How to Create a Template in Gmail: Ultimate Guide

16.2.2023
Read time: 13 min
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How to Create a Template in Gmail: Ultimate Guide
Try Publicate For Free Today
02.03.2022
Read time: 13 min

29.5%. That’s the share of the email client market that Gmail holds as of April 2022. If you’re planning on making and sending email newsletter templates, you may be wanting to know how to create a template in Gmail.

We got you covered. We’re going to tell you what it takes to make use of the best gmail templates. At the same time, we’re going to talk about how an email template builder like Publicate can save you time, streamline the email newsletter process, and provide you with analytics that you’d otherwise go without if you were to use Gmail for this purpose.

Guide Index
Photo from Unsplash

What is an Email Template?

An email template is like the skeleton of an email. It provides you with its format and sometimes even pre-written text that can be edited and customized before you hit send.

Depending on the tool that you use for email templates, you may be able to offer personalization with merge fields to make it feel like each recipient is the only person receiving the email.

Why Do Businesses Need Gmail Templates?

Emails, as powerful as they are, can end up being a very big time suck. This is especially true for sales and marketing teams that end up sending the same types of emails continuously.

Whether it be for marketing newsletters, cold outreach, call summaries, follow-ups, and the like, writing emails from scratch adds a lot of time to one’s day.

With Gmail templates (or an email builder like Publicate templates), the email is already basically set up and ready-to-go. All you have to do is customize and adjust the copy to make it relevant to the email’s purpose.

What are Tips for Reading Emails in Gmail?

Working in your email inbox is likely a daily activity. So, it may seem like how you read email is automatic and there aren’t many options for doing so. However, that’s not the whole picture!

Gmail offers several customizable options when it comes to how your inbox looks. To read email more efficiently, consider the following:

1. Inbox Density

You can choose how compact or spread out your inbox looks with the density option. To adjust it, go to “Settings” > “Density” and choose between default, comfortable, or compact.

2. New Messages

Gmail defaults your most recent messages in an email thread to the bottom of the thread. If you’d like to switch it up, you can install an extension from the Chrome Web Store, called “Gmail reverse conversation.”

3. Label Space

If you’d like to be able to view more of the labels on the left side of your inbox, you can adjust your Chat panel. To do so, navigate to “Settings” > “See All Settings” > “Chat and Meet” > change the “Chat Position” to the left or right side of your inbox. Click “Save Changes”

What are Tips for Sending Emails in Gmail?

Along with how you can read emails in Gmail, there are also some useful sending tips worth knowing. Take a look:

1. Unsend Emails

There’s a short window of opportunity, or should we say cancellation, available to you once you hit send. If you so decide you need to recall an email, you can do so by clicking on “Undo” or “View Message” and then “Undo” in the bottom left where it confirms, “Message Sent”

2. Use Templates

Email templates are great for when you find yourself sending the same or similar emails repeatedly. We’ll get more into detail on this tip, but as an overview, you can go to “Settings” > “See all Settings” > “Advanced” > “templates” and select “Enable.” Be sure to save changes.

3. Leverage Groups

Google Groups are email send lists compiled into a group. This is best used when you have to send emails to the same people often. Rather than having to type each email address into your “Send” field every time, you can create a Google Group. Sign into “Google Groups” and “Create Group” to do so.

How to Create Email Templates in Gmail?

Ready to save time with your emails? To create a template in Gmail, you need to start by enabling templates (as mentioned above).

Once you have templates enabled, you’ll have to create your own template. Here’s how to do that:

  1. Click “Compose” to create a new message
  2. Type your email template
  3. When finished, click on the three dots in the bottom-right corner
  4. Scroll over “Template” and “Save draft as template”
  5. Choose to “Save as a new template”
  6. Name your template and hit “Save”

As you can tell, a Gmail template isn’t going to be anything fancy or professionally designed. It will more than likely be plain text (how you write your emails).

If you’re looking to create eye-catching HTML email templates, the easiest way to do so is to use a tool like Publicate.

Publicate offers you an wide array of pre-made templates for any purpose you could think of, such as: Events, Sales, Seasonal, Internal Communications, and more.

These email templates can be branded based on your business, include multimedia elements with the click of a button, and are customizable using drag-and-drop functionality.

How to Edit or Delete a Gmail Template?

