How We Build Production-Ready Emails in 48 Hours

Cameron Lares

Founder, LareLabs · May 4, 2026

Most email production bottlenecks aren't strategy problems — they're execution problems. The brief exists, the design direction is clear, but someone still has to sit down and build the thing. That's where we come in.

Here's exactly how we go from brief to production-ready HTML in 48 hours.

Step 1: Brief intake (hour 0)

We start with a short intake: ESP platform, brand colors, fonts, goal of the email (welcome, promo, seasonal), and any design references. If you have a Figma file, even better. If not, we work from direction. No lengthy onboarding calls — a 15-minute conversation is enough to start.

Step 2: MJML build (hours 1–12)

We code every email in MJML — a framework that compiles to bulletproof HTML tables. No visual builders, no drag-and-drop shortcuts. Pure code, which means we control exactly what renders in every client.

MJML handles the cross-client complexity so we don't have to hack around Outlook's quirks manually. The output is clean, semantic HTML that ESPs like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and Iterable handle without issue.

Every email starts as clean MJML — never a drag-and-drop builder.

Step 3: QA across 5 clients (hours 12–20)

Every email gets render-tested across Gmail (desktop + mobile), Apple Mail, Outlook, and a mobile preview. We check dark mode rendering, image alt text, link functionality, and spam score. Nothing ships that hasn't been tested.

QA across desktop, mobile, and dark mode before anything ships.

Step 4: Delivery (hour 48)

You get the production HTML file, ready to paste into your ESP. Source files included. One revision round included if anything needs adjusting.

Why 48 hours works

Agencies pay $500–1,500/email and wait 2–3 weeks. That's not a quality gap — it's a capacity and process gap. Our workflow is built around email production specifically, which means no context switching, no account management overhead, and no agency markup.