How To Create Email Templates in Gmail

While communication and collaboration in the workplace remain heavily dependent on email, it’s important to provide coherent messages that can be used across departments. Different answers to the same questions can present risks.

One way to mitigate the risks associated with multiple team members responding to emails is to create a Gmail template. Gmail email templates serve as foundational structures for composing messages, facilitating team collaboration and enhancing organizational efficiency.

Templates can be used for all sorts of repetitive messages such as:

• Welcome emails
• Cold outreach
• Sales follow-ups
• Frequent customer queries
• Internal team communications
• Confirmation emails
• Information requests
• Email marketing
• And many more…

Gmail templates can also be used as canned responses for quick replies.

The Benefits of Gmail Templates 

Gmail Email templates are the skeletons of an electronic mail that you can fill out or send as is.

Email templates can help you:

Reduce Composition Time

Many organizations use effective email templates to create quick responses, as team members can easily insert templates into emails instead of writing original messages from scratch. The sender can adjust the contents as necessary before quickly sending an email, and reduce their composing time.

Similarly, templates can help with frequently asked questions requiring instructions, as those emails are often lengthy. 

Guarantee Brand Consistency and Tone 

Templates help keep teams unified when delivering similar information. When conveying a message from an organization, ensuring a consistent tone is essential. For example, suppose each customer service agent on your team responds to a common email inquiry with a slightly different answer each time. In that case, you would lose brand consistency and put your company at risk of losing clientele and profit.

Templates help guide team members to use the same, consistent information to avoid mistakes or delivering messages in the wrong tone. Using standardized replies helps ensure that all team members convey the same message consistently.

Encourage Team Collaboration

When administrators create Gmail email templates and share them with their teams, it creates opportunities for employees to organize their responses to clients and customers more efficiently. While Gmail alone may not offer the ability to share email templates automatically, there are other Gmail extensions available that offer robust solutions for teams small or large. Shared templates can be a valuable tool for teams to maintain consistency and efficiency in their communications.

Step-by-Step: How To Create Email Templates in Gmail

Here is the step-by-step process of creating templates in Gmail.

Step 1: Enable Templates

If you have not done so already, you need to enable templates in the settings on your Gmail account. In the top right-hand corner, select the gear icon that will then toggle down a list of choices. Under ‘Quick settings’, select ‘See all settings’. Under the search bar in the top middle, there will be tabs. Select ‘Advanced’. Underneath ‘auto-advance’ will be ‘Templates’. Select ‘Enable’ and save changes. 

To create a template, you will need to select Compose in the top-left corner of your screen under the Gmail logo. The new email should pop up in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Step 3: Create a Template in Gmail

Now that you have the new email open, compose your message.  

Step 4: Save a Template in Gmail

Whether your email is full-sized or in a pop-up at the bottom of the box, there will be a blue ‘send’ button in the bottom left corner. To the far right of the ‘send’ button, there is an icon represented as three vertical dots. Select that icon. Hover your mouse over the second option from the top ‘Templates‘. Hover your mouse over ‘Save draft as template.’ This gives you the option to save the template over previous versions or save it as a separate template. If you want to save it over another template, select the name you want to save it as under ‘Overwrite template‘. If you want to save it as a new template, select ‘Save as new template‘.

* Note: Hovering over ‘Templates’ will also provide the option for you to insert your saved templates for future reference. Saved templates can be accessed from the template library for future use.

Managing and Sharing Email Templates

Managing and sharing email templates is an essential part of using Gmail templates effectively. In this section, we will discuss how to edit and update templates, delete unused templates, and troubleshoot common issues.

Editing and Updating Templates

Keeping your email templates up-to-date is crucial for maintaining effective communication. To edit an existing template, follow these steps:

1. Open your Gmail account and click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Select “See all settings” and navigate to the “Advanced” tab.
3. Scroll down to the “Templates” section and click on the template you want to edit.
4. Make the necessary changes to the template in the compose window.
5. Click “Save draft” to save the updated template.

If you need to overwrite an existing template with a new version, you can do so by creating a new template with the same name. Here’s how:

1. Open Gmail and click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Select “See all settings” and go to the “Advanced” tab.
3. Scroll down to the “Templates” section and click on the “New template” button.
4. Enter the same name as the existing template you want to overwrite.
5. Compose your new message and click “Save draft” to save the changes.

