If you're running a franchise business and want to give each of your locations a quick way to spin up their email marketing, use Email marketing templates give them 'grab and go' material.
Skip to:
Creating and Sharing Email Marketing Templates
Here's how to create and share an Email Marketing Template.
Click Manage entities > Marketing templates > Email > click Create new template > name it, describe its purpose > click Add content to start composing.
In the 'drag & drop' email editor you'll find a 'Merge tags' button. Click it to open the variables wizard.
The variables wizard gives you access to Corporate variables and Built-in variables.
Corporate variables are a way to let franchisees edit certain parts of the template to make it applicable to their business.
For example, this is useful to:
• show different prices based on geographical location
• or to have a button that leads to the franchisee's checkout page.
The values for these corporate variables are filled by the franchisee.
Built-in variables are what franchisees are used to seeing in the host dashboard. Those are values that can be used to customize the email to each end receiver (ex. {{first_name}} inserts the customer's first name).
Use the Add new template variable button to define a new corporate variable.
The description field helps the franchisee understand what they should fill in.
The variable ID is generated from the Name field and is what you'll see placed into the template.
You can also use a corporate variable in the URL field of a button or a link component. This will require manually input the Variable ID inside the double square brackets. You can safely ignore the Please enter a URL warning.
Once you're done, click the Use button at the bottom to save and close the email body editor and then use the Submit button to create the template.
To share the newly created template with your franchisees, click the Assign button.
Use the upper select all checkbox or choose individual franchisees. To share this template with your franchisees, click Assign selected.
How Franchisees Use the Corporate Email Marketing Template in their dashboard
After clicking Navigate to Marketing > Marketing templates, you'll see the shared corporate marketing templates. These lists will have a Read-only badge. Click on one to see the template detail.
Once you're in the detail, you can click the Create a new message button.
Specify your recipients as usual and then scroll down.
By design, the 'body' section of the email will not be editable. Use the 'corporate variables,' section (circled in red) to make this email relevant to your business, abiding by any instructions from corporate.
Use the Preview email button to confirm the corporate variables have the correct values. Also check that the button link points to the correct page.
When you're ready, close the preview and hit Send as usual. You have successfully used a corporate template to send a marketing message to your customers/leads.
SMS Marketing Templates
If you want to give each of your locations a quick way to spin up their SMS Marketing, use SMS marketing templates give them 'grab and go' material.
To do this click Manage entities > Marketing templates > SMS
Click Create new template > name it and describe its use. When composing the body use the 'Browse template variables' button to open the wizard (same as above in Email templates).
Clicking on a variable will copy it to clipboard.
You can then paste it (CTRL+V or CMD+V) into the body.
When you're happy with what you see, click 'Submit' to create the template.
To share the newly created template with your franchisees, use the 'Assign' button.
What's the Franchisee's experience with SMS templates?
As a Franchisee, when you're creating a one-off message or editing a sequence action you'll see a 'Load from template' button. Clicking this will display corporate SMS templates to choose from.
A pop up will allow you to select a template. A corporate template will have a 'read only' tag next to it, indicating it can't be edited beyond what corporate has allowed you to change.
When the template has corporate variables, you'll be prompted to fill in the values.
Above, the corporate variables are indicated with brackets [[like this]]. When you fill them in, it will look something like you see pictured below. Notice how the variable in curly brackets {{first_name}} is left untouched. This variable will insert the customer's name this message is sent to.
After clicking submit, the template will be inserted as the SMS content Message.
