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About Using Templates

Once you have created custom SMS, Email, Letter and Quote Templates within your CRM, this page will show you where, when and how you can use them.

Note that to send emails or SMS from your CRM, you will need to have set up integrations for SMTP Email and Burst SMS first – click the links to learn how to set up these integrations.

If you haven’t set up any Templates yet, check out our guide on Creating Templates.

Where you can use your Templates

The CRM module that you chose as the Source when you created your template will determine which area of the system your template is available in.

If you’ve created a new Template and it’s not available for selection/use, it may be because the Source field has the Template set to apply to a different CRM module – you can change this by going back to the Template and editing the Source field, or create a new Template to apply to the module you want to use it with.

Selecting a Source module when creating a new Template

You can also combine different types of templates to streamline your operations, for example:

Attach Email and SMS Templates to a Quote Template – this would allow you to create a specific sales approach for different types of customers e.g. by creating a number of differently branded or formatted Quote Templates, you can select different Email and SMS Templates to apply to each Quote Template so that you have multiple options to choose from when you create Quotes.
Attach a Letter Template to an Email Template – quickly create and send different Letters as PDF or Word document attachments to any of your Email Templates. You can also attach a Letter to an email without having to first add it to an Email Template.

When to use your Templates

Following is a summary of the practical uses and system limitations when it comes to using various Templates in your CRM.

The following table summarises when you are able to use the Mail Merge and bulk send functions:

Send sales and business documents – use CRM

You can send all your day-to-day sales and business documents directly from your CRM using Email or SMS Templates, as follows:

You can use Email or SMS Templates to send an Online Quote – when you set up your Quote Template, you can specify which Email and SMS Template the Quote should be sent out with.
You can also use Email Templates to send out your Invoices, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders or Requests For Quotes.

Individual Email and SMS – use CRM

You can use Templates to send both emails and SMS direct to the customer or supplier that is linked to any number of modules in CRM – anywhere you see the Email or SMS buttons.

You can use Email or SMS Templates with mail merge fields to customise your correspondence with details from associated records in CRM and attach Letter Templates to your emails.

Basic bulk emails – use CRM

You can use your CRM to send a quick email to multiple recipients, you just can’t use the Mail Merge function when you have more than one email recipient.

This means you can send a generic/unmerged email to multiple recipients, with or without a Letter Template as an attachment.

Create and send Letters – use CRM

You can use Letter Templates to create a single letter or batch of letters for multiple recipients, either with or without using Mail Merge fields.

If you want to email letters, you can attach a Letter Template to any email, whether you are using an Email Template or not.

Bulk email marketing – use an integrated platform

For email marketing, we recommend that you use a purpose-built platform. the CRM CRM integrates with the world’s best email marketing platforms, Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp, to provide seamless transfer of target lists and campaign results back to your CRM – click on the links to learn how to set up these integrations for your CRM.

Both these services are built to handle enterprise grade direct mail distribution, so it makes sense to use their infrastructure to ensure your server doesn’t get overwhelmed. In addition:

Both platforms offer a vast selection of specialised marketing tools and features that aren’t available within CRM.
When using mail merge fields in your Email Templates, you can only use this feature to merge single records – you cannot send a bulk, mail merged email to multiple recipients.

You can use your CRM to send a quick email to multiple recipients, you just can’t use the mail merge function when you have more than one email recipient.

Bulk SMS or MMS marketing – use an external platform

For bulk SMS or MMS marketing, we recommend that you use a purpose built external platform, such as Burst SMS.

To allow you to send and receive SMS directly from your CRM, the CRM integrates with Burst SMS – click on the link to learn how to set up this integration for your CRM. Please note that this integration will not allow you to send MMS from CRM or sync your Bust SMS data back to CRM, it is only used to enable SMS capability.

When using SMS Templates, you can only use this feature to send individual SMS – you cannot send a bulk SMS (with or without mail merge fields) to multiple recipients.