New Automation Checklist (External email)
Starting point: 👋
This is the initial starting point for setting up external emails from the Glide system. You only need to do these steps once, so if you have already completed them, then go straight to Step 3.
| Step 1 | Global settings: Ensure you have your global email settings set. These include the default (i.e. fallback) values for the from name, from address, signature and queue/send that will be used when a template does not have its own, specific settings. This also includes the option to bcc all messages to an address. |
Further info |
| Step 2 | Mail server: Give consideration to which mail server will send your emails. By default this will be Glide (SendGrid). If you are using this option and setting the from address to your domain, which is logical for external emails, then you'll need to contact Glide to set up domain authentication. | Further info |
Create an Email Template:
The next thing you would need to do is to create an email template.
| Step 3 | Creating an email template: Ensure you have a template set up. This is where you construct the message and often includes merging in client and/or job data. | Further info |
| Step 4 | Decide whether to send or queue: Consider whether an email should be sent immediately or queued for manual review. Typically, external messages would initially be set to queue and then switched to send once you are happy with the initial emails being generated. | Further info |
| Step 5 | Template-specific sending rules: Consider whether this template needs a specific rule to set any of the 'from name', 'from address' or signature in a way that is different to your global defaults. This can include dynamic settings such as sending from the preparer etc. For external messages, it is often desirable for messages to be sent from a job position such as manager or preparer. If the client replies, then the reply will go to this person. |
Further info |
Consider how Glide will find the correct external recipient(s):
The system needs to find the correct recipient(s) and there are two options available for external sending. You can read about the options here.
If you choose option 1 (sending to the client email address), then follow steps 6 and 7. This article provides some tips for and examples of this approach.
If you choose option 2 (sending to a tagged contact), then follow steps 8, 9 and 10. This article provides some tips for and examples of this approach.
| Step 6 | ||
| Step 7 | ||
| Step 8 | Ensure the tag exists: You can have as many different tags as you need. If your new automation can use an existing tag, then this will simplify the setup. If not then you shall need to create a new one. | Further info |
| Step 9 | Ensure the recipients exist: It's possible your recipients may already be on Glide especially if they are a client. If you need to add any then do so next. | Further info |
| Step 10 | Ensure the recipients are tagged: If you have new recipients or a new tag, ensure all recipients are correctly tagged. You can do this individually or via a bulk import. | Further info |
Sending Emails Options:
How do you use different actions or alerts to send emails to your clients or contacts and when are the emails sent.
| Step 11 | How to automatically send an E-mail or SMS via an alert: Once you have created some message templates you may wish to automate the sending of the messages. | Click here for a guide |
| Step 12 | How to automatically send an E-mail or SMS via a workflow action: Workflow actions are triggered automatically when a workflow step is run. | Click here for a guide |
| Step 13 | How to control whether an E-mail or SMS template is sent immediately or is queued: All messages (both SMS and e-mail) that are created by the Glide system can either be sent immediately (the system sends these every 5 minutes) or added to a queue for sending later. | Click here for a guide |
| Step 14 | Manual sending - How to send an e-mail to a group of clients using a template: There might be occasions where you wish to send a message, generated using a message template, to a group of your clients in a way that is in no way connected to your Glide jobs. | Click here for a guide |