Creating (and receiving) an email is often fairly straight forward. But what if you want to send an email that really stands out? For example, for sending a job application or for marketing purposes? Then it helps to add formatting to your emails. This way you can add formatting to emails.
The subject line
Let's start at the beginning: the subject line is one of the first things people see when they receive your email. An original subject line that's neither too long nor too short can make you stand out right away. Adding an emoji also helps. While this may not always be advisable with a job application email, for marketing purposes an emoji can make all the difference in whether or not your email is opened. Not only do these emoji replace any words, they also add some charm while grabbing the reader's attention. By the way, adding emojis in your subject line currently only works when you add them on your phone. So you can create a draft email on your phone where you put the emojis in the subject line and then finish the text in the browser version of, for example, Gmail.
Default formatting in Gmail
In Gmail itself you can add some formatting options in your text that give your text just a little more clarity or emphasis. Think of enumerations, making text bold, italicized or crossed out or adding a striking quote. For all these things, open a new email and click "more formatting options" in the bottom right.
Default formatting in Outlook
You can also add formatting to your text in Outlook. If you use the same layout often, you can even make it a template so that next time you have the layout in front of you within a few clicks. To do this, first format the email the way you like it. Then save it under the file type 'outlook template'. Open this template as soon as you need it. Tip: remove your signature from the template, otherwise it will appear twice when sending.
Formatting with Canva
In this Canva article, we showed you how to create a cover letter. Once you have created this letter, you can of course also paste it as an image directly into your email. It may not be the cutting edge email marketing format you had in mind, but it is a simple solution. The same goes for any logos or banners you create in Canva. To do this, save the image or letter as a 'JPG file'. Open the image on your computer and copy it by right-clicking on it and choosing 'copy'. Paste it into your email with the Ctrl+V keyboard shortcut.
Make your own template
Would you like to know how you can create working HTML email templates yourself in which the reader interacts with the content? Then you should use an e-mail service for this in which you can compile your own templates or use pre-made templates. Examples include Mailchimp, Zohocampain, and Email Octopus. The latter even offers some templates that you can download for free without having to create a profile. It's a bit of puzzling and it may take you a while to get the hang of it, but it's definitely worth it if you want to add formatting to your emails more often.
Using downloaded templates in Gmail
Want to use the templates you downloaded in Gmail? Unfortunately, that doesn't work like that. To do this, you must first create an account with Saleshandy or a similar service. Then install the corresponding Chrome extension. What this extension does is that it allows you to not only add templates to your Gmail emails, but also to schedule emails easily and clearly and enable a read receipt. To add and edit a template, do the following: First, open the template in Chrome. You do this by double clicking on the file. Since it is an HTML file, it will automatically open in your browser. Then right-click in the page and select 'view page source'. Now the HTML code of the template opens. Select everything with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A to select and then use Ctrl+C to copy.
Then open a new email file in Gmail. You will now see some new icons at the bottom. These belong to the Sales Handy extension. Choose 'templates' and then 'create template'. A new screen will now open in your browser where you can create the template. Click on the source code and paste the HTML code of the template into it. Then click on 'ok'. You can now edit the template to your own taste and insight. You can adjust all images, change text and place links to websites. By the way, don't forget to give your template a 'subject' name at the top left, otherwise the template cannot be saved.
You then open the template in Gmail by clicking the 'template' icon again. Then choose 'all templates'. You will see that your homemade (or edited) template is now listed. If you click on it, it will be automatically loaded into your email. Here too you can now still edit and adjust the text and its layout. Anyway, a tip is to always send a test email to yourself first to see if the template also works the way you want. And voila! Now you know how it works to add formatting to emails from simple to elaborate: no one will miss your emails anymore!