If you do create a template in Gmail, then you’ll want to know how to edit it or delete it when it’s no longer needed.

In order to make edits to a template you’ve created, you can:

  1. Compose a new email
  2. Choose the template you want to edit
  3. Make your edits in the message body
  4. Click on the three-dot icon in the lower-right corner
  5. Select “Templates” and “Save Draft as template”
  6. Under “Overwrite template” choose the name of the template you edited
  7. Hit “Save” to confirm your changes

How to Send Email Templates in Gmail?

The entire point of creating email templates is to save you time! The good news is that email templates are also easy to send.

To send an email template in Gmail:

  1. Compose a new email
  2. Click on the three-dot menu
  3. Choose “Templates”
  4. Select the template you wish to use
  5. The template will fill your message window
  6. Hit “Send”

It’s just like sending a regular email, except the message body is pre-filled. That being said, if you’re looking to send an HTML email with visual elements, Gmail doesn’t support its creation directly within the message body.

Instead, you can utilize a tool like Publicate in which you can visually edit and create beautiful and professional email newsletter templates. When you’re ready to send your HTML email in Gmail, it’s super simple, too.

Publicate integrates directly with Gmail, so you can choose and access Publicate right inside Gmail by clicking on “Insert Publication.” Then, your HTML email will automatically be loaded into a Gmail draft to hit “Send.”

What are the Limitations of Gmail Templates?

As you can see, it’s possible to create a template in Gmail without hassle. These are best used for simple sales emails that don’t need extra glitz and glam.

However, Gmail isn’t intended to create the most outstanding marketing newsletter templates. As such, you’ll experience hurdles if you try to do so. Some of Gmail’s limitations include:

1. Lack of Personalization

To personalize templates in Gmail, you’ll have to add in all the details yourself manually.

2. No Tracking

Gmail doesn’t provide you with a way to track your campaigns. Once you hit send, there’s no way to know how many people opened or clicked on your email. With an email tool like Publicate, on the other hand, you’ll receive detailed analytics to gauge your email’s performance and engagement.

3. No HTML

Gmail doesn’t allow you to create HTML emails within its message body. There are workarounds, but the idea is to save time, not add more work to your day.

Photo from Unsplash

How to Create Templates in Gmail Using Publicate?

To create templates in Gmail with Publicate, it’s as simple as choosing and clicking.

It goes as follows: You’d log into Publicate. From the opening screen, you get to choose between starting an email template from scratch or selecting from the expansive template library. Publicate also offers the option to create landing pages!

As soon as you select your template, you’ll be able to work with drag-and-drop options for customization. Along with the simplicity of the interface, you gain access to a large content library of royalty-free stock images.

Should you wish to add multimedia like videos, links, or GIFs into your email newsletter, all you have to do is click on the icon and select your media.

Publicate will embed your content, and you won’t have to worry about how it displays across screens because the templates are built to render properly for every recipient.

After you’ve finalized your customizations in your template, sending your email is just as simple as the creation process.

Publicate integrates with your favorite email service providers, including Gmail. So, exporting an HTML email is automatically done when you click the export function. Alternatively use the Chrome extension for direct access to Publicate templates from right inside of Gmail.

You’ll find your perfectly designed email newsletter ready to send in your Gmail drafts and its fully responsive for all devices!

What are Email Template Examples?

Looking for some inspiration or to see if your use case is covered? (Trust us, it is). To give you an idea of what you can expect, here are some of our most popular email templates on Publicate:

Internal Company Communications

Running HR means you’re always sharing news with your employees! To keep them up-to-date on the latest professional development opportunities or important information, internal company newsletter templates are ready to go for any message.

Sales Templates

Sales teams never stop selling! When you have a promotion or new markdown, get the word out as soon as possible to boost your sales with pre-built templates like this one.

Seal the Deal with Templates

Emails take up a majority of any business person’s time. It’s no wonder why you’d seek to create a template in Gmail to expedite your workflows. As you explore Gmail’s capabilities, you’ll find many options to be useful, but it’s more likely than not that you’ll seek more abilities and functions.

That’s where using a web-based tool like Publicate can empower your vision and transform your ideas into reality and save you lots of time! With its drag-and-drop interface and array of customizable options, Publicate helps you to create professional emails and email newsletters in no time. No need for designers or coders! Try it for yourself with a free trial!