Using Email Templates in MS CRM 2011
Posted by Ron Harris on Thu, Mar 31, 2011
If you frequently get requests from prospects or customers to have certain information sent to them via email, then consider rusing an email template to automate or semi-automate the process. It will give you more time and simplify your life. It will also make the communications for your organization more consistent.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (MS CRM) has the ability to send messages based on templates to contacts or leads from within MS CRM or Outlook. This article covers how easy it is for a user to send a message using a template.
There are two ways to manually send a message using a template. You can also send a message based on a template using workflow, but that's a topic for another day. This article assumes that you have previously created an email template covering the frequently requested information.
Send a direct message without editing it before it is sent.
Select a single contact or lead record (or select a several contacts or lead records) as recipients for the message. From the Contacts tab on the ribbon, click on the "Send Direct E-mail" button.
Next choose the email template you want to send from the Send Direct E-mail dialog. From this window you can choose to send the message from you, another user, or the email address associated with a queue such as support or sales. In order to send as another user or queue, the system administrator will need to modify your rights so you can do that. This only works on email sent using the Send Direct E-mail option.
The messages sent using this method are automatically tracked as closed activities associated to the contacts or leads. Remember that once you select Send, the message has been sent, no editing.
Send a message using a template and be able to edit it before it is sent.
Use this option when you want to send a message to a single contact or lead record and you want to be able to edit the message before it leaves your inbox. As you did before, select the contact or lead record in MS CRM.
From the Add tab on the ribbon, click on the "Send E-mail" button to open the email form.
I have my personal preferences set to use the Outlook email form instead of the MS CRM email form. When I click the Send E-mail button I see the following. Notice that the email is being tracked in MS CRM and the Insert Template option is available.
The next step is where you select the template to use for this message. On the email form click the Insert Template button to bring up a list of most recently used templates. If the template you want to use is already displayed, choose it. Otherwise, click on More E-mail Templates.
Selecting More E-mail Templates brings up the familiar select template dialog from which you can choose the template for this message.
Once you select the template you want to use and click OK, the template is added to the Outlook message. Anywhere merge fields were used, they have been automatically updated.
If your settings are set to use the MS CRM email form, then you would see the following form when you select the Send E-mail button. Notice that you have two options to select a template for this message. Emails sent from within MS CRM are automatically set to track in CRM.
When you click on the on the Insert Template button, the same Select Template dialog is presented so you can choose the template you want to use. The merge process follows and you simply click the Send button.
Whether you are in a sales role, handling marketing, or helping customers in service you probably feel like you never have enough time. Using templates will buy you some time. It will also help the organization communicate in a more consistent way.