar controls.

Analogy: Familiar Visual Tools

Think of using a WYSIWYG email editor like working with other common visual software:

• Word Processors: Similar to how Microsoft Word or Google Docs show you the document formatting as you type.
• Website Page Builders: Very much like how website builders, such as Elementor itself, allow you to drag and drop elements to design a webpage visually. The concept is extended to email design.

This visual approach makes email design accessible to a much broader audience.

Distinction from Text Editors vs. Code Editors

It’s important to distinguish WYSIWYG editors from other types of editors:

• Plain Text Editors (e.g., Notepad): These only allow you to write text without any visual formatting.
• Code Editors (e.g., VS Code, Sublime Text): These are designed for writing and editing code (like HTML, CSS, JavaScript). While essential for developers, they are not visual design tools. A WYSIWYG editor provides a visual interface that sits on top of the code, generating it automatically in the background as you design.

How Do WYSIWYG Email Editors Work (Simplified)?

While they seem like magic, WYSIWYG email editors operate on a fairly straightforward principle: they translate your visual actions into the underlying code required to display an email. Here’s a simplified look at the process.

Visual Interface Layer

This is what you, the user, interact with. This layer typically includes:

• A Canvas or Editing Area: This is where you see your email taking shape.
• Toolbars and Menus: These provide options for formatting text (bold, italic, font size, color), inserting images, adding links, etc.
• Content Blocks or Elements: Many editors use a drag-and-drop system where you can pull in pre-defined blocks for text, images, buttons, dividers, social media links, and more.
• Property Panels: When you select an element (like an image or a button), a panel often appears allowing you to adjust its specific properties (e.g., image size, button color, link URL).

You click, drag, type, and select options within this visual environment.

Code Generation in the Background

As you make changes in the visual interface, the WYSIWYG editor is simultaneously writing HTML and inline CSS code in the background.

• For example, when you bold a piece of text, the editor adds the appropriate HTML tags (like <strong> or <b>) around that text in the code.
• When you drag in an image block and select an image, the editor generates the <img> tag with the source, alt text, and any styling you’ve applied. This automatically generated code is what email clients will ultimately read and render.

Real-time Preview (Often a Feature)

The “What You See Is What You Get” aspect means that the editing canvas itself is a form of live preview. Many editors also include a dedicated preview mode. This might show you how your email will look on desktop and, increasingly, on mobile devices. This immediate visual feedback is crucial for making design decisions.

Templates as a Starting Point

To make the process even easier and faster, most WYSIWYG email editors come with a library of pre-designed templates.

• Users can choose a template that fits their campaign’s goal (e.g., newsletter, promotion, announcement).
• They can then customize the template by changing text, images, colors, and layout using the visual editor tools, without needing to build everything from scratch.

Key Benefits of Using a WYSIWYG Editor for Emails

The widespread adoption of WYSIWYG editors for email design isn’t accidental. They offer a host of significant benefits for individuals, businesses, and the web creators who serve them.

Accessibility & Ease of Use (No Coding Required)

This is perhaps the most significant advantage. WYSIWYG editors empower non-technical users to create professional-looking emails.

• Marketers, small business owners, and content creators can design and launch email campaigns without needing to learn HTML or hire a developer for every email.
• This democratizes email design, making it accessible to everyone.

Speed and Efficiency

Designing emails visually is generally much faster than manual coding.

• Drag-and-drop interfaces allow for rapid layout creation and content placement.
• Pre-designed templates provide a quick starting point, saving hours of setup time.
• Changes can be made quickly and easily without delving into code.

Visual Design Control

These editors give users a high degree of creative control over the look and feel of their emails.

• You can easily experiment with different layouts, color schemes, fonts, and imagery to match your brand and campaign goals.
• This allows for more visually appealing and engaging email designs.

Consistency in Branding

Maintaining a consistent brand image across all communications is crucial.

• WYSIWYG editors make it easier to apply brand guidelines consistently, including logos, brand colors, and typography.
• Some editors allow users to save and reuse custom brand elements or templates.

