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Templates

Reuse week-and-day communication plans across campaigns with Templates in the Communicate App.

#templates #scheduling #time-saving #best-practices

Templates

Streamline Your Communication Scheduling

Templates in the Communicate App let you reuse communication plans across your campaigns. You build a predefined week-and-day grid, then apply it to a campaign so communications land on the right days without scheduling each one from scratch.

1. Templates list

The Templates section lists what you have created. You can use Search for… to find a template by name.

Each template appears with its name, Duration (how many weeks), and Comms (how many communications the template includes). Where column headers are shown, you can sort by name, number of communications, or template length by clicking the headers.

The list view functions similarly to the Campaigns list, allowing you to manage templates effectively.

  • Editing and Duplicating Templates:

    • Edit: Click the three-dot icon next to the template’s name. Changes only affect future uses of the template, not campaigns that already used it.
    • Duplicate: Creates a copy you can rename and adjust (names may end with COPY).

  • Deleting Templates:

    • Choose Delete from the three-dot menu and confirm (Confirm Delete) when prompted. Existing campaigns that already used the template are not undone by deleting the template.

2. Creating a Template

  • Click the + New button at the top of the Templates page, then create a new template when prompted (in the app this option may appear as Legacy Template).
  • Name the Template: Enter a name. There are no restrictions on the name.
  • Select Template Length: Use the Weeks dropdown to select length from 1 to 20 weeks.

Building the Template:

  • The layout resembles the communications calendar on the Campaign page: each column is a day, each row is a week.
  • Drag Channel icons from above the grid into the cells for the days you want communications scheduled. You can place multiple communications on the same day or spread them across the week.
  • Click Save when finished.

Reducing the number of weeks may ask you to confirm that communications in removed weeks will be removed.

3. Applying a Template on a campaign

  • Open the Communications Calendar within the Campaign page.
  • Click + Apply Template and choose a template. The list only includes templates that have the same or fewer weeks as your current campaign.
  • Communications from the template are added to your campaign’s schedule. Keep in mind:
    • Day 1 of the template corresponds to the start date of your campaign.
    • If the template is shorter than the campaign, remaining days or weeks are left blank for you to fill as needed.
  • Existing communications in your campaign are not overridden. To switch templates, remove existing communications before applying a different one.

Once applied, you can adjust, reorder, or remove communications as needed, just as if you had scheduled them manually.

4. Best Practices

  • Tiered Templates: Create templates for different scales—for example, a longer template for major all-church events and a shorter one for smaller ministries.
  • Consistent Start Days: If you always start campaigns on the same weekday (e.g. Monday), build templates so Day 1 aligns with that rhythm.

Templates save time, reduce errors, and keep a consistent approach across similar campaigns.

Additional Resources

For more detailed guidance, explore our Documentation. If you have further questions, reach out to us at [email protected].

Start organizing your communications more effectively today.

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