Hi there!👋
Looking to draft Cold Emails 📧 that get you max meetings booked?
Let us dive into how you can draft high performing 🚀 email templates with BlinkGPT AI & add personalization with variables.
💥 We call it Email Personalization but it's the same as mail merge, merge tags, variables or macros.
Variables are these pieces of text wrapped in {{first_name}} which help you insert data of leads from lists or CRM and personalize the emails. 📧
Let's dive in,
Creating an Email Template with BlinkGPT AI 🤖
Head over to Templates in Outreach & hit Create New (Email Template).
Enter a template name (for internal purposes).
Enter your business offer, it can be something like,
👉 I want to sell digital marketing services
👉 I sell CRM software for real estate agents
👉 I sell lead generation services to SaaS companies
👉 We sell a live chat solution for B2B Companies across Europe
👉 My business helps with logistics for companies across USA
👉 My startup provides health insurance to businesses(Optional) Select the language in which you wish to generate the email.
Click "Draft Email", BlinkGPT AI 🤖 will generate an email draft for you with a high performing subject line and body.
Now that your cold email draft is created, let's edit it & make it perfect!
Editing an Email Template
Generate a Draft Again
You can generate a cold email 📧 draft again if you do not like what BlinkGPT AI has drafted for you,
Though we highly recommend you update your Business Offer when you try to draft another cold email.
Editing the Email Draft
If you are happy with the drafted cold email subject line & body then you can simply start editing it where required.
Your business might have specifics you might want to add like customers, clients, awards 🏆 etc. to make your cold email 📧 stand out.
Improve an Email Draft with BlinkGPT AI
On the other hand, you can improve the draft with BlinkGPT AI as well.
You can ask BlinkGPT AI to do the following for your cold email body:
Make the cold email More Persuasive
Make the cold email Less Persuasive
Expand the body of cold email
Shorten the body of cold email
Rephrase the body of cold email
Rewrite the cold email in a friendlier tone
Rewrite the cold email in a more formal tone.
Once you are happy with your basic draft, let's start personalizing the subject line & body.
Adding Images (non-personalized)
Click on the Add Image icon from toolbar above Email Body.
Upload your image or use a link & click Save.
Personalizing Email Subject Lines & Body
Quick refresher, variables (a.k.a macros) are these pieces of text wrapped in {{first_name}} that picks the data from lead in a list and inserts in the email. Making your cold email personalized for the particular lead.
You can configure this by uploading ⬆️ & mapping additional fields while creating a list.
List Variables
These are the variables that you map while uploading leads in a list.
Search for your list from the dropdown & your variables for that list will load.
Put your cursor at any point in the subject line or email body and click on any variable.
You can see that your variable is now inserted.
Default Variables
You can add default variables to your email subject line & body.
These are variables are converted to text at the time when email is sent.
We currently offer the following Default Variables:
Variable | Description | Example |
Email Signature of Sender | Inserts the email signature of the sender being used to send email. | Best, Your Name |
Email Sender Name | Inserts the name of the email sender. | John |
My Meeting Link | Inserts your SalesBlink Meeting Scheduler Link. | meet.salesblink.io/your-link |
Time of the Day | Insert the time of the day on which the email is sent. | Morning, Afternoon, Evening |
Day of the Week | Insert the day of the week on which the email is sent. | Monday |
Current Month | Insert the Month in which the email is sent. | June |
Next Month | Inserts the next month to when the email is being sent. | July |
Current Quarter | Inserts the current quarter in which email is sent. | Q4 |
Next Quarter | Inserts the next quarter to when the email is being sent. | Q1 |
Current Year | Inserts the current year in which email is sent. | 2024 |
Next Year | Inserts the next year to when the email is being sent. | 2025 |
CRM Variables
This appears once you have added any CRM Integration & have mapped the lead property from your CRM to SalesBlink variable.
Fallbacks
Let's say you upload a list of leads 🙎and a few of them do not have a First Name,
This would make SalesBlink send an empty space.
But there's a way, you can use fallbacks
Example
{{first_name | friend}}Just add "|" and the fallback word, now if the variable is not available for a particular lead 🙎, the term "friend" will be inserted into the email.
Spintax
Using Spintax, you can create variations of sentences or words to send diverse email copies to your leads.
