2 Free Digital Tools To Help You Step Up Your Gmail Game

Both of these free Gmail add-ons can save you a ton of time and effort in your inbox.

Heyo!

We’ve had a lot of new folks join our little community recently. Welcome! Whether you’ve been here since day 1, or this is your first issue, I’d love to hear from you.

Hit reply to this email and let me know: what kind of tools would be helpful for you?

If you know anyone who might appreciate what we’re doing here, please invite them to join us!

For the first time ever, today’s email is a repeat. I’m not sending for lack of time or because I’ve run out of tools (not even close!). I am just obsessed with both of these tools and we’ve had a ton of new people join since I shared them last. So I wanted to re-up them for you all today.

Both of today’s tools are specific to Gmail. So if you’re not a Gmail user, this one might not be relevant for you. (Though I’m guessing Outlook probably has similar tools built into their platform. ) But seeing as how Gmail has over 1.5 billion users, I’m going to assume this will be helpful for at least some of you. 😉

Both of these free digital tools work with standard free Gmail accounts, as well as with paid business accounts (which used to be called G Suite but are now called Google Workspace 🤷‍♂️).

Gmail Signatures

Tool type: Gmail Add-on

I’m a business owner. And a musician. And a podcast host. I sit on the board of several non-profits. I have a lot going on. You know, like most people!

While I have a primary email signature, over the years I’ve found it just doesn’t work for every situation. And just as importantly, lots of emails I send don’t require any signature at all beyond my standard “Best, Josh”.

Once upon a time, you could opt to have your Gmail signature on or off. Those were your only options. I kept mine off and then had my formatted email signature in an Apple Note which I would copy and paste in as needed. It was a serious PITA, but for me, it was better than including it constantly, in every email, regardless of context.

Then Google rolled out this game-changing signature add-on!

Now, I write my email. But before hitting send, I click the pen at the bottom of the email.

Then I get the option to “Manage Signatures.”

I have “No signature” set as my default. But with just two quick clicks, I can add in my primary signature, my political signature (if you didn’t already know this about me, I do a lot of digital work with progressive political campaigns and organizations) or one of my other defaults.

I also have a signature for a nonprofit of which I’m board president, one for my public speaking, something I do a lot of… with this simple tool, you can have the right signature for every email!

Building out these signatures is easy. Simply click the gear icon ⚙️ at the top right of your account and then select “See all settings.”

You’ll be in the General tab. Scroll down to “Signature” and you can “create new” or edit your pre-existing ones. You can also select which defaults (if any) to use, for both new emails and replies.

I personally use this tool multiple times per week, at a minimum. I’m a big fan - after all, it lets me easily customize one of the most important parts of my email and it does it for free.

FREE or FREEmium: FREE!

This free tool works with both free and paid Gmail accounts.

Gmail Templates

Tool type: Gmail Add-on

While I love the ability to customize my signature with every email, there are also times I find myself writing basically the same emails over and over.

Emails for client onboarding, emails to share Facebook ad reporting, emails to pass along leads... the list goes on.

This free digital tool allows you to save any email as a template that can then be simply dropped into an email and edited, rather than drafting something new from scratch. A real-time saver, if used well.

To turn on templates, head back to settings (click that ⚙️ icon) and then go to “See all settings.” This time, you need to navigate over to the “Advanced” tab.

Once there, you’ll see an option to enable or disable “Templates.” Make sure it’s enabled.

The next time you find yourself writing an email that feels like something you’ve written before (or something you think you might need to write again), click the three dots at the bottom of your email (next to the pen icon).

From there you’ll see an option called Templates.

Select it and “Save draft as template.” Or, if you’ve already done so, select the template you’d like to insert into your inbox.

Selecting a previously saved template will populate a fully formatted email, complete with signature (if you saved one as part of your template) and even your saved Subject Line!

From there, you can edit anything you want, add recipients and hit send.

Instead of writing the same basic draft over and over, this free digital tool will help you express yourself in a fraction of the time.

Another Gmail game-changer!

FREE or FREEmium: FREE!

This too works with both free and paid Gmail accounts.

Need help with any component of your digital story? Have questions about these tools, or anything else? Hit reply to this email!

If this was helpful for you, please consider forwarding it on to a few friends.

Until next time, keep on telling your story!

Best,
Josh
joshklemons.com

PS - Since I mentioned above I’m a podcast host, I’d be remiss not to give a quick plug. I actually have two podcasts.

One is called Step Up Your Social. All episodes are short (~10 minutes or less) and provide quick, actionable tips to take your digital marketing to the next level.

Listen at StepUpYourSocial.com or wherever you stream podcasts.

The other is called Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect. I check in with candidates, consultants, strategists and more to find out what’s working — and what’s not! — in the political digital world.

Listen at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.