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Look, I’ll be honest: when I first started working with Figma components, I spent way too much time manually updating the same button across 47 different email templates. (Yes, I counted. No, I’m not proud of it.)

That’s when I finally figured out the beauty of component-based design systems. And once you get the hang of it, it’s kind of life-changing.

What Even Is a Figma Component?

Here’s the Google definition: “A Figma component is a reusable design element such as a button, an icon, or a card that serves as a template for consistent and efficient design across a project.”

In normal people terms? It’s a reusable piece of your email that you can update once and have it magically change everywhere you’ve used it.

Think of it like this: You build your button once, turn it into a component, and then every time you want that button in an email, you just grab it from your library. Need to change your corner radius from square to rounded? Update it once in the master component, and boom: every button in every email updates automatically.

No more hunting through dozens of files. No more inconsistent brand elements. No more late-night “why did I make three different shades of blue?” existential crises.

The Master Design System Approach

Here’s how we set things up with the Email Love Figma plugin: You build a master design system made up of components. Headers, footers, buttons, product cards: all the building blocks your marketing team needs.

Make a change to the master, and it cascades across every template that uses it.

Properties: The Secret Sauce

The real magic happens when you add properties to your components. Properties let you turn elements on or off without touching any code or messing with frames.

So let’s say you have a two-column product section with images, headlines, prices, and buttons. You can add properties to each element, and then your marketing team can toggle things on or off with simple switches.

Want to hide the subheader this week? Click. Gone. Need a version without buttons? Click, click. Done.

It’s perfect for marketers who don’t want to (and shouldn’t have to) mess around with design frames or worry about breaking something.

Variants: Because One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Sometimes you need slight variations of the same component. That’s where variants come in.

Maybe you want your standard two-column section, but you also want a version without buttons. Or a hero with an image versus one without. Instead of creating entirely separate components, you create variants of the same parent component.

Your team can then choose which variant they need from the asset library, and everything stays organized under one roof. (Organization in Figma is deeply underrated, by the way.)

The Asset Library: Your New Best Friend

Once you’ve created your components, they live in your asset library on the left side of Figma. Your team can browse through headers, heroes, single-column sections, buttons (whatever you’ve built) and just drag and drop what they need.

Pro tip: Split your components into different pages (Headers, Heroes, Footers, etc.). When you do this, those categories show up as headings in your asset library, making everything way easier to find. Future you will thank present you.

Full Template Components (Yes, Really)

Here’s something most people don’t realize: You can turn an entire email template into a component.

Why would you want to do that? Control. When you turn a full template into a component, your marketers can update text, swap images, and add links, but they can’t accidentally mess up the structure by adding random content blocks at 4 PM on a Friday.

It’s the perfect balance of flexibility and “please don’t break this right before the send.”

Want to Try It Yourself?

If you want to see all of this in action, head over to the Figma community and search for Email Love. We’ve got the Ultimate Email Design System available, fully set up with components, properties, and variants. You can duplicate it, reskin it for your brand, and start using it immediately.

No need to build everything from scratch. (Unless you really want to. I won’t judge.)

If you have questions about setting this up, join our Discord community. We’ve got an active group of email nerds who love talking about this stuff. (And I mean that in the best possible way.)

Build it faster: the Email Love Figma to HTML email plugin turns your Figma designs into production-ready HTML email you can export to any ESP in minutes.

Much love,
Andy

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @emaillove