Custom Dynamic Content Blocks in Mautic: Personalized Emails for Multi-Branch Organizations

Imagine you're a marketing manager at an organization with fifty branches. Each branch has different opening hours, a different address, a different team photo, and a different booking link. You need to send a weekly newsletter. Do you create fifty separate emails? Of course not. You create one - and let dynamic content do the rest.

That's exactly the problem we solved for a client running our multi-instance Mautic platform. Mautic has a built-in dynamic content system, but the default editor makes it painful to use at scale. So we built a custom email builder plugin with four specialized block types that turn dynamic personalization from a developer task into a drag-and-drop workflow.

In this post, we'll walk through what we built, why, and how it transforms email marketing for multi-branch organizations.

The Use Case: One Email, Dozens of Variations

Our client operates a network of public-facing branches - think libraries, service centers, or retail locations. Each branch serves a distinct community with its own identity: different building photos, different contact hours, different staff, different local events.

The marketing team needs to send organization-wide campaigns that feel local. A recipient in one city should see their branch's photo in the header, their branch's hours in the contact section, and a button linking to their branch's booking page. A recipient in another city should see all of that - but for their local branch.

Without dynamic content, you're looking at one of two bad options:

1. Create a separate email for every branch. At fifty branches, that's fifty emails to maintain, fifty chances for a typo, and fifty deployment headaches every time something changes.
2. Send a generic email. Strip out all the local details and send one bland, impersonal message that doesn't resonate with anyone.

Dynamic content gives you a third option: one email template that automatically adapts based on who's reading it. But to make this viable at scale, you need better tooling than what Mautic provides out of the box.

How Mautic Dynamic Content Works - and Where It Falls Short

Mautic's dynamic content system is conceptually powerful. You define conditions - if a contact is in segment X, show content A; if they're in segment Y, show content B - and the email engine swaps content at send time.

The problem isn't the engine. The problem is the editor.

In Mautic's default email editor, setting up dynamic content involves navigating nested modals, manually configuring conditions for each content variant, and hoping you haven't introduced a formatting issue. For a simple use case - two variants, one condition - it's manageable. For fifty branches, each with their own image, text, button, and footer? It's a nightmare.

We needed an interface where a marketing manager (not a developer) could visually build an email, drop in dynamic blocks, configure conditions per branch, and see exactly what they were building. So we built one.

Our Custom Email Builder: Four Dynamic Block Types

We replaced Mautic's default email editor with a custom builder plugin that introduces four new block types specifically designed for dynamic content. Each block opens an intuitive modal where users configure conditions and assign content per variant.

Dynamic Image

The Dynamic Image block lets you assign different images to different audience segments. When you drop it into an email, a modal opens where you can:

• Select a default image (shown when no conditions match)
• Add condition groups (e.g., "if branch = Downtown, show downtown-exterior.jpg")
• Upload or select images from the media library for each condition

Typical use: Hero images that show the recipient's local branch, staff team photos, or location-specific event banners.

Dynamic Text

The Dynamic Text block is the workhorse. It handles any text content that needs to change per recipient - and in a multi-branch organization, that's a lot.

• Opening hours: "Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00" vs. "Mon–Sat 8:00–20:00"
• Address lines and phone numbers
• Staff names and titles
• Local event descriptions

Each condition group maps to a text variant. The marketing team sets it up once, and every email send automatically pulls the right text for each recipient.

Dynamic Button

Buttons with personalized destinations. The Dynamic Button block lets you change both the button text and the link target based on conditions.

• Link target: Each branch might have its own booking page, event registration, or catalog search URL.
• Button text: "Book at Downtown Branch" vs. "Book at Riverside Branch" - small touches that dramatically improve click-through rates.

Dynamic HTML

For cases where you need full layout flexibility beyond text and images, the Dynamic HTML block lets you embed custom HTML that changes per segment.

This is particularly useful for footer sections - where a branch's full contact block (address, map link, social media links, hours) needs to render as a formatted layout, not just plain text.

