Enhanced Email Templates
In an effort to better serve your client outreach needs, we have enhanced the power and effectiveness of our email templates! In this article, we will discuss:
- What has been “Enhanced”?
- What is an Email Template?
- What is a “Merge Tag”?
- Enhanced Email Template Fields
What has been “Enhanced”?
Each new email template has enhanced formatting, layout, and integration with client information. These enhancements benefit your practice in two big ways: your client emails look better and the template interface editor is easier to use. The enhanced formatting delivers crisp styling and consistent branding across your emails, while the newer template interface editor has more options for intuitive customization. These features make delivering great looking information to your clients a breeze!
Now that we've discussed the enhanced features, we can dive into all aspects of what makes up our email templates.
What is an Email Template?
An email template is a set of text and code that defines the layout, styles, and content of an email. Templates make YAPI a powerful communication tool by dynamically inserting or updating portions of the content for each individual client. Individualized information, such as appointment reminders, recall reminders, or welcome emails, can be mapped out in advance with the specific details inserted at the time of sending for each patient without your staff having to waste a moment of critical patient care time! We call these Merge Tags.
What is a Merge Tag?
A Merge Tag is the area of content where individualized information will be inserted dynamically into each email. For example, if you want the email to address each patient by their first name, you can use a Merge Tag and each email will have the name of the person receiving the email.
The tags are comprised of two square brackets - the [ character - with a specific variable inside. For the example above, the Merge Tag for a patient’s first name is [[FIRST]]. The tags are predefined by YAPI as they integrate with your patient records to gather information for insertion. For a comprehensive list of available merge tags, see this article - A Comprehensive List of Merge Tags
Merge tags are the backbone of making a template. You can insert these into your email content to make each email interactive and personalized to your patients.
Enhanced Email Template Fields
Each email template is comprised of fields which define the appearance and function of the email templates. This is another aspect of what makes these email templates so powerful: You can construct numerous different combinations of these fields to create tons of different templates for any type of patient email! Most of these fields are optional, but the Name, Email Theme, Subject, and Type are required for an email to be sent. The rest is up to you to decide what works best for the needs of your office. The rest of this section will serve as a reference for the purpose of each field, so feel free to skip to the fields you need more information about.
NOTE: Name, Email Theme, Subject and Type fields are the only required fields to build a template.
Fields List Quick Links:
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Name |  |
Image |  |
Google Reviews |
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Subject |  |
Action Button |  |
Google Map |
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Email Theme |  |
Communication Icons |  |
Unsubscribe Link |
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Type |  |
Share |  |
Body Text & Body Text 2 |
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Logo |  |
Advertising |
Fields:
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Name |
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This is the name of the template as it will appear in YAPI, in the Email Template tab of the Documents and Templates Manager. This name should be distinct, as it will be how you select the template when you set an email appointment reminder, recall, etc. in the YAPI application. |
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Subject |
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This is the default subject for the email. Enter what you would like to appear in the subject line of each email. Merge Tags are not recognized in this field. |
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Email Theme |
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A template theme is a predefined combination of visual styles, colors, and layouts. When you create a new Email Template you start by selecting a theme. Changing the theme for an existing Email Template won’t change the message, but it will modify the email’s visual appearance.
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Type |
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This field is used to group and organize your email templates. Here, the context of when the template will be used is decided. For example, if you assign a template of the type "Appointment Reminder", you will only be able to select this template from a template dropdown list in a reminder section and will be prevented from selecting this template in a "Save the Date" or "Birthday Card" section. The full list of available Types is as follows:
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Logo |
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If your practice has a logo stored in YAPI, this field will display that logo on all email that goes out to your patients. YAPI stores a single image as a practice's logo and uses it in all email templates. The position drop-down menu allows for customization of the location of the logo in relation to the email content.
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Image |
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Here you can add an image to include in your email. It must be the URL to a web-hosted image. You can add your own image URL here, or click the library button and use any image from the YAPI collection. You also have access to a position dropdown for this image, which designates the position of the image in relation to the email content. When both the logo and the image fields are populated, the logo appears first, then the image appears below the logo.
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Action Button |
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Most of the emails you send will include a Call To Action - a piece of content intended to induce an action from the reader - such as:
YAPI allows up to three buttons per email. Each button has three attributes:
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Communication Icons |
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This attribute allows you to add links to social media and common services used by your practice.
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Share |
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The Share field allows the recipient of the email to share a custom web address via Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. Place the URL of the page you would like your email reader to share (ie your practice website or the address of a referral link) in the URL section, and your reader will be able to click an icon to share that site via their social media platform. The description section will add a pre-written description of the link to Twitter posts only. |
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Advertising |
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This is another image field for your email template, with a slight difference: the Advertising image is a clickable link to the site of your choice. The Advertising image is always displayed at the bottom of the email.
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Google Reviews |
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When enabled, this field inserts a link to review your practice on Google Maps.
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Google Map |
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Unsubscribe Link |
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By law, every automated email must provide an opt-out or unsubscribe mechanism. You can customize the content of this area, but legally you must add an opt-out link to your automated emails! |
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Body Text & Body Text 2 |
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This is the message of the email. There are two sections, with the action buttons (see next field) placed in the middle. Neither of these fields is required: you can use just one section, both, or even leave them blank. The Body Text sections are the main area in which to utilize Merge Tags. This is how to generate dynamic content rich with content for the appropriate patient, appointment, practice, etc.
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Now that you have seen what each field can do, the rest is up to you! As long as you include content for the four required fields (Name, Type, Subject, and Theme), you can include any content that suits your client outreach needs. If you would like some extra guidance, follow this step-by-step guide to creating an email template
We also have an ever-growing list of pre-made templates that you can use. Just contact our sales team and our amazing team will get you the templates you need!
