What multi column emails are
A multi-column email layout arranges content into two or more vertical sections side-by-side. This design choice helps to display diverse content efficiently within a single email. Brands use it to break up long blocks of text or to showcase multiple products or articles at once.
This page is one slice of the Nitrosend email library. It holds 30 real emails from 18 brands, all of them collected out of two ordinary inboxes. Nothing here is a mockup.
Multi column emails you can look at
Filter by industry, design style, layout or length. Open any one to read the subject line, what it is doing, and the prompt that rebuilds it.
What 30 of them actually do
This collection of 30 emails, from 18 distinct brands, shows how they approach multi-column layouts. Every email here uses multiple columns to organise content. George, our co-founder, says to think of this library as the visual companion to the Email Marketing Bible. We are collecting what brands actually send, not just what they claim to send.
Most multi-column emails in this segment feature a product grid. Two-thirds of the emails use a grid to display multiple items, often with images and short descriptions. In contrast, only 17% of these emails include a single hero image at the top. This suggests that multi-column layouts are primarily chosen for showcasing a range of products or content, not for a single dominant visual.
Brands sending multi-column emails often keep their design clean and functional. Over half of the emails, 57%, use a minimal design style, while another 13% are utilitarian. This focus on simplicity helps manage the visual density that multiple columns can create. Despite the clean design, these emails are generally busy with calls to action. The median email in this segment contains 7 calls to action, pushing recipients to multiple destinations.
Multi-column layouts are a common choice for promotional content and newsletters. Nearly half of the emails, 43%, are promotional, and 23% are re-engagement campaigns. These emails are almost exclusively aimed at existing customers, with 93% falling into the retention lifecycle stage. Media publishing brands account for 43% of these emails, indicating a strong use case for presenting diverse content from sources like MSN or Pinterest.
Personalisation is present but not universal in these multi-column emails. About 37% of the emails address the recipient by their first name. Subject lines are typically descriptive, making up 40% of the sample, or personalised, at 27%. I find that building complex multi-column layouts can be challenging. I once built a Claude skill to export MJML for an email, but when I tried to import it, the action stripped away half the copy. This shows that even with advanced tools, getting these layouts right takes careful execution.
None of this helps if the send never lands, which is a transactional email problem rather than a design one.
What to take from these
- Prioritise a product grid over a single hero image when using multiple columns, as 67% of brands do.Keep your design minimal or utilitarian to manage visual complexity, as seen in over half of the collected emails.Include multiple calls to action; the median email here has 7, directing users to various links.Use multi-column layouts for promotional content or re-engagement campaigns, a common strategy for brands like Above.com and THE ICONIC.Consider personalising your subject lines and email copy, as 27% of subject lines are personalised.Design for existing customers. Nearly all these emails, 93%, are for retention, not acquisition.
Once the shape is right, the rest is email marketing.
What is in this set
By industry
30 emails from 18 brandsNext to this one
The same corpus, cut a different way: single column, plain text, two column.
Questions people ask
A multi-column email layout arranges content into two or more vertical sections side-by-side. This design helps display diverse content efficiently within a single email, making it easier to present multiple products or articles.
Multi-column layouts are frequently used for product grids, promotional content, and newsletters. They are effective for showcasing a range of items or providing updates from media publishers, as seen in 67% of the collected emails.
Personalisation is present but not universal. Around 37% of multi-column emails in this segment address the recipient by their first name. Additionally, 27% of subject lines for these emails are personalised.