Templates are previously prepared email messages that are readily available for you to use. By creating a template you can easily send the same email messages to a multitude of prospects. Each template also gathers metrics, like the number of sends, clicks, and replies, that can shed insight into how your email messaging engages with prospective customers.
Whether you leverage your own templates or team templates, SalesLoft gives you the power to build emails and tailor messages to each recipient for empathetic and effective sales communication.
In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about templates, including:
- The Templates Page
- My Templates vs. Team Templates View
- Filter & Sort Templates
- Template Actions Tab
- Select Template Actions
- Team Templates
- Convert Templates to Team Templates
- Using a Template
- SLU: Creating a Template (Video)
The Templates Page
The Templates page allows you to view and create email templates in one concise page. You can also export key template metrics and complete template actions in a snap.
My Templates vs. Team Templates View
You have two view options when you access the templates page: My Templates or Team Templates. My Templates will show you any templates you have created or copied for your own use. Team Templates will show a list of all templates that have been created by your team admin.
Each view will show a list of templates and the following information:
- Template Name
- Subject Line
- Template Tags: Any tags that have been added will be listed
- Owner and Last Modified information
- Stats
- Total Sent: Total number the template has been sent to
- Open Rate: Percentage of the amount of time that template has been opened when it was sent
- Click Rate: Percentage of clicks
- Reply Rate: Percentage of replies to the sent email template
Filter & Sort Templates
SalesLoft makes it easy to find the template you're looking for without having to scroll by using the filter & sort feature to refine your template list to a particular group and in a specific order.
To filter, click Filter & Sort, then select your filter options. You can filter to view:
- Only your templates: Only templates you own whether you created them yourself or copied them from another user.
- All of the shared templates on your team: All visible templates across the team.
- Inactive users: Shows the templates of any users that have been switched to Inactive by an admin. Inactive users include people who are no longer with your organization or no longer using their SalesLoft account.
- Shared templates for a specific team member.
- Tags: Type in the name of a tag to filter by that tag name only.
To sort, click Filter & Sort, then select your sorting options:
- Created date
- Last used
- Most viewed template by percentage
- Most clicked template by percentage
- Most replied template by percentage
- Template name
- Template's owner name
- Total number of emails sent using that template
Next, you can choose whether you want to sort in ascending or descending order.
Once your filter & sort options are as you would like, click Update.
Template Actions Tab
From your Templates page, you can initiate general template actions. These actions include adding a new template and exporting template metrics to a CSV.
To access either of these actions, go to your Templates page, and select Template Actions in the top right corner.
Add a New Template
Apart from template displays, you will eventually want to create your own templates. Templates can be used within Cadences or to simply compose a one-off email with a ready-to-go draft.
To create a template, follow these steps:
- Go to the Templates page.
- In the upper right corner of the page, select Template Actions.
- Click Add a Template. If you have SL admin privileges, you will see a couple options for the type of template you can create. Choose a Personal Template or Team Template. To learn more about team templates go here.
- Once you’ve accessed the Create Template box, the first thing you will do is give your template a Name.
- Add your Subject Line.
- Draft your email. The body of your email will be laid out here. Just like when you are composing an email from your email server, SalesLoft provides you with additional email features that can empower your messages like adding dynamic tags or gifs.
- From the preview window, send yourself a preview of the email if you would like to see how it will appear to your recipients.
- Add Tags at the bottom of the email message for quick filtering after the template is saved.
- Click Save.
Export Template Metrics
SalesLoft allows you to easily view the metrics for one template from the stats listed to the right of the template. But in the event that you want to view and share all of those metrics, you can export the data as a CSV file.
To export template metrics, follow these steps:
- Select the templates you want to export metrics for, or select all templates using the select all feature from the Template list view.
- Navigate to the Template Actions dropdown menu and select Export Templates.
- A popup will appear asking if you are sure you want to export metrics for the selected template(s). Click Export.
- The export will be downloaded. Click the download to view the metrics.
Select Template Actions
SalesLoft allows you to do more with selected templates than filter & sort, create new templates, and export metrics. By selecting multiple or individual templates, additional template action items appear at the top of your template list. Let’s take a look at the different actions you can take.
Add or Remove Tags
SalesLoft tags are labels that you can use to classify and sort different SalesLoft objects together. With tags, you can group together similar templates so you can easily compare template metrics and select the best template for your particular use case.
For example, let’s say you have created multiple templates for follow-up emails. By tagging all of those templates with the tag “Follow-Up,” you can track the best template.
From the Templates page, you can add or remove template tags by following these instructions:
- Select the template (or templates) you want to add tags to or remove any tags from by clicking the checkbox next to the template name.
- When you select a template, a line of template action items will appear at the top of your list. Click the Tags icon.
- To add a tag, click the Add Tags link. Then, type your tag and click Add. Continue adding your tags individually, and click Save.
To remove tags, click the Remove Tags link. Then, click the X next to each tag you wish to remove and click Save.
Template Tag Filter Panel
One of the huge benefits of tags is easily being able to compare metrics. While you have the option of filtering templates from your Filter & Sort dropdown, SalesLoft makes filtering templates even easier from the Tag Filter panel located to the left of your template list.
Here you will see a list of all the tags that have been used, along with the number of templates that contain that tag.
By clicking on a particular template tag, your template view will be filtered down to only the templates containing that tag.
To clear the filter you can either select the name of the tag from the Tag Filter panel or you can remove the filter by selecting Clear in the filter notification at the top of your template list.