Reduced Errors

Manual HTML coding for emails is prone to errors that can cause rendering issues in different email clients.

• WYSIWYG editors generate code based on established best practices, minimizing common coding mistakes.
• This leads to more reliable rendering and fewer broken layouts.

Facilitates Responsive Design (Often)

With a large percentage of emails being opened on mobile devices, responsive design is essential.

• Many modern WYSIWYG email editors are built to help create emails that adapt to different screen sizes, looking good on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
• They often include mobile preview options.

Empowering Web Creators

For web creators, WYSIWYG email editors are invaluable tools.

• They enable you to quickly design custom email templates for clients as part of a website project.
• You can build out entire email campaigns efficiently, offering more comprehensive marketing services.
• Platforms like Send by Elementor, which incorporate an intuitive drag-and-drop email builder, bring these benefits directly into the WordPress ecosystem. This allows web creators to manage website design and email marketing seamlessly within a familiar environment, streamlining workflows for themselves and their clients.

Common Features to Look for in a WYSIWYG Email Editor

When choosing an email marketing platform or a standalone email editor, the quality and features of its WYSIWYG editor are critical. Here are some common and desirable features to look for:

Drag-and-Drop Interface

This is a hallmark of modern WYSIWYG editors. It allows you to intuitively build your email layout by dragging content blocks (like text, images, buttons) onto a canvas and rearranging them as needed.

Pre-designed Templates

A good library of professionally designed and mobile-responsive templates provides a strong starting point. Look for:

• Variety: Templates for different purposes (newsletters, promotions, announcements, transactional emails).
• Quality: Clean, modern designs that follow email best practices.
• Customizability: The ability to easily modify templates to fit your brand.

Content Blocks/Modules

These are pre-built structural elements that you can drag into your email. Common blocks include:

• Text blocks
• Image blocks (single images, image groups, images with text)
• Buttons (with customizable links, colors, and text)
• Dividers or spacers
• Social media follow/share links
• Video preview blocks (linking to a video)
• Custom HTML blocks (for advanced users who want to insert specific code snippets)

Text Editing Options

Robust text formatting capabilities are essential:

• Font family choices (usually web-safe fonts)
• Font sizes, colors, and styles (bold, italic, underline)
• Text alignment (left, center, right, justified)
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Hyperlink creation and editing

Image Handling

Working with images should be straightforward:

• Easy image uploading (from your computer or an image library).
• Options for resizing, cropping, and aligning images.
• Ability to add alt text for accessibility and for when images don’t load.
• Image editing features (brightness, contrast, filters) can be a plus.

Responsive Design Capabilities

The editor should help you create emails that look great on all devices.

• Built-in responsiveness: Content blocks should automatically adjust to different screen widths.
• Mobile preview mode: Allows you to see how your email will appear on a smartphone or tablet.
• Options to show/hide certain content on desktop vs. mobile.

Personalization Tag Support

The ability to personalize emails with subscriber data is key for engagement.

• The editor should allow easy insertion of merge tags or personalization tags (e.g., [FirstName], [OrderNumber]) that pull data from your contact list.

Revision History/Undo-Redo

Mistakes happen. Good editors provide:

• Undo/Redo functionality: To easily revert recent changes.
• Revision history (versioning): Allows you to go back to earlier saved versions of your email.

Preview Functionality

Beyond a simple mobile preview, some advanced editors offer:

• Previews across different common email clients (e.g., how it looks in Gmail vs. Outlook).
• Spam testing tools to check for potential deliverability issues.

Integration with Email Sending Platform

If the editor is part of a larger email marketing platform, the integration should be seamless.

• This is a distinct advantage of using an all-in-one solution like Send by Elementor, where the drag-and-drop email builder is an integral part of the overall communication toolkit. This means you design your email and can then easily move to setting up your campaign, selecting your audience, and scheduling the send, all within the same WordPress-integrated environment.