Just add more words, even with List or CRM Variables
Example"
{{ Hey there, {first_name} | Hello there, {first_name} | Good {sb_time_of_day} {first_name}! | Hi {first_name}, Happy {sb_day_of_week}! }}Using Spintax Builder
Click on Spintax from the top toolbar.
Add Default Variables or List Variables from the dropdown - make edits if required & click on Insert Spintax.
Personalizing Images 🖼️
More than just personalizing the text, you can also upload & personalize images with variables.
Here's how:
Expand the email body toolbar by clicking on the three dots
Click "Personalized Image".
Click "Open Photo" to upload an image or select from one of the templates.
You can click done here to insert the image without personalization.
To add personalized text, click on "Text" to add a text layer above your image.
Enter the personalization tag, eg. {{first_name}} or {{company_name}} along with any other text you wish to add, drag & place the text at the correct place & hit "Done".
Your Image is now inserted & the variables (if any) will be converted to lead data at the time when email is sent.
Adding Attachments 🖇️
You can add attachments to your email templates simply by dragging and dropping upto 3 files in the "Add Attachments" section on the email template page.
Use HTML Email Body
Simply copy the HTML from the tools and paste them in SalesBlink email template by clicking on source code icon (<>) from toolbar.
Note: Only Inline CSS is supported in HTML Email Templates. No JS or any framework.
Edit HTML in Email Body
You can edit the HTML of the email body by clicking on the source code icon (<>) icon from email body toolbar.
Adding Unsubscribe Link
Optionally, you can add a unsubscribe link, to let your leads opt-out of follow-up emails 📧 from you.
Once they unsubscribe, you can manage them here.
To add an unsubscribe link,
Move the cursor at the position where you wish to insert the unsubscribe link.
Expand the email body toolbar by clicking on the three dots.
Click on "Unsubscribe Link"
You can edit the text of the unsubscribe link if you wish.
Template Score 💯
As you work on your email subject line & body, you can see the Spam Checker with a score for your email template.
Spam Checker will also look for keywords that are likely to get your email to land in spam.
There are 5 types of Spam Keywords that are Urgency, Shady, Over Promise, Money & Unnatural.
Just hover over any to see which keywords you have added in your email.
Testing Emails 📝
Now that your email template is complete, before saving it 💾 you can test if everything is properly set, especially the variables.
Click "Test Email".
Select the email sender from which you wish to send the test email.
Type the email address on which you wish to send the test email.
Search for a list from where you wish to test personalization.
Search for a lead in the list whose data will be used in variables.
Review the variables available for testing.
Click "Send Test Email".
You will receive the test email with all the variables inserted.
Organizing Templates
There are a couple of tools 🔧 that you can use to organize your templates.
Star ⭐
Simply star your templates by clicking on the un-filled star icon or remove by clicking on the filled star.
View your starred templates by selecting "Starred" from the options on the left.
Folders 📁
You can create folders & save your templates in that folder.
Creating a folder
Click on the "Folders" dropdown on left pane & click on "New".
Give your folder a name & click on "Create Folder".
Adding Templates to a Folder
Check the templates you wish to add to folder.
From the multiple checked actions button on the top, hit add to folder.
Select the folder in which you would like to move the templates to and click "Move to Folder"
And your templates are now organized in the said folder!
Owned By
Owners & Admins can access templates of other team members by simply selecting the name of team member from the dropdown options on the left.
FAQs
How can I mail merge in templates?
Throughout the help doc above, we have mentioned how you can personalize your email templates - personalization is the same as mail merge.
I have added variables, but why is it not replacing with lead details while sending emails?
Do make sure the data for that particular lead is added.
You can quickly check the data of leads in lists.
Or if you do not have the particular data for a contact, then you can also use fallbacks like {{first_name | friend}}. When {{first_name}} is not available, it will fallback to “friend”.
How can I clone/duplicate existing email templates?
On the templates page, you can clone any template from the Actions menu.
What if I edit a template that's already in a running sequence & is scheduled to send emails to leads?
Your leads will start receiving the updated email template right away.
Why have I not received the test email?
Please ensure that the selected email address has sending enabled.
How to delete email template forever?
Currently you can archive the email templates when you don't need it anymore. There is no option to delete email templates.
Hope you found this help doc useful! 😀