I've set up templates in Marketing Cloud with content blocks and they all work fine. The problem is that we have a lot of end-users (that will do customisations and sending) who are non-marketing and non-technical.
From what I can tell, "Free Form" seems to be the only option for them to NOT see HTML when they are to edit.
If one of them deletes all the content (or first line) in a Content Area the HTML attribute along with the CSS will usually also be deleted. Without this inline CSS the compatibility and this branding is lost.
I've also discovered adding a Content Area will add 2 nested tables to the final output so putting the styling outside of it doesn't work.
Is there any way to overcome this? Such as removing the 2 nested tables? It would ideally be like how the Campaign Monitor template system works in that it is quite "fool proof" for any person to use once the template is set up. All branding guidelines are adhered to since they can't edit it or break it.
Thanks
Best Answer
Welcome to SFSE, Wade.
The best solution I've seen for separating/protecting email code and CSS leverages Content Areas that contain AMPScript variables.
Workflow
Here are the simplified components:
Template (contains base header, content areas and footer)
Content Content Areas (edited in workflow)
Design Content Areas (hidden from normal workflow)
While this will protect the code, I wouldn't shy away from taking the opportunity to invest in some HTML & CSS education with your marketing folks. There's not a simple, out-of-the-box way to lock down an email like you're describing. Even some basic HTML/CSS knowledge goes along way.
And, stay away from the WYSIWYG editor completely. Repeated updates to code with the WYSYWYG editor eventually result in Microsoft Word-like HTML, which is never good -- especially in an email.
If you need a good starter template, I'd recommend the Responsive Email Patterns by Brian Graves.