This is a great question. Many of the popular email platforms (the Mailchimps of the world and such) offer pre-designed HTML email templates and\/or drag-and-drop email builders.<\/p>\n But\u2026 those email platforms all operate on their own websites. GMass works directly inside Gmail and is all about integrating seamlessly into your normal email flow<\/b>.<\/p>\n So templates and HTML emails work a bit different in GMass and Gmail.<\/p>\n While GMass does not offer pre-designed HTML email templates or drag-and-drop template building, there are lots of easy ways to get HTML templates into Gmail and GMass.<\/p>\n And then\u2026 GMass <\/b>does<\/i><\/b> turn every email campaign you send into a template<\/b><\/a> you can use over and over in the future<\/b>. (And you can share those templates with other GMass users you work with.)<\/p>\n Plus, Gmail itself doesn\u2019t have a native HTML editor built in. So you need a third-party extension like GMass to even have the chance<\/i> to import and edit professional-quality HTML email templates.<\/p>\n In this article, I\u2019ll cover the advantages to sending your HTML marketing emails through Gmail (and GMass)<\/b>. I\u2019ll also cover four methods to easily create and import HTML email marketing designs into Gmail and GMass<\/b>.<\/p>\n Mailchimp<\/a>, ActiveCampaign<\/a>, Klaviyo, and almost all of the other traditional email marketing platforms send your campaigns through their own servers.<\/p>\n But there are some <\/b>serious<\/i><\/b> advantages to sending those emails through Gmail instead<\/b>.<\/p>\n Gmail is the most popular email service in the world. Which means: No one\u2019s blocking emails from Gmail.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a built-in deliverability advantage that comes with sending through Gmail<\/b>. Different email service providers have different sender reputations \u2014 but ultimately, no one\u2019s rep is as good as Gmail\u2019s.<\/p>\n (And then, when you add in GMass\u2019s deliverability tools<\/a> on top of that\u2026 you\u2019re gold.)<\/p>\n You do all your other emailing inside Gmail\u2026 so why go to a separate platform to send marketing email<\/b>?<\/p>\n By sending your marketing emails inside Gmail, you\u2019re keeping everything in one place.<\/p>\n And you can even take advantage of GMass\u2019s email list builder<\/a> tool to run a search on your past marketing emails \u2014 and build an entirely new segmented list<\/b>.<\/p>\n For instance, you could search for everyone who\u2019s emailed support to ask about a product restock in the past six months \u2014 then automatically turn that group into a list to which you can send a marketing email about the restock.<\/p>\n When you use an external email platform for your marketing emails, your images are hosted on their server<\/b>. That can slow down the email load time, it means the email won\u2019t load properly offline \u2014 and it can have a negative impact on deliverability.<\/p>\n When you create an email in Gmail, you\u2019ll embed the images rather than host them externally<\/a>. That provides both a deliverability and useability boost<\/b>.<\/p>\n When you send your HTML marketing emails through Gmail using GMass you\u2019ll still be able to use all the features you get on the other platforms.<\/p>\n You\u2019re sold. Great! (I\u2019m really good at reading minds. I could have a great side hustle one day as a mind reader. Though it takes me away from my true side hustle dream of selling artichokes. Anyway, I’m sure that won’t come up again at any point in this article.)<\/p>\n Here are four methods you can use to create HTML marketing emails<\/b> to use in Gmail.<\/p>\n I\u2019m putting this method first because it\u2019s the annoying and obvious one \u2014 if you code your own HTML template, you can use that HTML template in Gmail. (As long as you have GMass handy to add an HTML editor to Gmail<\/a>.)<\/p>\n For my example below, I grabbed the code for a basic HTML template from Codepen<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Gmail, open the GMass settings box<\/b> and click the HTML link<\/b>.<\/p>\n Then paste in the code<\/b> and click the Okay button. That will take you back to the Compose window with your template now in place.<\/p>\n From here you can edit the text. In this example, I will also replace the images from the template with embedded Gmail images<\/b> \u2014 as I mentioned earlier, using embedded images is one of the biggest advantages to sending HTML emails with Gmail.<\/p>\n To use an embedded image, select one of the images from the template to replace. Then delete it.<\/p>\n Make sure the cursor is where you want to place the image (though you could always go into the HTML through GMass settings to move it around later). Then click the Insert photo<\/b> icon.<\/p>\n Now upload my header image with Google\u2019s upload dialogue box. Here\u2019s the result:<\/p>\n And when you dip into the HTML code, you can see that image is now embedded, not externally hosted<\/b>.<\/p>\n From here, you can change the text, upload other images, and finalize your email<\/b>.<\/p>\n If anything isn\u2019t looking right, you can always head back into GMass\u2019s HTML code editor to tweak it.