Content best practices for Outlook

About this article

In this article, we will explain what are the best practices when using Templafy Library for Outlook. 

What are the Library assets that can be used in Outlook? 

• Email elements
• PDFs
• Links
• Images

Please read our generic Libraries' best practices first!

Email elements library

The Email element library is used to insert pieces of content within an Outlook email or meeting invite. Email elements meant for Outlook must be built in Word. 

What to keep in mind when creating Email elements for Templafy

• Do not embed files in the Email elements
• Use direct formatting and do not use the "Theme Fonts" in the font dropdown
  Outlook default templates are complicated to distribute and are most often not following the latest company standards. By using direct formatting, you can ensure that the email elements are inserted using the desired font type, size, and color. Using Styles formatting would most of the time results in getting the default Office format/styles instead of the desired company format (e.g. Calibri 11pt).  
  

What kind of assets should the Email elements library contain?

• Sales: follow up email, inbound email, etc.
• HR: interview invitation, rejection/acceptance email, company culture presentation, etc.
• Marketing: newsletters, internal communications, etc.
• Finance: invoicing email, receipt of invoice notification, etc.

PDFs library

The PDFs library is used to attach PDFs to an Outlook email or meeting.

What kind of assets should the PDFs library contain?

• Sales: pricing, security information, product one-pagers, case stories, guides, etc.
• HR: employee's benefits, internal policies, training, building security information, etc.
• Marketing: brand guidelines, competitor analysis, marketing analysis, etc.
• Legal: certification letters, agreements, terms and conditions, etc.

Links library

The Links library is used to insert URLs within an Outlook email or meeting. Inserting links will use "Use Destination Theme" from Outlook and will be formatted based on the default Outlook format/styles.

What kind of URLs should the Links library contain?

• Sales: website pages, product videos, FAQ links, product demonstrations, etc.
• HR: links to “about us” and videos about “working with us”, etc.
• Marketing & Comms: links to newsletters sign-up or collateral downloads, partner websites, etc.
• Legal: link to T&C website page
• IT: links to troubleshooting and set up articles, checklists, etc.

When uploading to Templafy, is it recommended to give a friendly name to the email elements, PDFs, and Links so it is easily understandable by the end-user. Tip: you can add more details about the asset in the Description field.

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