diff --git a/src/js/editor/editor.js b/src/js/editor/editor.js
index aea2c057f..657b00985 100644
--- a/src/js/editor/editor.js
+++ b/src/js/editor/editor.js
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ class Editor {
     this._elementListeners = [];
     this._views = [];
     this.isEditable = null;
-    this._cardParsers = options.cardParsers || [];
+    this._parserPlugins = options.parserPlugins || [];
 
     // FIXME: This should merge onto this.options
     mergeWithOptions(this, defaults, options);
@@ -735,7 +735,7 @@ class Editor {
       this.handleDeletion();
     }
 
-    let pastedPost = parsePostFromPaste(event, this.builder, this._cardParsers);
+    let pastedPost = parsePostFromPaste(event, this.builder, this._parserPlugins);
 
     this.run(postEditor => {
       let nextPosition = postEditor.insertPost(position, pastedPost);
diff --git a/src/js/parsers/section.js b/src/js/parsers/section.js
index 7ae6b64ba..3360737c8 100644
--- a/src/js/parsers/section.js
+++ b/src/js/parsers/section.js
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ import {
   transformHTMLText
 } from '../parsers/dom';
 
+import assert from '../utils/assert';
+
 function isListSection(section) {
   return section.type === LIST_SECTION_TYPE;
 }
@@ -55,7 +57,7 @@ function isListItem(section) {
 export default class SectionParser {
   constructor(builder, options={}) {
     this.builder = builder;
-    this.cardParsers = options.cardParsers || [];
+    this.plugins = options.plugins || [];
   }
 
   parse(element) {
@@ -90,11 +92,49 @@ export default class SectionParser {
     });
   }
 
+  runPlugins(node) {
+    let isNodeFinished = false;
+    let env = {
+      addSection: (section) => {
+        this._closeCurrentSection();
+        this.sections.push(section);
+      },
+      addMarkerable: (marker) => {
+        let { state } = this;
+        let { section } = state;
+        assert(
+          'Markerables can only be appended to markup sections and list item sections',
+          section && section.isMarkerable
+        );
+        if (state.text) {
+          this._createMarker();
+        }
+        section.markers.append(marker);
+      },
+      nodeFinished() {
+        isNodeFinished = true;
+      }
+    };
+    for (let i=0; i<this.plugins.length; i++) {
+      let plugin = this.plugins[i];
+      plugin(node, this.builder, env);
+      if (isNodeFinished) {
+        return true;
+      }
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   parseNode(node) {
     if (!this.state.section) {
       this._updateStateFromElement(node);
     }
 
+    let nodeFinished = this.runPlugins(node);
+    if (nodeFinished) {
+      return;
+    }
+
     switch (node.nodeType) {
       case TEXT_NODE:
         this.parseTextNode(node);
@@ -107,27 +147,9 @@ export default class SectionParser {
     }
   }
 
-  parseCard(element) {
-    let { builder } = this;
-
-    for (let i=0; i<this.cardParsers.length; i++) {
-      let card = this.cardParsers[i].parse(element, builder);
-      if (card) {
-        this._closeCurrentSection();
-        this.sections.push(card);
-        return true;
-      }
-    }
-  }
-
   parseElementNode(element) {
     let { state } = this;
 
-    let parsedCard = this.parseCard(element);
-    if (parsedCard) {
-      return;
-    }
-
     const markups = this._markupsFromElement(element);
     if (markups.length && state.text.length) {
       this._createMarker();
diff --git a/src/js/utils/paste-utils.js b/src/js/utils/paste-utils.js
index 29ff8edfa..181c5025b 100644
--- a/src/js/utils/paste-utils.js
+++ b/src/js/utils/paste-utils.js
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ export function setClipboardCopyData(copyEvent, editor) {
   clipboardData.setData('text/html', html);
 }
 