Template Sharing
Some templates may benefit your entire team and should then be shared among all users. Other templates may fit your specific use case or region and should only be used by you. This is why SalesLoft allows you to make templates either public or private depending on your preference.
By default, your templates will be public and available to your entire team. If you would like to make a template private, use the Shared icon to edit the template sharing preferences.
- Select the template.
- Click the Shared icon (lock).
- To make public templates private, click Private.
- A lock icon will appear to the left of the template name in your list view. To share currently private templates, repeat steps 1 and 2, then click Share.
Archive Templates
Once a template becomes out of date or is no longer of use to you, you will likely want to get rid of it. Your first instinct is probably to delete the template, but not so fast.
Deleting a template removes all data that is associated with that template from SalesLoft. So metrics you have gathered (replies, clicks, opens) will all be lost if you hit delete.
Things to Note: SalesLoft best practice is to Archive your old templates. Archiving removes the template from your view, but retains all the (important) data!
To archive templates:
- Select the template or templates by clicking the checkbox next to their name.
- Click the Archive icon. Archiving a template removes it from your template list view.
- You can continue to view archived templates by selecting "Include Archived" under the filtering option.
Copy Templates
Sometimes the strongest material may come from another member of your sales team. That’s why SalesLoft allows you to share templates and copy them for your own use.
Let’s say that you filter & sort to view the templates of everyone on your team. From there you can take a look at the metrics and gather which template has performed the best with prospects. While some people may advise you to draft a similar template, we say you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. By copying the template, you can leverage the same draft, edit it to match your tone of voice or add any personal touches, and send the template in your own Cadences.
To copy a template follow these steps:
- Filter & sort to find the selection of templates you would like to choose from.
- Select the template(s) you wish to copy.
- Click the Copy icon. Copied templates will have the name of the original template followed by a dash and "Copy" (example: “Intro email - Copy”).
SLU: Copying Templates (Video)
Want to know how to copy a template, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Copying Templates and Cadences video tutorial.
Delete Templates
For templates that you want completely removed from your SalesLoft record, you have the option to delete them. Deleted templates cannot be recovered and the data is gone.
Things to Note: SalesLoft best practice is to archive previously used templates.
To delete a template, follow these steps:
- Select the template or templates by clicking the checkbox next to their name.
- Click the Trash icon and select Delete.
Team Templates
Team templates allow you to share unified messaging that leads to greater insights into sales communication and simple scalability across your entire team.
SalesLoft admins can control and quickly distribute messaging to your entire team by using team templates. Your reps will all have access to the same approved messaging that they can easily use when reaching out to their prospects.
Once a team template is created, it will be stored under the Team Templates section. The same sorting ability is available to you within team templates.
Instead of deleting team templates, archive your team templates to quickly recover your content if needed. You have the option to single-select a template or multi-select.
Things to Note:
- Only SalesLoft admins can create, edit, copy, or archive a team template.
- Any changes made to a team template will be time stamped with the date and by which admin made the changes.
- When a team template is updated, it is updated across the entire platform, with users seeing the changes immediately.
- Team template metrics are aggregated across the entire team.
To create a team template, follow these steps:
- Go to Template Actions and select Add Template.
- If you are an admin, you will have the option of creating a Personal or Team Template. Select Team. Hit Next.
- Create your template. When creating a team template, you have the same functionality and user experience as when creating a personal template.
Convert Templates to Team Templates
Did you create a personal template that you want your whole team to use? Or maybe one of your reps composed a message that is rolling in the replies?
You can convert one or many personal templates into team templates. Follow these steps:
- Select the box to the left of the template you would like to convert.
- The Template Actions will appear above the template list. Click the Convert (two arrows going in opposite directions) icon under My Templates.
- A popup will appear to convert the template and ask whether you would like to keep the stats for the template. Select Yes, keep stats or No, delete stats. After converting a personal template, if you choose to delete stats the template will still be visible in My Templates for future use. However, if you choose to keep the stats with the converted template, it will no longer be visible under My Templates.
- Hit Convert Template.
- You will then be prompted to keep the template stats or start fresh with new stats for the team.
Using a Template
Templates make sending emails a breeze. Here are two simple methods to put your templates to use.
Templates in a Cadence
Put your templates to work within your consistent sales process. By adding templates to your Cadences, you ensure that your messages are well crafted with the added benefit of being able to track any metrics the template will accumulate.
To add a template to your Cadence, start by creating a Cadence, then follow these steps:
- Click Cadence Actions, Add Step, select Email, and add the Day.
- When you see the Create Step box, select the Insert Template button. The Insert a Template module will appear.
- From the module, you can search for a template using the following methods:
- Select My Template or Team Template tabs at the top of the module.
- Search for a specific template by name.
- Search for templates by tags.
- Select a template by clicking the template name on the left of the module. You can view a preview of the selected template in the Preview panel on the right of the module.
- Click Insert once you find the template you want to use in your email.
- Click Add Step to finish adding to the Cadence or Add & Create Another to add another step.
Inserting Templates in an Email
Anywhere you can send SalesLoft emails (from the platform, Salesforce, Gmail, or Outlook), you can access your templates.
To use a template within your email, follow these steps:
- Open an email window.
- In the bottom right corner of the email window, select + Insert.
- From the Insert Options menu, select Templates.
- The Insert a Template module will appear. Select a personal or team template. You can also search for a specific template.
- Select the template you would like to use. Once the template is selected, it will populate in your email.
- Double check your dynamic field information (if applicable) and hit Send.
SLU: Creating a Template (Video)
Want to know learn about how to create templates, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Creating a Template video tutorial.
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