Email templates allow you to write content and save it for later use. Email templates can be used in many ways including:
- When any automation is triggered, which includes registering for your account or a shift, checking in or out, completing a training module, reminders to complete a form or signup to a shift and many more
- Sending out in bulk before an event or shift
- Scheduling emails to be sent in the future
To navigate to your email templates, you can go to 'Communications' in the main navigation bar, then 'Emails' in the side menu, and 'Templates'.
Every account comes with a number of default email templates. You can create a new one by clicking the Create button, or edit an existing one by selecting Update from the dropdown next to the relevant record. You may find your account has many email templates, in which case you can search for emails from the filter button above the list.
Email Template Types
The Rosterfy platform offers two different types of emails, 'Transactional' and 'Marketing'. Transactional emails are sent to all users and as part of using the system cannot unsubscribe without closing their account. These are emails like forgot password, receipts of signup, and anything else you deem is critical to your operation. Your own terms of service and privacy policy should outline to the user why and how you will contact them.
Marketing emails are those templates they are less critical. Users have the opportunity to unsubscribe from these by unchecking the 'Subscribe to marketing content' checkbox on their profile.
When you are creating a new template, consider the use-cases for it, for the type it will be. Rosterfy email templates will mostly be 'Transactional'.
Creating A New Template
When creating a new template, you will be directed to a 'New template' page. This page has the following fields
- Name: This field is used in the admin console only. It should be descriptive as this is how the name you will reference whenever you need to choose this template from a list
- Type: You will need to determine the type of email template you are creating. Descriptions of the types can be found in the above section
- Subject: The subject line to be sent with the email. This can be translated in later steps if you are using multiple languages
- Content: The content of the email template you are sending. Usually full of mail-merge tags to make the content as personable as possible, this is where you can write any rich text you want. You should be careful with your usage of images as some email clients do not allow images to be in content.
Updating A Template
Every email template can be setup to be sent in multiple languages. This allows clients with users of many regions and languages to send appropriate emails to each user. When updating a template, you will see that the update page lists out the content and language in a list. For most clients you will operate in a single language, therefore will not need to add additional content in other languages. Both the content and the subject can be translated per language
To update the content in a given language, click the Update button in the dropdown.
From this point, editing an email template is the same as creating one. All functionality is available to add the content that you need. Any changes will be immediately available. Any scheduled automations will use the new content. Any scheduled bulk emails will not use the new email content.
Mail Merge Tags
To find out more about mail merge tags, how they are used, and where to add/edit them, read this helpful article