How It All Fits Together: The Condition Modal

Every dynamic block type shares the same condition configuration interface. When you click on a dynamic block in the editor, a modal opens with a clean UI for building condition groups.

A condition group works like this:

1. Select a field or segment to evaluate (e.g., "Branch" custom field)
2. Set the condition (e.g., "equals Downtown")
3. Assign the content for that condition (upload an image, enter text, set a URL)
4. Add more conditions if needed (one per branch, for example)

You can stack multiple condition groups, and there's always a default fallback for recipients who don't match any condition. The modal integrates directly with Mautic's contact fields and segments, so you're working with the same data your campaigns already use.

This integration was one of the most challenging parts of the build. Mautic's dynamic content system has its own internal data model, and our custom blocks had to hook into it cleanly. The default plugin architecture didn't support everything we needed out of the box - we had to extend it significantly to make the bidirectional data flow work reliably.

Not Just Emails: Landing Pages Too

Here's something that surprised even us during development: the same dynamic block system works for landing pages.

We built the custom builder as a unified component, and because Mautic uses the same editor infrastructure for both emails and landing pages, our dynamic blocks are available in both contexts. A landing page can show different hero images, different contact details, and different CTAs based on who's viewing it - using the same condition groups you'd set up in an email.

This means your entire multi-branch marketing funnel - from email to landing page - can be personalized with a consistent toolset. The marketing team learns one interface and applies it everywhere.

A Real-World Example: The Branch Newsletter

Let's walk through a concrete example. A weekly newsletter goes out to all patrons across fifty branches.

Header section: A Dynamic Image block shows the exterior photo of the recipient's local branch. First impression: "This is my library."

Body section: Standard content blocks - the same for everyone. Organization-wide news, upcoming programs, featured resources. No dynamic content needed here.

Events section: A Dynamic Text block shows local events happening at the recipient's branch this week. Each branch has its own event listing.

Contact section: Two dynamic blocks working together. A Dynamic Text block shows the branch's hours and phone number. A Dynamic Button links to the branch's online booking system with personalized button text.

Footer: A Dynamic HTML block renders the complete branch contact card - address, map link, social media - formatted as a clean layout.

Result: One template. Fifty personalized emails. Created once, maintained in one place, automatically customized for every recipient.

The Impact for Marketing Teams

Before we built this system, creating personalized multi-branch emails required developer involvement, manual HTML editing, or painful workarounds with Mautic's default tools. The marketing team would either give up on personalization or spend hours per campaign getting it right.

After deploying the custom builder:

• Campaign creation time dropped dramatically. One template replaces fifty.
• No technical skills required. The condition modal is visual and intuitive - if you can use a form, you can configure dynamic content.
• Brand consistency improved. With one template, the overall design is always consistent. Only the local details change.
• Fewer errors. One template means one place to fix typos, update branding, or adjust layout. Changes propagate automatically to all variants.

Lessons from Building a Custom Mautic Editor

Building a custom email builder plugin for Mautic taught us a few things worth sharing:

Start with the user workflow, not the technology. We designed the condition modal interface first - what does the marketing manager need to see and do? - and then figured out how to wire it into Mautic's internals. This user-first approach meant the end product was immediately usable, not just technically functional.

Expect integration complexity. Mautic's plugin system is flexible, but integrating deeply with the dynamic content engine required going beyond the documented APIs. Some things didn't work exactly as the plugin architecture suggested they would. Plan for extra engineering time when building custom editor components.

Test with real content volumes. An email with two dynamic conditions works differently than one with fifty. We tested with production-scale condition sets early to catch performance and UX issues before they reached the marketing team.

Build for both channels from the start. Making the builder work for emails and landing pages simultaneously was a design decision we made early. Retrofitting it later would have been significantly more work.

Ready to Personalize at Scale?

If you're running Mautic for a multi-branch or multi-location organization and struggling with personalization, we've been where you are. Our custom dynamic content blocks turn a powerful but unwieldy feature into something your marketing team can actually use - without developer support for every campaign.

[Get in touch](https://www.droptica.com/contact/) to discuss how dynamic content can transform your email marketing workflow.