To: Coaches who use Gmail, are frustrated, and want to save time

Subject: Useful Gmail Hacks that will take your efficiency to the next level

Coaches,

Do you find yourself spending too much time buried in emails? Do you have a sneaking suspicion that there is a better way to use Gmail; that you could be spending less time staring at your inbox and more time coaching?

Today Lisa Finck (C.P.C., A.C.C.), Brooke Adair Walters (M.C.L.C., C.P.C), and Jerome LeDuff Jr (M.C.L.C.) share some of the tips & tricks we use at CLCI to not only get rid of those Gmail headaches, but make Gmail work for us in unexpected ways!

In our CLCI LIVE video and in this blog, we will cover 4 main topics

• How to setup and link your signature

• How to setup email templates

• How to automate emails

• How to schedule meetings links/time slots using MeetingBird

Setting up a linked signature

One way to make yourself look extra professional is by setting up an email signature. It makes you as a coach look considerate and once you have it set up you'll never forget to sign off properly again. In addition to all of this, you can have your signature linked to your website so that serves as a business card and part of your marketing funnel.

1. Open your email and select the gear icon on the upper-righthand side of the toolbar. Open it and click see all settings.

2. Stay in the General tab and scroll all the way down to Signature. Click Create new and name that signature. Protip! You can create multiple signatures for different uses!

3. An edit box will appear where you can create your personalized signature. Remember, this is your "email business card" so be sure to include everything a client would find relevant. For something simple and easy I included my name, relevant titles, our logo, and phone number. To edit the image, just click on it and you can adjust the size and make it a link.

4. To make into a link, highlight the image/text and click the link button on the bottom toolbar. Then copy/paste the web address that you want to link to. Most likely your website landing page. Be sure to test the link first! When you are done scroll all the way to the bottom of general settings and save changes.

5. You're all done! Whenever you compose a new email you can click the signature button at the bottom, browse your saved signatures, and send that beautiful professional email.

Email Templates

Email templates are necessary if you want to start automating your emails and creating an email marketing campaign. And setting them up is a breeze.

1. Open your email and select the gear icon on the upper-righthand side of the toolbar. Open it and click see all settings. Then navigate to Advanced tab and find the Templates setting. Click to Enable. Once enabled, scroll down and click save changes. Gmail should refresh and bring you back to the main page.

2. Compose a new email and add in the necessary text for your email template, don't forget to add that shiny new signature you just learned about. Then click the three dots next to the trash icon, select: Templates, Save draft as template, save as new template. Give your template a name and save. The name you give your template will automatically become the subject line.

Now when you go to Templates it should bring up your saved templates

Automate and Filter Emails

Automating Gmail and the emails you send will streamline your experience and is an incredibly powerful tool. So powerful in fact that it deserves its own article, luckily for you, we've found a recent article article by Olga Petrik that goes into detail on How to Automate your Email Routine in Gmail.

For now, we will go over a basic filter and auto-send a template.

1. Using our lovely Marketing & Branding expert Brooke as an example, I will select her from my inbox, click more, and select Filter messages like these.

2. Then, making sure the address is correct, go down and click create filter.

3. A list will populate for all the filter types and actions that can be applied. If I wanted to send Brooke a template every time she sent an email I would go down to send template and choose from my saved templates. Once you've created your filters, select create filter and it will save your selections.

What you can do with templates, filters, and automation is amazing but be sure to start small, test your automations, and be patient when learning all the combinations of what you can do. Rome wasn't built in a day; great things take time to make.

Schedule Meetings with MeetingBird

MeetingBird is another powerful tool that you can use to schedule meetings and insert them directly into an email, allowing recipients to book a meeting with you in a single click. MeetingBird is integrated directly into your Google Calendar and can also provide meetings links directly to Zoom.

*Note: It is highly recommended for the best experience you use Google Chrome and download the MeetingBird Chrome Extension.

1. On the righthand side of Gmail is a + for all your Add-ons. Add-ons are great tools made by developers and people for integration into Gmail. For now we will look at MeetingBird. Type it into the search bar and install it to Gmail.

2. Once installed, MeetingBird will be added to the add-on sidebar. Click the icon to open it, then select Open MeetingBird. You will be taken to its homepage where you will then Sign up with Google, using your associated Gmail account. Choose a username. MeetingBird will then open to the main page.

3. For added functionality for Google Chrome users, download the MeetingBird Chrome Extension. Click New Scheduling Link to create your meetings.

4. While there are many settings and ways to create your meeting link, MeetingBird provides a handy guide on how to Get Started with Scheduling Links.

5. Once you have your link created you can then log into Gmail and send people meeting links/ insert slots through the add-on.

*IMPORTANT NOTE! Only Chrome users with Chrome Extension can directly add meeting links and slots when composing a new message.

*All other browser users must either copy/paste the link into the new message or open the MeetingBird add-on for already existing emails.

Google Chrome users with the Chrome Extension can look like this when composing a new email.

With these 4 tools at your disposal you can turn a few hours of learning and tinkering into months or even years worth of saved time.

Thank you,

Lisa Finck, Brooke Adair Walters, and Jerome LeDuff Jr.

Join us every Tuesday at 4 pm PST/7 PM EST for our CLCI Live Facebook Demos.

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