Create your template in Google Docs and import it in Gmail

If you want to send beautiful emails, you can create your template in Google Docs, then copy it into Gmail. YAMM will keep all the formatting from your template and send it to your recipients. This article will show you how to do so.

stars

Goal

YAMM already lets you compose your newsletter directly in Gmail, and you can save your email template directly in your Gmail 'Drafts' folder. However, Gmail's WYSIWYG editor is quite limited, and you would need to dig into HTML/CSS code if you want an advanced formatted newsletter, adding some complexity to your email. On the contrary, you can take advantage of Google Docs editor to easily build your template. This tutorial will show you how to do that.

What you'll build

You will design a beautiful newsletter in a Google Docs that you can reuse as a template in YAMM for your emailing campaigns:

Template newsletter YAMM

timelapse

Time to complete

15 min or more, depending on the complexity of your newsletter's design.

check_circle

Prerequisites

Before beginning this tutorial, you should feel comfortable using Google Docs and know how to send regular mail merges with YAMM.

mode_edit

Running a simple example

It is nearly Christmas time, and you want to send a special email to your colleagues, friends, family or clients. In this example, we (as YAMM team) will send you a newsletter which includes a special gift that you can download for your own campaigns.

If you want to try with our newsletter example, just click on the button below and make a copy of this template:

Copy template

1. Create your template in Google Docs

Open a new Google Doc, and start drafting your newsletter as you want.

1.1. Prepare the 'canvas' (optional)

For more comfort and flexibility, we recommend to reduce all the margins down to 0:

Margin Docs 0

Note: This step is optional, you can choose to narrow the width of your newsletter by adding more margins.

1.2. Build the backbones of your template

Then, it is very simple! Just shape your newsletter into tables. Add the main one, then inside it, add other tables for sections, insert columns/rows to divide sections etc.:

Add tables to Google Docs

Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect! This is the main advantage of Google Docs vs. HTML code: You can always modify your template as many times as necessary, until you are satisfied with it.

1.3. Design your template

Now that you have the backbones of your template, it's time to be creative! Add some colors, images, texts etc.

For example, here's an overview of our newsletter:

Template newsletter overview

Note: You can import images from your PC, however for the moment YAMM doesn't support 'Drawing' from Google Docs.

Your template is now ready to be imported in Gmail!

2. Import your template in Gmail

To do so, select first all your newsletter content from Google Docs (or press ctrl + A / cmd + A), then copy it (ctrl + C / cmd + C).

In your Gmail inbox, compose a new message. On the body content, paste your template (ctrl + V / cmd + V).

Import G Docs template in Gmail YAMM

3. Send your newsletter through YAMM

Select your template in YAMM, and hit the 'Send Emails' button as you would usually do.

Send mail merge YAMM

Your recipients will get your nicely formatted newsletter in their inbox:

Newsletter from Docs with YAMM

By combining Google Docs with YAMM, you will be able to create pretty newsletter in a few clicks. As long as you are not using complex elements (see 'WARNING' paragraph), YAMM will keep all the formatting in your email sent!

warning By following this tutorial, please make sure that you are composing your entire newsletter from A to Z directly in Google Docs. You should not copy/paste any elements from another source (e.g. another web page) to your Docs, or you might get formatting issues when sending it with YAMM.

Besides, some elements from Google Docs are for now not supported by YAMM, like the different column displays and the 'Drawing' elements. To make sure that your emails will be correctly displayed, try to keep your template as simple as possible by inserting only basic elements like text, images, tables etc.