WYSIWYG Editors and Email Client Compatibility

One of the biggest historical headaches in email marketing has been ensuring emails look consistent across the myriad of email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Yahoo, etc.). Each client has its own way of interpreting HTML and CSS, leading to frustrating rendering quirks. How do WYSIWYG editors address this?

The Challenge of Email Rendering

Unlike web browsers, which have become much more standardized in how they render HTML and CSS, email clients are a different beast.

• Diverse Rendering Engines: Different email clients use different underlying engines to display emails. Outlook, for example, has historically used Microsoft Word’s rendering engine for HTML, which has its own set of limitations.
• Limited CSS Support: Email clients generally support a more restricted set of CSS properties compared to web browsers.
• Image Blocking: Many email clients block images by default, requiring users to click to display them. These factors make “pixel-perfect” consistency across all email clients an elusive goal.

How WYSIWYG Editors Help

Good WYSIWYG email editors are designed with these challenges in mind. They help improve compatibility by:

• Generating “Email-Safe” HTML: They typically produce HTML code that is structured to be as compatible as possible with the most common email clients. This often involves using tables for layout (an older but reliable method for email) and inlining CSS styles.
• Tested Components: The content blocks and templates provided by reputable editors have usually been tested across major email clients to ensure they render reasonably well.
• Abstracting Complexity: The editor handles the tricky email-specific coding nuances behind the scenes, so the user doesn’t have to worry about them.

Limitations

It’s important to understand that no WYSIWYG editor can guarantee 100% identical rendering in every single email client on every device. There will always be minor variations.

• Some older or less common email clients might still display things differently.
• User-specific settings within an email client can also affect rendering. Therefore, testing your emails is still crucial.

Focus on “Graceful Degradation”

Instead of aiming for pixel-perfect sameness, the goal with email design is often “graceful degradation.” This means the email should look great in modern, capable email clients, and still be perfectly readable and functional in older or more restrictive ones, even if some advanced styling is lost. WYSIWYG editors generally strive for this.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your WYSIWYG Email Editor

Having a great WYSIWYG email editor is a fantastic start. But to truly create effective email campaigns, it helps to follow some design and usability best practices, even within a visual editing environment.

Start with a Template (If You’re New or Short on Time)

Don’t feel you have to build every email from scratch.

• Benefit: Templates provide a professionally designed, often responsive, foundation. This saves time and ensures you’re starting with a structure that generally works well.
• Customization: You can then customize the template with your brand colors, fonts, images, and content.

Keep it Simple

It can be tempting to use all the bells and whistles your editor offers, but often, simpler is better.

• Focus: A clean, uncluttered design helps your main message and call to action stand out.
• Readability: Avoid too many different fonts, colors, or distracting animations. Prioritize easy readability.

Prioritize Mobile-First Design

A significant portion of emails are opened on mobile devices.

• Responsive is Key: Ensure your chosen editor and templates are responsive.
• Design for Small Screens: Think about how your email will look on a phone. Use single-column layouts where possible, ensure text is large enough to read, and make buttons easy to tap. Use the mobile preview feature frequently.

Use Brand Guidelines Consistently

Maintain your brand’s visual identity in every email.

• Colors, Fonts, Logo: Consistently use your brand’s color palette, typography (sticking to web-safe or widely supported fonts), and logo.
• Tone of Voice: Your written content should also reflect your brand’s personality.

Optimize Images

Images can enhance your email, but they can also slow it down if not optimized.

• File Size: Use web-optimized image formats (like JPG for photos, PNG for graphics with transparency) and compress them to reduce file size without sacrificing too much quality.
• Dimensions: Resize images to the approximate dimensions they will be displayed at in the email.
• Alt Text: Always add descriptive alt text to your images. This is crucial for accessibility (screen readers) and for when images are blocked by email clients.

Test Your Emails Thoroughly

Before sending to your entire list, always test.

