How to Use Email Templates

Quick Tip:

Use templates for the standard emails you regularly send, no matter how short or simple they are. 

Benefits:

1 – You save time as the email is automatically populated when you select the template. Even if it would generally take you only a minute or so to draft the email, that is a minute you’ve saved using the template.

2 – You reduce decision fatigue. This is, in my opinion, one of the more important benefits of using a template. The fewer trivial decisions you make, the more effective you are in making crucial decisions. 

3 – You will make fewer errors. Since you are using a standard template, you reduce the chance of forgetting to include something important, including any CYA comments you would typically have.

4 – You present a familiar voice in your communications. This is especially useful when you’re in a hurry and might forego the niceties you would generally include in your communication. Using a pre-drafted template will ensure that you present your ideal professional voice and tone.

Examples:

I use templates regularly. When I ran my own practice, I had templates for onboarding clients, invoicing, and just about any administrative communication I sent out. Now that I’m in-house, I have templated emails for the complete workflow of my contract negotiations – from kicking off the matter to emails accompanying my redlined agreements during the negotiation, and for final legal approval on the document. 

How to Implement:

You can use templates with Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail

You don’t need to set aside time to build a template library. When you first draft a standard email, take a few extra minutes to save it as a template, even if it’s not perfect. The next time you send a similar email, use the template and improve it. You’ll spend less time than you would have if you were drafting it from scratch. As you improve on your template incrementally, you’ll eventually get to the point where your template is close to perfect.

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