<\/p>\n Oh, you didn\u2019t know Gmail now offers some built-in HTML email templates<\/b>? It\u2019s not your fault. They haven\u2019t gotten much fanfare.<\/p>\n Google rolled out the email templates for Gmail to Google Workspace users in mid 2022, along with its Gmail Multi-Send<\/a> feature (which is presented like a mail merge feature but, ya know, without actually doing any mail merging).<\/p>\n The templates are limited<\/b> but offer a super quick way to get an HTML design into a Gmail message<\/b>.<\/p>\n To access the templates, open a compose window in Gmail. Then click the wireframe icon<\/b>. (If you\u2019re not seeing that icon, it could be because you\u2019re on a free plan.)<\/p>\n Google will show you a selection of different email marketing templates<\/b>. You can also edit your color scheme, default font choice, logo, and more from this box\u2019s Default styling<\/b> menu.<\/p>\n I made a few changes to colors and such to create an email marketing campaign for a fictional artichoke store.<\/p>\n You can see there are some trade-offs here<\/b>. The images don\u2019t look right I can\u2019t adjust their size. It\u2019s not easy to alter the design<\/b>. (if you want to dig into the underlying HTML, you can do so in GMass \u2014 but Google\u2019s code is pretty jumbled.)<\/p>\n Still, this is a quick, native way to get an HTML template into your Gmail messages<\/b>. You can then use GMass to send this message to your email list.<\/p>\n Some email platforms come with a built-in drag-and-drop email building tool. But those aren\u2019t the only places to find drag-and-drop email builders<\/b>. Plenty of those tools exist independently<\/b> as well.<\/p>\n So you can design your email template using a builder<\/b>, then export the HTML<\/b> and import it into Gmail<\/b> to use the template.<\/p>\n Some quality drag-and-drop options for building email templates are:<\/p>\n All have free plans<\/b> that should<\/i> meet your needs if you\u2019re sending marketing emails once a week or less.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to demo the process here with Stripo.<\/p>\n After signing up for a free account, I had access to a large selection of starter templates (there\u2019s an even larger selection available with a paid premium plan).<\/p>\n I chose one and used their drag-and-drop builder to edit it for my artichoke company. The drag-and-drop editor is intuitive; I had pretty much no learning curve here.<\/p>\n Their export feature says it\u2019s for paid plans only, but free users do<\/i> get four exports per month. So\u2026 roughly but not exactly once a week.<\/p>\n I tried out their Gmail exporter for this project. It required connecting my Gmail account to Stripo \u2014 and then it exported my file directly to my Gmail drafts folder<\/b>.<\/p>\n Only slight problem: The images were now hosted by Stripo. And since I want embedded images in this email, I had to replace the images manually<\/b> inside Gmail. (If that\u2019s not a concern for you, you\u2019ll be good to go without that step.)<\/p>\n Just for kicks, I tried this process a second way \u2014 a way that would not count against my exporting quota. I copied the HTML code from the Stripo editor\u2019s code window\u2026<\/p>\n Then I pasted that code into a new Gmail message using the GMass HTML editor.<\/p>\n The results were mixed \u2014 some of the formatting was a bit off<\/b>, but I could take the time to tweak it (or just live with it). And again, I\u2019d need to replace the images to make them embedded rather than hosted.<\/p>\n Overall, this method for designing HTML email templates for Gmail could be great if you want a little more design flexibility<\/b> than Google\u2019s built-in templates give you.<\/p>\n You may find you need a premium plan for one of these email builders if you send at high volume.<\/p>\n Or, better yet \u2014 you might be able to get away with just designing one or two base templates<\/b>. Because once you send a campaign with GMass, GMass turns that into a template you can reuse and edit in the future.<\/p>\n Our final method for email templates in Gmail is using a Chrome Extension or Google Add-On to create your template directly inside Gmail<\/b>.<\/p>\n There aren\u2019t many of these types of extensions\/add-ons, but I did find a couple viable ones: One extension<\/a> and one add-on<\/a>. I\u2019m using the add-on for my demo.<\/p>\n I installed BEE Templates for Gmail from the Google Workspace Marketplace, gave it requisite permissions, then headed over to Gmail to use it.<\/p>\n In the Gmail compose window, I clicked on the BEE icon, which brought up the base templates. The navigation is a bit tricky<\/b> inside the small pop-up but I found a template I liked and selected it.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, there\u2019s no way to edit things like the background color without going into the HTML code. So if you\u2019re looking for a solution that\u2019s code-free, this likely isn\u2019t it<\/b>.<\/p>\n After changing the background color in the HTML code and replacing the photos with my own images, I had my email.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t love this method for creating an HTML template. It wasn\u2019t materially different from using one of Google\u2019s built-in templates \u2014 and was also tricky to edit.