This guide walks you through creating email templates in Pardot from scratch, covering both builders, editable regions, personalization, and the mistakes that cost people hours of rework.
Email templates are reusable email layouts with predefined styles. Design it once, and reuse it as many times as you want. For B2B marketing teams running multiple campaigns simultaneously, that consistency is everything. Without solid templates, every email becomes a one-off project — slow to build, off-brand, and difficult to maintain.
The key to sending good emails in Pardot is having the right email templates in place. Developing solid templates is about the trifecta of speed, quality, and cost. A well-built template cuts production time dramatically and keeps your campaigns looking professional across every touchpoint.
Log in to your Pardot account and go to Marketing → Emails → Templates. This is where all your saved templates live and where you'll create new ones.
From the Marketing menu, choose Emails → Templates. Navigate to the template section to create or copy an existing one.
Click + Add Email Template to start fresh, or click an existing template to edit or duplicate it.
Pardot currently offers two email building experiences and knowing which one to use matters.
The Classic Builder (Original Experience) The original Pardot email editor. It gives you a drag-and-drop layout builder alongside a direct HTML tab. Most Pardot users are still on this. If you're comfortable with HTML, you can edit the source code directly. To see how you're doing, open the Preview tab at any time.
The Lightning Email Builder A newer drag-and-drop builder available in Lightning Experience. Account Engagement users can also get free access to Marketing Cloud Growth/Advanced as part of their Account Engagement license, so the recommendation would be to install Marketing Cloud Growth/Advanced and give the new builder a shot.
For most teams, the Classic Builder is still the practical choice for full template control — especially if you need custom HTML or editable regions.
Whether you use drag-and-drop or code from scratch, every solid Pardot email template needs these structural elements:
Email templates are reusable email designs that you copy, edit the text and images, and send. The prebuilt email templates that come with Pardot are not customized to suit your brand guidelines, are not flexible, and are not responsive — meaning your emails will not show up great on mobile phones.
This means building your own branded template is worth the upfront investment. Start with a single-column layout for best mobile compatibility, then add complexity as needed.
This is the feature that separates a truly useful template from one that requires a developer every time you want to change a headline.
Pardot supports special HTML attributes that turn fixed content into editable areas when the template is used for an email send.
Editable regions appear in the right-hand panel of the email editor, and users can click on that region to modify the content directly in the content panel. The key attributes — pardot-region, pardot-repeatable, and pardot-removable — are added as additional attributes within your HTML.
Here is what each one does:
pardot-region="name" — Makes a section editable. The user can change the text or image inside that block without touching the HTML.
pardot-repeatable — Allows a section to be duplicated. Useful for content blocks where you might want two, three, or four items in a row.
pardot-removable — Allows a section to be deleted entirely from a specific send. Good for optional elements like a secondary CTA or a promotional banner.
Review your email design and think about which modules should be repeatable — meaning these sections can be duplicated, reordered, or deleted from the design. Generally, you will leave the header and footer as non-editable regions.
A practical rule: make everything the sender might want to change editable. Lock the header, footer, and structural layout.
Static emails get ignored. Personalised ones get opened.
Handlebars Merge Language (HML) is a templating language used within Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. With HML, you can insert specific customer data to personalise content — like first name personalisation — and tailor messages to different audience segments.
Common HML merge tags to include in your templates:
Always add a default fallback value. For example: so the email reads "Hi there" rather than "Hi " if the field is blank.
Every Pardot email template needs both an HTML version and a plain text version. The text version is important for deliverability — spam filters look for it — and for recipients who have HTML emails disabled.
Pardot can auto-generate a text version from your HTML, but it is worth reviewing and cleaning it up manually. Remove stray code artifacts, ensure links are written out in full, and make sure the content reads naturally without formatting.
Once you've added your content to your email template, it's important to test it to make sure everything looks correct. Publish it once you're satisfied with the result.
Here is a practical testing checklist before publishing any template:
You can test your email by manually entering email addresses to send to, separated by commas. You will receive a test of both the HTML and text versions of the email by doing it this way.
Once you are satisfied with the template, click Publish. The template is now available to use across list emails, Engagement Studio programs, and automated sends.
Think about what types of messages you send, and create a basic template for each one. Most teams benefit from having at least three core templates:
Not adding editable regions. If your template has no editable regions, every single email send requires someone to edit raw HTML. This kills adoption and slows your team down.
Skipping the text version. Missing plain text versions hurt deliverability and can trigger spam filters.
Using only one column. Multi-column layouts often break on mobile. Always preview on small screens before publishing.
Not testing in Outlook. Outlook renders HTML differently from every other email client. What looks perfect in Gmail can look broken in Outlook 2019.
Forgetting the unsubscribe link. Pardot requires an unsubscribe mechanism in all marketing emails. If your template does not include one, sends will fail compliance checks.
A well-built Pardot email template is one of the highest-leverage investments your marketing team can make. You spend a few hours getting it right once, and every campaign after that is faster, more consistent, and easier for the whole team to execute.
Start with one branded template, get the editable regions right, and build from there. Once your team can spin up a polished email in minutes rather than hours, you will see the difference in both output volume and campaign quality.
Ready to take your Pardot email strategy further? Explore how Engagement Studio can automate multi-step nurture sequences using the templates you have just built — and start converting more prospects without the manual effort.