You can set up Email Templates within Redtail, allowing you to type up an Email once and then use it going forward for individual or broadcast emails. Note: to use Email Templates for individual emails sent through Redtail CRM, your Email Client preferences will need to be set to "use internal". For information on where to control that preference, see this post.
To begin setting up an Email Template, select Manage Your Account after clicking your Name from the Top Right Menu within Redtail:
Then, click "Email Templates" in the Manage Templates area:
You'll then see existing Email Templates in your database (if any):
Click "New" and you'll arrive at the modal where you can begin setting up your Template:
- Name - whatever you enter here will serve as the name of the email template. This will not be visible to your recipients, but when selecting between templates, their Names are what you will see, so make them descriptive enough to make this choice clear.
- Subject - this will serve as the subject line of the email, and as such it is a field that you should take your time with in hopes of improving the open rate for your emails.
- Category - choose from one of your CRM's system or custom Categories, if you'd like to categorize your Email Templates. Note: there is a "filter" option above your Templates that will allow you to filter which Email Templates you are viewing by Category, should you desire.
- Body - this is where you type the body of your email message. You can include merge fields (see this post that includes a list of those fields), just as you can with emails that you type up manually, and you have a formatting bar above the Body that allows you to insert Images or tables and use a number of other formatting options.
- Add User Signature When Sending - if you check off this option for your template, your signature will automatically pull from whatever you've set up for your signature within your Site Preferences.
- Save Copy as Note - if you check off this option for your template, a copy of the email will be saved as a Note on the record of all recipients to whom the email is delivered.
- Send User a Copy - if you check off this option for your template, you will receive a copy of the email each time it is delivered.
Also, you have the ability to personalize your Broadcast Email Templates through the use of acceptable Email Merge Fields. Below is a list of those acceptable fields:
##Firstname##
##Lastname##
##Middlename##
##NicknameFirstname##
##Salutation##
##Suffix##
##SpouseFirstname##
##SpouseNicknameFirstname##
##Name##
##Familyname##
As an example, if you wanted your email template to begin with “Dear John Doe,” you would enter the following above the rest of the body of your message:
Dear ##Firstname## ##Lastname##,
Then, all of your emails using this template would be addressed to each client using their First and Last Names.
Once you've made your entries here, you can click Save Email Template at the bottom and you're ready to begin using the template.
Let's go back to your Email Templates screen before looking at how you would use these with a contact or group of contacts:
As you can see above, if you click the Actions icon for an Email Template on this page, you can Edit or Delete the template. If you choose the Edit option, you'll see the same modal that you saw above when adding a new one - of course, it will already be completed. You'll just need to make any necessary changes and save the template to complete those edits.
Now, let's take a look at using an Email Template to send an email. In this instance, let's say we want to send an email to contact Bruce Wayne. After clicking the desired email address from his Contact Card, we'd see the below:
As indicated above, the very first option in your Compose Email Message modal is the selection of an Email Template. If you click inside that box, you'll see all available templates within your database:
Just select the template you'd like to use and your Compose Email Message modal should refresh with those details. You can then make any changes you need to within the template prior to clicking Send Email at the bottom.
If you want to use the template to send a Broadcast Email, just begin that process as you usually do. The Email Template option now shows up at the top of the Compose Broadcast Email modal, and you use it just as we did above when sending to an individual.
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