<\/p>\n If there were an extension or add-on that functioned as a drag-and-drop editor, like the product on BEE\u2019s website, it would be a great option.<\/p>\n But for the use case we\u2019re discussing here, you\u2019re better off either using one of the quick Google templates or importing something fancier from a third-party drag-and-drop editor<\/b>.<\/p>\n Alright! So you\u2019ve built your email template using one of the methods above.<\/p>\n Unless you\u2019re really<\/i> into template building, odds are you\u2019re going to want to use that same template over and over in the future with tweaks to its content<\/b>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a quick look at how you can do that with GMass.<\/p>\n After you send your campaign, GMass automatically turns it into a reusable template<\/a>.<\/p>\n For this example, I sent one of my HTML templates as a test campaign (it\u2019s the one I made with Stripo, if you\u2019re a completionist and needed me to close that loop).<\/p>\n Now that I\u2019ve sent it, when I\u2019m ready to use it again, I open the GMass settings<\/b> in a new compose window and go to the Templates section<\/b>.<\/p>\n My prior campaign is on the list (you can find it by subject line, or, if you give the campaign a friendly name<\/a>, you can identify it with that).<\/p>\n When I choose it, GMass automatically inserts that template into the compose window<\/b>.<\/p>\n And now I can tweak it however I want for my new campaign. Here I\u2019ll change my promotion from the holidays to Presidents\u2019 Day.<\/p>\n You should now be ready to create and use fantastic HTML email templates in Gmail<\/b>.<\/p>\n To review the four methods for doing so, they are:<\/p>\n So, for the quickest-possible summation of my recommendations:<\/p>\n Regardless of which you choose, though\u2026 GMass is the best option for sending your campaign<\/b>.<\/p>\n With GMass you can\u2026<\/p>\n![\"Email](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/facebook-group-question-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEmail Templates for Gmail: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n
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4 Reasons It\u2019s Advantageous to Send Your HTML Marketing Emails Through Gmail<\/h2>\n
Advantage #1: Improve deliverability by sending through Gmail\u2019s servers<\/h3>\n
Advantage #2: Keep your email correspondence unified in one place<\/h3>\n
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Advantage #3: You can use embedded images<\/h3>\n
Advantage #4: You won\u2019t be missing out on other features while you gain the above advantages<\/h3>\n
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Method #1: Write Your Own HTML Code<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-htmllink-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"HTML](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-codeincompose-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Insert](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-insertimage-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Email](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-uploadedimage2-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-embeddedcode2-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMethod #2: Use Google Workspace\u2019s Included Templates<\/h2>\n
![\"Access](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-googletempicon-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Choose](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-googletemps-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-usinggoogletemplate-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMethod #3: Importing an HTML Template from a Drag-and-Drop Builder<\/h2>\n
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![\"Choose](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-stripotemplates-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Edit](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-stripoeditor-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Exporting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-stripoexport-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-stripoexported-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Copying](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-stripocodeeditor-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-copyhtmlresult-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMethod #4: Using a Chrome Extension or Google Add-On<\/h2>\n
![\"Using](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-beeicon-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-beedone-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHow GMass Turns Your Email Template Into One You Can Use Over and Over<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-gmasstemplates-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"GMass](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-gmassinwindow-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/htmltemplates-edited-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEmail Templates in Gmail: Recommendations and Next Steps<\/h2>\n
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