Optimizely integrated Beefree SDK, the leading embeddable drag-and-drop content creation solution, into Optimizely Campaign to modernize how marketers design emails and landing pages. By replacing a complex workflow and a legacy editor with a customizable, accessible, and AI-ready solution, Optimizely has cut content creation time in half, delivered a smoother user experience, and freed product teams to focus on innovation.
How Optimizely improves content creation with Beefree SDK
Optimizely helps thousands of leading brands across all industries to create exceptional digital experiences. Within the portfolio, Optimizely Campaign helps marketing teams maximize customer lifetime value by delivering the right message to the right person at the right time across email, SMS, mobile, and more.
When the Optimizely team saw that customers were struggling with content creation inside Campaign, they knew it was time for a change. That’s when they turned to Beefree SDK.
The challenge: content creation felt complex and outdated
Content creation inside Optimizely Campaign had become too cumbersome. Marketers faced too many clicks, too many page refreshes, and a legacy editor that lacked the intuitive drag-and-drop interface teams expected. Customer feedback grew louder. The workflow was slowing marketers down, limiting creativity, and ultimately reduced satisfaction with the product.
The solution: Beefree SDK for drag-and-drop editing
Optimizely chose Beefree SDK, the leading embeddable solution for drag-and-drop content creation, to deliver the modern design experience customers were asking for. Instead of continuing to maintain an in-house editor, the team turned to an embedded content editor SDK integration that could scale with their needs.
“With Beefree SDK, we save significant time and resources because it comes with functionality we don’t have to build or maintain ourselves,” said Thomas Hoppe, Product Management Lead at Optimizely Campaign. “That allows us to focus our engineering efforts on building other features that matter to our customers.”
A fully customized editing experience, built in collaboration
From first explorations to implementation and now ongoing support, there has always been close collaboration between the Optimizely and Beefree teams.
“From the beginning, we had a very close and collaborative working relationship with the Beefree team,” said Thomas Hoppe, Product Management Lead at Optimizely Campaign. “Whenever we have questions or feature requests, Beefree is there to help and listen. It’s a friendly and constructive partnership.”
One key area of focus for the Optimizely team was making sure that the editor integration felt like a native part of the product experience.
“We tailored the editing experience closely to our Optimizely design and fully integrated the editor into Campaign so it worked seamlessly within each customer instance,” said Yi-An Ko, Product Owner at Optimizely Campaign.
Together, they designed an enterprise deployment, fine-tuned customizations, and ensured the editor delivered a smooth, intuitive user experience. Through backend adjustments and CSS customizations, Optimizely tailored the SDK implementation so the editor integrated seamlessly into Campaign’s design system.
The rollout gave Optimizely the opportunity to rethink how customers build campaigns and to introduce new functionality step by step:
- Landing page editor: For the first time, Campaign users could create landing pages directly inside the product without relying on external tools. This upgrade turned Campaign into a true one-stop shop for marketers who previously had to stitch together multiple tools.
- Email editor: Developed in parallel and launched in beta a few months later, the new email editor introduced synchronized content blocks, reusable elements, and mobile-friendly adjustments. Marketers gained a faster workflow, more creative freedom, and reliable mobile optimization, all inside an intuitive interface.
- Custom AddOns: To extend functionality beyond the SDK, Optimizely built integrations with its Digital Asset Manager for brand-approved images, an anchor link generator that removed the need for HTML workarounds, and a product recommendation tool that automatically pulled in dynamic content.
Every detail, from styling to AddOns, was designed to make the editor feel native while unlocking capabilities customers had never had before.
Results: Campaign creation 50% faster with an embeddable drag-and-drop email and page editor SDK
The new editor completely shifted how Optimizely users create content. Campaign creation became up to 50% faster and more intuitive, freeing teams to focus more on strategy and creativity. Customers noticed the difference right away:
“What used to take 20 minutes now takes 5.”
“The intuitive drag-and-drop system and saved rows save us 50% of our time while giving us more creative freedom.”
“We can take our marketing activities to the next level faster than ever.”
And when end users are happy, so is the product team at Optimizely:
“Our users love how easy it is to manage layouts for both desktop and mobile,” said Yi-An Ko, Product Owner at Optimizely Campaign. “They can switch views, make dedicated mobile adjustments, and easily reset changes — all within the same editor.”
Behind the scenes, Optimizely’s internal teams also benefited. They no longer had to maintain an in-house editor, freeing engineering resources for more strategic projects. Continuous SDK updates automatically delivered new features, keeping Campaign competitive without additional effort.
Looking ahead: AI, accessibility, and advanced customization
The integration laid the foundation for the future of content creation inside Campaign.
AI: “Write with AI” is already live, and Optimizely envisions workflows where marketers generate entire campaigns from a single prompt aligned to brand standards.
“Ensuring the content created with the Optimizely editor is accessible is very important to us, especially since regulations around accessibility tightened recently,” Thomas explained. “Beefree is a key factor in providing accessible content. It doesn't just produce accessible HTML content. It is also a good example of how software can be made accessible.”
Extensibility: Custom AddOns, for assets, anchors, and product recommendations, have become a strategic way to tailor Campaign to customer needs without developing its own editor from scratch.
Why Beefree SDK was the right choice
Beefree SDK delivered everything Optimizely needed: a modern drag-and-drop email and page editor, deep customization to match branding and workflows, ongoing improvements that reduce technical overhead, and a collaborative partnership that accelerated innovation.
As Thomas Hoppe put it:
“With Beefree SDK, you get the best embeddable digital solution on the market.”
Explore Beefree SDK
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