Templates are at the core of Yesware—they let you create personal, customized messages for every stage of your process. At their most basic, Templates are messages that you’ve saved to your Yesware account that you can use for future emails. They allow you to send rich, complete emails in a fraction of the time it would take to draft that message each time you needed it. On the Premium and Enterprise editions of Yesware, Templates can be shared across entire Teams. We’ve also built reporting around Templates, helping you see which are your most effective.
This article contains the following topics:
- Creating and Editing Templates
- How to use Placeholders
- Utilizing Templates
- Team Template Sharing
- Template Reporting
Save time, stop re-writing the same email over and over, and see which messaging resonates best with your prospects.
Creating and Editing Templates
Templates can be created in four places - from the Templates library at the top of Gmail, directly from the Gmail compose window, from an email thread, and from the Templates editor in the Yesware App.
To craft Templates from the Templates library at the top of Gmail, select the "Templates" menu and click the blue "New Template" button in the upper right-hand corner. Type out the message exactly how you’d want it to save as a Template and update the Template name, subject and style options. Once you are all set, click "Save Template" and your Template will be available for use. Editing is as simple as selecting the Template you'd like to update, and then clicking the "Edit" button at the bottom of the window.
Using the compose window, you’ll have access to Gmail's rich text features that let you change the font, font size, colours, and other general formatting. If you've written an email in the compose window that you'd like to save as a Template, simply click the "Templates" button at the bottom of the compose window and then select the "Save as Template" option. This will save a copy of this email to your Template library, allowing you to make edits and updates before saving.
You can also create a Template from an email thread. If you look back on an email you've previously sent or receive an email from someone that you'd like to repurpose as a Template, open the email and click "Save as Template" located at the top of the email. Make any changes (like pulling out recipient-specific information) and save that Template for future use.
To create new Templates (and edit existing ones) through the Yesware App, click the Yesware menu at the top of Gmail followed by “My Account.” Then click on the Templates icon in the far left-hand margin. You’ll see each of your Template categories listed here. When you click on any of these, each Template under that category will be displayed. To create a new Template, click the “New Template” button in the top right. To edit an existing Template, find it on your list and click the “Edit” button. Note: any changes made through the Yesware App will require that you refresh Gmail to see the updates in the Gmail extension.
The Magic of Merge Fields
No matter how great your Template is, you’ll always want to gear it so that it’s unique to each one of your recipients. You might want to add in their name, a note about what you most recently spoke about, or set any numbers and figures to be specific to your recipient. When drafting your Templates, put anything that should be fine-tuned before sending your email into merge fields and Yesware will make it easy to update.
At the bottom of the Templates editor, click "Insert Merge Field," and we'll help you to create placeholders to insert personalized text when you are using the Template.
We offer two different types of placeholders (three, if you're on our Enterprise plan), Text Fields and Dropdown Fields, that can be used in Templates. The Text Field acts as a blank, free-form text entry field. The Dropdown Field acts as a pick-list and when using the Template, you will be able to choose from any of the options that you defined when creating the Template.
- Text Field - In the Template editor, select "Text Field” in the Insert Merge Field menu. Name the text field and click “OK.” If you use multiple Text Fields in a single Template and name them the same thing (for instance, two text fields both called “Name,”) filling in one of those Text Fields will fill in both.
- Dropdown Field - In the Template editor, select the "Dropdown Field” button. Name the dropdown field and create up to 5 options to select from.
If you are on our Enterprise plan, you can use dynamic fields to pull in information from the recipient's record in Salesforce. When entering a new Template in the Gmail compose window, we will look at the first recipient in the "To" field. If a matching contact or lead is found, we will populate the dynamic fields in your Template with information from any matching Salesforce fields such as their name, company details, job title, etc.
Inserting Templates
To use a Template in an email, open a compose window and select the "Templates" button at the bottom. Find the Template you'd like to use by scrolling through your Recent, Favorite, or complete library. Hover over the Template you'd like to use and then you can either click "Fill In" or "Insert." "Insert" will insert the Template as is, complete with the merge field formulas. You'll only want to use "Insert" if you have a Template that doesn't have merge fields that need filling in. By selecting "Fill In," you can then fill in your Text fields and choose an option from the Dropdown list you've created. If you are on a Yesware Enterprise plan and have used a Salesforce Field, we will look up the first recipient in the To field. If a matching contact or lead is found, we will populate the dynamic fields in your Template with information from any matching Salesforce fields.
Faster Templates
Our Template interface includes features to make emails faster and more effective. Favorite Templates gives you the option to flag your most frequently used Templates and save them in a single, easy-to-access place. You can favorite a Template by clicking on the star button next to the name of each Template in the Template Menu. Favorite Templates will be stored under the “Favorites” tab.
Team Template Sharing
Yesware helps teams streamline their email communications with Team Template Sharing.
Our Team and Enterprise plans include a centralized Team Template library where you can collaborate and share the most effective Templates with your Team. To move your personal Templates to the Team categories, select the Template you'd like to move, click "More" in the bottom right corner, and then select "Move." Choose then where you want to move that Template.
Alternatively, you can head to your Yesware account to Manage Templates.
Template Reporting
The more insight you have into your emails, the easier it is to improve them to see better results.
We built Template Reporting to help you understand how you’re using Templates, how you're Teammates are using Templates, and how your recipients are interacting with them.
You can access Template reporting by clicking on the Reports section of Yesware. Here, we provide a quick overview of the usage and performance of personal and Team templates.
Reporting can help you identify which messaging works with recipients so that you can send smarter emails.