• Send to Yourself: Send test emails to your own accounts on different email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) and view them on desktop and mobile devices.
• Use Preview Tools: Leverage any built-in preview tools your platform offers. Some advanced services offer previews across dozens of email clients.
• Check Links: Click every link to ensure it goes to the correct destination.

Understand Basic Email Design Principles

Even with a WYSIWYG editor, knowing fundamental design principles helps.

• Visual Hierarchy: Guide the reader’s eye to the most important elements first.
• White Space: Don’t cram everything together. Use white space (margins, padding) to improve readability and visual appeal.
• Clear Call to Action (CTA): Make your CTA button or link stand out and clearly communicate the desired action.

The Role of Send by Elementor’s Email Builder

For users within the WordPress ecosystem, particularly those already familiar with Elementor’s page-building experience, having an integrated email design tool is a significant advantage. Send by Elementor recognizes this by incorporating its own drag-and-drop email builder, aiming to provide a seamless and intuitive email creation process.

WordPress-Native WYSIWYG Experience

One of the key aspects of Send by Elementor’s approach is bringing the email design process directly into the WordPress dashboard.

• Familiar Interface: For those who use Elementor to build websites, the email builder aims to offer a similarly intuitive, visual design experience. This reduces the learning curve.
• Centralized Workflow: Web creators and businesses can manage their website content and their email marketing design from a single, unified platform.

Seamless Integration with Communication Tools

The power of an integrated system lies in how its components work together. With Send by Elementor, the email builder is not a standalone tool but part of a comprehensive communication toolkit.

• Design and Send: You can visually design your emails and then use Send by Elementor’s sending capabilities, segmentation features, and automation flows without needing to export/import HTML or switch between different platforms.
• Automated Campaigns: Imagine designing a welcome email or a WooCommerce abandoned cart email visually, and then easily setting it up within an automation flow – all powered by Send by Elementor.

Empowering Web Creators and Businesses

The inclusion of an easy-to-use WYSIWYG email builder empowers users in several ways:

• Accessibility: It makes professional email design accessible even to those with no coding skills, including small business owners managing their own marketing or web creators looking to offer email services to clients.
• Efficiency: Quickly create and modify email templates and campaigns, saving time and resources.
• Client Collaboration: Web creators can design templates that clients might then be able to update with new content easily, if the interface is intuitive enough.

Focus on Elementor’s Strengths

Send by Elementor’s email builder naturally seeks to leverage the principles that made Elementor a popular website builder:

• User-Friendly Visual Design: Prioritizing an easy-to-understand and use visual interface.
• Ready-Made Templates: Offering a selection of templates, potentially designed with Elementor’s best practices in mind, to help users get started quickly.
• Flexibility: Providing tools to customize emails to match specific branding and campaign needs.

By embedding these WYSIWYG capabilities, Send by Elementor aims to streamline the entire email marketing process for WordPress users, from design through to delivery and automation.

The Role of Send by Elementor’s Email Builder

Send by Elementor’s integrated drag-and-drop email builder provides a WordPress-native WYSIWYG experience, aiming for an intuitive design process familiar to Elementor users. This seamless integration with its broader communication tools (sending, automation, segmentation) empowers web creators and businesses to efficiently design professional emails without needing coding expertise or external design tools, streamlining the entire campaign workflow.

Conclusion: Visual Power for Your Email Marketing

WYSIWYG email editors have fundamentally changed how we approach email design, making it more accessible, efficient, and visually driven. By allowing users to see exactly what their email will look like as they create it, these tools remove the complexities of manual HTML coding and empower marketers and business owners to craft professional, engaging campaigns. The ability to drag and drop content, customize templates, and manage designs visually saves invaluable time and resources.

Good email design, facilitated by intuitive WYSIWYG editors, directly contributes to better recipient engagement and campaign performance. When your emails look polished and are easy to read, your message has a much greater chance of resonating. Integrated solutions, such as Send by Elementor with its built-in visual email builder, further streamline this process by combining design, sending, and automation capabilities within a single, familiar platform. This visual power puts effective email marketing well within reach for everyone.