Skip to content

Mailchimp Tip – How to add a website menu to your emails

Published 22 September 2023

Pro-Tip: 2 ways to add a website menu to your emails and newsletters in Mailchimp

You know when you receive emails from big companies that look like a web-page with their website menu on the top? Not only do they look good, but they’re also a brilliant way to:

  1. showcase what you do in a glance
  2. be consistent
  3. drive people to your website.

They’re also often created by techy programmers, whose services are sadly out of reach for small businesses with mini budgets like us. 

BUT, there are a couple of “cheat” ways that we can add our website menu to our emails without programming skills.

The best approach depends on whether you’re using Mailchimp’s Classic Builder or New Builder, as they display differently to the recipient.


Method 1 for Mailchimp’s Classic Builder

  1. Decide which 5 or so menu bar links you want to showcase on your email. Keep it short and sweet and ideally one word for each option, as it may be pushed down into more than one line on mobile phones.
  2. When you design your email content layout, drag a text block into the Header zone of your email (this is very important so the styling looks different to the body of your email.)
  3. Add each menu item, and link it to the specific place on your website. I usually add [space][space]”|”[space][space] in between each one to maintain separation
  4. Go to your overall style sheet for the email and style the header so that the text is the same colour as the background (which means the “|” don’t show, and the link colours to e.g. bold, black and NOT underlined. It’s
  5. Voila.

Method 2 for Mailchimp’s New Builder AND Classic Builder

The reason I don’t use the version above in new builder is because most devices tend to turn the links into blue underlined, regardless of the styling you set, which can look pretty dreadful. Instead, I find buttons work really well as quick links further down the email like this:


Need help with Mailchimp?

I offer group hands-on workshops, one-to-one training or can just sort it out for you remotely if that’s your bag.

I also share tips by email, so be sure to sign up to receive emails from me (don’t worry, I promise not to bombard you!).

If you want to explore some options, get in touch. I offer a free, no-strings-attached-whatsoever 15 minute discovery phone call.

Got questions? Need help or advice?

Book a Mailchimp Power Hour and let's spend an hour together, working live within your account, sharing screens and going through things at your pace.

Find out about the Mailchimp Power Hour

You may be interested in...

Sender name, subject line and preview text in Mailchimp: stop wasting your inbox space

You can spend hours getting an email just right. Tweak the wording, find the perfect images, move the button, move it back again. But before someone on your mailing list sees any of that, they have to decide whether to open it in the first place. And in the inbox, you’ve only got a tinyContinue reading “Sender name, subject line and preview text in Mailchimp: stop wasting your inbox space”

Read more →

10 ways to avoid an almighty balls-up in Mailchimp

Human error happens, even if you know what you’re doing. You’re distracted, you overlook a setting, you inadvertently discover a Mailchimp “quirk” (because let’s face it, it has some!), or you discover that the seemingly insignificant thing you’ve just removed was holding something important together. So read this BEFORE it happens and save yourself a lot of bother.

Read more →