Many institutions want to include their institutional branding when sending email communications to a population. Rather than recreating the branding from scratch when creating every new email message, you can create an email template that contains a header, footer, or other formatting elements. This is also a good time to ensure that marketing emails comply with the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act.

Create a Template

1. Click Deliver on the Slate navigation bar. The Deliver summary page appears.

2. Click New Mailing. A New Mailing popup appears.

3. Enter the following configurations:

   • Name: Give the template a simple and informative name.

   • Folder: Select the Templates folder. A message appears regarding special folders. Do not select sub folders for templates.

   • Method: Select Email.

4. Click Save. Slate displays a modified version of the Deliver message without an  Edit Recipient Lists button.

Designing and Editing the Template

Start by making one basic institutional template. Once you are familiar with creating templates, start strategizing the development of additional email templates (for example, marketing templates versus transactional templates).

To create the template:

1. On the summary page for the mailing, click Edit Message. An Edit Message popup appears.

2. Add your institutional branding with the WYSIWYG editor resources found on the editor’s toolbar.

• Image: Add images by clicking Image.

• Table: Add a table to your message by clicking Table.

• Source: Edit or create the HTML for your email template by clicking Source.

📝 Note Regarding Building Templates

• Merge Fields: There are no merge fields available for use in a template because no recipients are associated with this mailing. Do not manually add merge fields to an email template. Merge fields should be added to the individual emails to ensure that the export fields match.

• Recipients / Send Button: These settings are unavailable within a template. This is expected, as templates do not use a recipients list. Therefore, a message can never be sent from this screen. Action item options are not available in this interface.

Other than in the Sender field, no additional information should be added to the other fields. Remember that this is an email template, so these fields will automatically populate whenever this format is selected.

Accessing a Template

A list of existing templates can be accessed from the Deliver summary page by clicking Templates on the right-side menu.

Loading a Template into a Deliver Message

Saved email templates are available from the template menu. Access the template menu in the Edit Message toolbar when building form communications, event communications, or Deliver campaigns. The template menu will display all items saved in the Templates folder.

All details from that template will then automatically populate the message window. Once complete, add merge fields and other message details as desired.

To load a template when creating a new mailing:

1. On the Deliver summary page, click New Mailing. A New Mailing popup appears.

2. Set the configuration items as desired.

3. For Template, select an existing template from the list.

4. Click Save. The mailing summary page appears with the template content in place.

To load a template for an existing mailing:

1. On the Deliver summary page, click an existing mailing. The mailing summary page appears.

2. Click Edit Message. And Edit Message popup appears.

3. Click the Templates button on the WYSIWYG editor’s toolbar. A Content Templates popup appears.

4. Select the desired template to use. The template content appears in the message body.

📝 Note

If an email has existing content that you would like to preserve, and an email template is added at a later date, the previous message content can be preserved by clearing the checkbox for Replace actual contents.