-export function parsePostFromPaste(pasteEvent, builder, cardParsers=[]) {
+export function parsePostFromPaste(pasteEvent, builder, plugins=[]) {
   let mobiledoc, post;
   const mobiledocRegex = new RegExp(/data\-mobiledoc='(.*?)'>/);
 
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ export function parsePostFromPaste(pasteEvent, builder, cardParsers=[]) {
     mobiledoc = JSON.parse(mobiledocString);
     post = mobiledocParsers.parse(builder, mobiledoc);
   } else {
-    post = new HTMLParser(builder, {cardParsers}).parse(html);
+    post = new HTMLParser(builder, {plugins}).parse(html);
   }
 
   return post;
diff --git a/tests/unit/parsers/dom-google-docs-test.js b/tests/unit/parsers/dom-google-docs-test.js
index 3827f5c52..7ba22dc99 100644
--- a/tests/unit/parsers/dom-google-docs-test.js
+++ b/tests/unit/parsers/dom-google-docs-test.js
@@ -79,12 +79,11 @@ Object.keys(GoogleDocs).forEach(key => {
 test('img in span can use a cardParser to turn img into image-card', function(assert) {
   let example = GoogleDocs['img in span'];
   let options = {
-    cardParsers: [{
-      parse(element, builder) {
-        if (element.tagName === 'IMG') {
-          let payload = {url: element.src};
-          return builder.createCardSection('image-card', payload);
-        }
+    plugins: [function(element, builder, {addSection}) {
+      if (element.tagName === 'IMG') {
+        let payload = {url: element.src};
+        let cardSection = builder.createCardSection('image-card', payload);
+        addSection(cardSection);
       }
     }]
   };
diff --git a/tests/unit/parsers/section-test.js b/tests/unit/parsers/section-test.js
index 7759e757e..7b2779b18 100644
--- a/tests/unit/parsers/section-test.js
+++ b/tests/unit/parsers/section-test.js
@@ -104,21 +104,21 @@ test('#parse turns a textNode into a section', (assert) => {
   assert.equal(m1.value, 'I am a text node');
 });
 
-test('#parse allows passing in cardParsers that can override parsing', (assert) => {
+test('#parse allows passing in parserPlugins that can override element parsing', (assert) => {
   let container = buildDOM(`
     <p>text 1<img src="http://placehold.it/100x100">text 2</p>
   `);
 
   let element = container.firstChild;
-  let cardParsers = [{
-    parse(element, builder) {
-      if (element.tagName === 'IMG') {
-        let payload = {url: element.src};
-        return builder.createCardSection('test-image', payload);
-      }
+  let plugins = [function(element, builder, {addSection}) {
+    if (element.tagName !== 'IMG') {
+      return;
     }
+    let payload = {url: element.src};
+    let cardSection = builder.createCardSection('test-image', payload);
+    addSection(cardSection);
   }];
-  parser = new SectionParser(builder, {cardParsers});
+  parser = new SectionParser(builder, {plugins});
   const sections = parser.parse(element);
 
   assert.equal(sections.length, 3, '3 sections');
@@ -130,3 +130,24 @@ test('#parse allows passing in cardParsers that can override parsing', (assert)
   assert.equal(cardSection.name, 'test-image');
   assert.deepEqual(cardSection.payload, {url: 'http://placehold.it/100x100'});
 });
+
+test('#parse allows passing in parserPlugins that can override text parsing', (assert) => {
+  let container = buildDOM(`
+    <p>text 1<img src="http://placehold.it/100x100">text 2</p>
+  `);
+
+  let element = container.firstChild;
+  let plugins = [function(element, builder, {addMarkerable, nodeFinished}) {
+    if (element.nodeType === 3) {
+      if (element.textContent === 'text 1') {
+        addMarkerable(builder.createMarker('oh my'));
+      }
+      nodeFinished();
+    }
+  }];
+  parser = new SectionParser(builder, {plugins});
+  const sections = parser.parse(element);
+
+  assert.equal(sections.length, 1, '1 section');
+  assert.equal(sections[0].text, 'oh my');
+});