The content schema grew out of necessity, as our creative teams began working on larger segmented and dynamic email campaigns. We needed a tool that would help copywriters keep track of multiple variables, as well as allow easy review by partners, and legal teams.

Content for variant emails is laid out in columns, and variations of each content block can be reviewed in the rows. To eliminate the review of duplicate content across variants, we assign each piece of content a code. After the first instance of the content which will include the full text, if it is a repeat, only the code will be displayed. This also allows the differences between email variants to be identified at a glance.

In addition, a visual comp of the layout is included, which helps reviewers understand how the emails will look, and image file names, link matrix, and component codes are included, which translate to the component email design system, so the content schema can also be used as a deliverable to an email execution team for development.