Often clients will ask us how we find the balance between efficiency and over-automation. They're concerned that automating too much can come across as cold and impersonal, but automating too little leaves gaps and adds additional time burden.

The good news is there's a middle ground. One example is email templates. These can be built in your CRM (like Wealthbox or Redtail) or in your email client (like Gmail or Outlook). 

Today we're going to cover setting up templates in Gmail:

1. Before you set up the templates you'll need to enable the setting. Enter your Gmail account and click the gear icon at the top right.

2. Click "See all settings"

3.  Click the "Advanced" tab

4. Toggle "Templates" to "Enable"

5. Click "Save Changes" at the bottom

6.  Your inbox will reload automatically. Click "Compose" on the top left (the pencil icon if it's shrunk down).

7.  If your signature automatically populates, erase it so you have a completely blank message. When you compose a new email you'll have two signatures if you forget this step.

8. Type out your message or copy and paste if it's saved elsewhere.

9.  Click the "..." on the bottom right next to the trash can.

10. Hover over "Templates"

11. Hover over "Save draft as template"

12. Click "Save as new template"; if you're editing an existing template, click the name of the template you want to update instead to overwrite.

When you're ready to use your template:

1. Click "Compose" on the top left (the pencil icon if it's shrunk down). Leave your signature in place this time.

2. Click the "..." on the bottom right next to the trash can.

3. Hover over "Templates"

4. Click the name of the template you'd like to apply.

5. Customize as needed

6. Click "Send"

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Don't feel like writing? Look no further than our template library. We've got email campaign templates for onboarding and topic-specific educational messages to get you started.

Happy automating!