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If you’re running email campaigns in multiple languages, you know the pain: design an email, export it to your ESP, copy all the content into a translation tool, wait for translations, then manually paste everything back into new templates for each language.

It’s tedious. It’s error-prone. And honestly? It’s a waste of your time.

There’s a better way. You can design in Figma, export directly to Iterable, translate everything in Lokalise, and push those translations back to Iterable—all without touching a single line of code.

I’m going to walk you through exactly how to set this up.

The Problem With Traditional Email Translation Workflows

Most marketing teams handle multilingual emails one of two ways:

1. The Manual Copy-Paste Method: Design the email, export it, copy all the text into a spreadsheet, send it to translators, then manually rebuild the email for each language. This takes forever and introduces mistakes.
2. The Multiple Template Method: Create completely separate templates for each language from scratch. This means maintaining 3-5 versions of every email you send, and any design changes need to be made multiple times.

Both approaches suck.

What if you could design once, translate once, and automatically deploy to all your target languages? That’s exactly what this workflow does.

The Tools You’ll Need

Before we dive in, here’s what you need:

• Figma (where you’ll design your emails)
• Email Love Figma Plugin (exports Figma designs as responsive HTML)
• Iterable (your ESP, with locale settings enabled)
• Lokalise (handles the translation workflow)

The best part? Once you set this up, you can reuse it for every campaign.

Step 1: Design Your Email in Figma

Start with your email design in Figma. Nothing fancy here—just design your email like you normally would.

For this example, I’m using a trend report email that I want to translate from English into French and German.

The key is to design with translation in mind. Keep your text modular, avoid text burned into images (unless you want to create separate image versions), and make sure your layout can handle text expansion (German text is typically 30% longer than English).

Step 2: Export to Iterable Using the Figma Plugin

Once your design is ready:

1. Select your email frame in Figma
2. Open the Email Love plugin
3. Choose “Iterable” from the ESP dropdown
4. Click the big blue “Export” button

That’s it. The plugin converts your Figma design into responsive HTML and uploads it directly to your Iterable account as a new template.

No coding. No manual HTML export. Just click and go.

Why This Matters: The Drag-and-Drop Editor Problem

Here’s something important to know: Iterable’s drag-and-drop editor doesn’t work with Lokalise.

If you build your emails using Iterable’s native drag-and-drop builder, you can’t localize them through Lokalise. The reason is technical—there’s a mismatch between the JSON content that the drag-and-drop editor generates and the HTML content that Lokalise translates.

Iterable’s own documentation recommends using their WYSIWYG or Side-by-Side code editor instead if you want to use Lokalise for translations.

The workaround? Export your drag-and-drop template as HTML, upload it as a new template using the code editor, then import that into Lokalise. That’s extra steps, extra templates to manage, and extra places where things can break.

This is exactly why designing in Figma and exporting as HTML code is the better approach. You get:

• Full design control (way more than a drag-and-drop builder offers)
• Clean, responsive HTML that Lokalise can work with
• One source of truth for your design (Figma, not buried in an ESP)
• A workflow that actually supports localization from the start

You’re not working around limitations—you’re using a workflow designed for this exact use case.

Step 3: Connect Lokalise to Iterable

Here’s where the magic happens. You need to connect Lokalise to your Iterable account so the two tools can talk to each other.

First, add your target locales in Iterable (French and German, for example). Then create a new Lokalise project, select Iterable as your integration, and connect the two using an API key from your Iterable account.

Once connected, Lokalise pulls in all your Iterable templates automatically. Find the one you just exported from Figma and import it into Lokalise. It’ll extract every piece of translatable text—headlines, body copy, CTAs, alt text—while leaving your HTML and design untouched.

Step 4: Translate and Deploy

Now your translation team (or Lokalise’s AI) can work their magic. They’ll see every text element from your email with blank fields for each target language. No code. No HTML tags. Just the content that needs translating.

Once translations are done, hit “Export to Iterable” and Lokalise automatically updates your template with all the language versions.

Jump back into Iterable, switch between locales, and you’ll see your email perfectly translated. Same design, same layout, different language.

That’s it. Design once, translate once, deploy everywhere.

Why This Workflow Changes Everything

Here’s what you just accomplished:

• Designed an email in Figma (where you have full creative control)
• Exported it to Iterable as responsive HTML (no coding required)
• Extracted all translatable content automatically (no copy-pasting into spreadsheets)
• Translated everything in one place (your translation team never touches the ESP)
• Deployed all language versions simultaneously (no rebuilding templates manually)

Compare that to the old way: design, export, copy text to a doc, send to translators, wait, receive translations, manually paste into new templates for each language, test each version separately.

This workflow cuts that process down from hours to minutes.

Who Should Use This Workflow?

This is perfect if you’re:

• Running campaigns in multiple languages or regions
• Managing email templates for global teams
• Working with external translation agencies or freelancers
• Trying to maintain design consistency across locales
• Tired of manually rebuilding emails for each language

Basically, if you’re sending the same email in more than one language, you need this workflow.

A Few Pro Tips

Plan for text expansion: Some languages (like German) can be 30% longer than English. Make sure your design can handle this without breaking.

Don’t burn text into images: If your headline is part of an image, you’ll need separate image files for each language. Keep text as actual text whenever possible.

Test all locales: Just because it looks good in English doesn’t mean the French version won’t have a weird line break. Always preview every language before sending.

Set up a translation approval workflow: Lokalise supports review and approval processes. Use them. Machine translation is fast but not always accurate for marketing copy.

Create a content style guide: Give your translators context about tone, brand voice, and any terms that should stay in English (like product names or branded features).

The Bottom Line

You don’t need to choose between beautiful, on-brand emails and efficient multilingual campaigns. With the right workflow, you can have both.

Design in Figma. Export to Iterable. Translate in Lokalise. Deploy everywhere.

No code. No manual template rebuilding. No copying and pasting text between tools.

Just a fast, repeatable process that scales with your business.

If you’re running global campaigns and haven’t set this up yet, you’re working way harder than you need to. Give it a try and see how much time you get back.

Want to try this workflow yourself?

Start with a free trial of the Email Love Figma Plugin → emaillove.com/figma-plugin

Questions about the setup?

Email us at [email protected] or drop a comment below. We’re here to help.

Much love,
Andy

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @emaillove