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Email templates

Every time you send an invoice, proposal, contract, questionnaire or gallery, you write a covering message. Email templates mean writing it once.

Making one​

Templates → Emails → New template opens a two-panel editor: the message on the left, a live preview of the branded email your client receives on the right. On a narrow screen, Editor and Preview switch between them.

A template has three parts:

  • A name, for you, so you can find it in a list. Left blank it is saved as "Untitled email template"
  • Subject (optional), which takes the same variables as the message
  • Message (optional), rich text

Save template saves it. Nothing saves on its own, so don't leave the page without saving. CoreHue asks before you leave with unsaved changes.

The optional subject​

Leaving the subject blank is a real feature, not laziness.

With a subject, using the template sets the subject line.

Without one, it fills in the message and leaves the subject alone.

That second behaviour is what makes templates work for replies. When you're answering a client's email, you don't want the subject rewritten. You want your standard text dropped into the thread you're already in.

So: subject for things you initiate, no subject for replies.

Using their name​

Open Variables in the toolbar and choose Client's first name, and each recipient sees their own name. Write once, greet everyone properly. Someone with no name on file gets "there". See Filling in names automatically.

Business name, business email, today's date and the current year fill in too. Nothing fills in a booking date, an amount or a venue. Type anything specific yourself, after you drop the template in.

In the editor the name stays as a grey tag, because there's no recipient yet. It fills in when you actually send.

One template, any send​

Email templates aren't tied to one kind of document. Every template you have is offered in every composer, so a good "here's the link" note works for a gallery and a proposal alike.

Where you can use them​

Everywhere you send something: the send flows for proposals, contracts, questionnaires, invoices, payments, bookings and galleries, the reminder composer, and the Messages composer.

In a send composer, Use template sits under the message box. Picking one fills the composer and leaves everything editable, so you can adjust before sending. In Messages it's the document icon in the composer toolbar, which opens a Templates list. Either way, Manage templates at the bottom of that menu jumps to the library.

The ones you start with​

New accounts get eight. Six cover the moments every photographer hits: replying to a new inquiry, turning work down when you're booked, booking next steps, chasing a contract and retainer, confirming a session, and sending a gallery. The last two are matched to the kind of work you do.

Worth rewriting in your own voice. A template that sounds like software defeats the point.

The starters use ALL-CAPS blanks like [DATE] and [PLACE] where something specific belongs. Nothing fills those in. They're reminders to you that something needs typing before you send.

Adding more​

Add from CoreHue opens a library of ready-made templates with a preview of each. Press Add to library on whichever fit and edit them from there.

Managing them​

Edit, Duplicate and Delete sit in each row's three-dot menu. The name is changed inside the editor. Duplicating is the easy way to make a variant, say a wedding version of your standard inquiry reply. A duplicate keeps the original name with "(copy)" added.

Which ones are worth having​

The test is simple: anything you've typed more than twice.

In practice that's usually your inquiry reply, your "here are your photos" note, your payment nudge, and your pre-session preparation note. Four templates covering most of what you send.

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