Deleting Unused Templates

Over time, you may accumulate templates that are no longer needed. Deleting these unused templates can help keep your Gmail account organized. To delete a template, follow these steps:

1. Open Gmail and click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Select “See all settings” and then click on the “Advanced” tab.
3. Scroll down to the “Templates” section and find the template you want to delete.
4. Click on the “Delete template” button to remove the template from your list.

How To Improve Your Team’s Gmail Templates

Using templates in a workspace improves organization and productivity. While the instructions above lay out basic steps for creating templates, there are still a few things to keep in mind. Effective template management is key to maximizing the benefits of Gmail templates.

Titles

When naming your templates, keep the titles short and precise. For example, “New hire welcome” or “Thank you.” If your team members are looking through a list of templates with long or confusing titles, selecting the right one could be time-consuming.

Here are some other examples of template titles:

• Username Setup
• Password Reset
• Welcome Sheet
• User Unsubscribed
• Sales Pitch
• Terms & Conditions

From the list above, you can tell what each template entails without an explanation. Keeping the titles within a 25-character range is best: Gmail only shows the first 25 characters of each template title in the pop-up list for selection. Following template naming conventions can help team members quickly identify the right template.

Personalization

Branded emails and customization are possible within Gmail; however, taking advantage of external resources can help you personalize templates even further. After all, customers and clients prefer emails that are personalized.

Gmelius, an email collaboration tool for Gmail, offers advanced features for creating email templates. HTML templates with a source code editor create variable placements for inserts before sending. Furthermore, the use of variables can include recipients’ names or the recipient’s business name. These variables allow you to personalize emails in one click. Dynamic content can be used to further personalize email templates by including recipient-specific information.

Automation

Implementing automation into your daily workflow is the best way to enhance your team’s email experience. Setting automation rules within Gmail can help create automated responses using templates, improving company response times, helping team members adhere to service level agreements (SLAs), and ensuring brand consistency without all the grunt work.

To automate emails in Gmail using templates, you will first need to set a filter. You can do this by selecting the ‘search options’ to the right of the search bar. Once your filter is set, advanced settings will display further options with a ‘send template’ as one of them. Select the template you want to use as part of your filter and it becomes part of your automated response. For example, by using a welcome email template, you can automate welcome emails to send to new clients after submitting a form. Similarly, a thank-you email can be sent after a purchase or inquiry using a thank-you template.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Even with the best practices, you might encounter some issues with Gmail templates. Here are some common problems and how to resolve them:

Template Not Saving

If you’re having trouble saving a template, ensure that templates are enabled in your Gmail settings. Here’s how to check:

1. Open Gmail and click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Select “See all settings” and navigate to the “Advanced” tab.
3. Scroll down to the “Templates” section and make sure the “Enable templates” checkbox is selected.
4. Click “Save changes” to apply the settings.

If the issue persists, try clicking on the “Save draft” button instead of the “Save” button. This will save the template as a draft, which you can then edit and update later.

By following these steps, you can effectively manage and share your email templates, ensuring your communication remains consistent and efficient.

Gmelius: Sharing Email Templates with Your Team 

When you create templates in Gmail, there are numerous ways to optimize efficiency and clarity. Still, the ability to share email templates with your team is limited to copying and pasting. With Gmelius, your team members can easily share email templates with each other to enhance productivity, cohesiveness, and unified messaging.

Templates can be inserted right from the “compose” window, saving you the time of searching for a specific template. In addition, you can automatically include your team members when a specific email template is used or add a particular Gmail label for greater transparency. Collaborative tools like Gmelius can enhance the sharing and management of email templates.

3 benefits of sharing email templates

1. It increases your team productivity by saving time, so one can focus on more important tasks.
2. It ensures consistent communications with a solid pipeline of approved, useful and engaging content. Using a saved template ensures that your team maintains consistent communication with clients and internal stakeholders.
3. It allows your team to clearly evaluate processes and amplify their outreach strategy.
   

With Gmelius, sharing your templates in Gmail couldn’t be easier - it only takes one click. You can choose certain colleagues from a drop-down list or share your template with the whole team.

Create email templates in Gmail using Gmelius. Check out our features and integrations and learn how Gmelius is built to improve team communication and collaboration. Ready to get started? Sign up today!