00:00:04:00 - 00:00:34:25
Hi everyone, and welcome to the SwiftFox Masterclass. Today we're looking at the latest addition to SMS campaigns in SwiftFox – message templates. If your team sends text messages regularly, you'll recognise the problem templates are here to solve. The same few messages get written over and over. A reminder before an event. The nudge after a renewal notice, the short confirmation that goes out every time a form comes in. Each time someone rewrites it from memory, and each time there's a small chance the wording gets changed slightly.

00:00:34:29 - 00:00:48:17
You'll notice the compose step has a tidy up as well, but that's largely self-explanatory on screen. What's worth your attention here is the templates. What one stores what happens the moment you apply one, and how templates behave when more than one circle is involved.

00:00:48:19 - 00:01:16:01
Templates store more than just your words. They save the message and its merge fields fallbacks together as a single package. Fallbacks are worth looking into if you haven't used them before. Whenever your message contains a merge field, the Merge field fallbacks panel appears beside it with one entry for each distinct field refused. A fallback is the default value shown when the recipient's data is incomplete. So instead of saying “Hi, your cover expires on”, you decide in advance what fills the gap.

00:01:16:05 - 00:01:26:47
A template carries those decisions with it. That's what makes it more than a snippet of text you pasting into a complete ready to send configuration of a message, including what happens when the data isn't there.

00:01:27:01 - 00:01:51:49
The templates button opens the template library. Every template you have access to is visible by default, with a search across the top when the list grows. Select a card and apply template becomes available. If your message box is empty, the template simply loads. If you've already written something SwiftFox stops and ask you if you want to replace the current message. Accepting will apply this template and will replace your current message and merge field fallbacks.

00:01:52:03 - 00:02:08:05
So this is a replacement, not a merge. If you had already set a full back for first name and the template carries its own, the templates value wins. Nothing is combined. In practice, it just means you apply the template first and make your adjustments second, rather than the other way around.

00:02:08:12 - 00:02:31:13
You can work in the opposite direction just as easily. Once you've composed something you'd want again, save as template opens, a dialog with a message already carried across the template name is required and the cursor lands in that field, so an unnamed template can't be saved by accident. The message stays fully editable there, and your fallback comes along too, shown with the count so you can see how many the template carries.

00:02:31:17 - 00:03:00:25
From then on, each template card in the library has its own menu. Offering edit, duplicate, and delete. Editing opens the same dialog you save from. So there's one place the template is defined, whether you're creating it or revising it. If a template was created in a different circle that you also have access to, its menu offers only duplicate. There's no edit and no delete because it isn't yours to alter. You'd be changing it for everyone using it. Duplicate gives you your own copy to edit freely.

00:03:00:29 - 00:03:13:29
There is one limitation though. Templates currently live in the compose step of a text campaign. The aren't yet available on the individual text messages or event RSVP texts, so in plain terms, a template is a complete text message.

00:03:13:33 - 00:03:35:31
The wording and the fallbacks behind it. Saved once and reused as a unit. That's what makes a dependable. And it's why applying one replaces what you had rather than blending with it. If you're getting started, you don't need a library. Take the next messenger about a send. Write it properly. Set a sensible fallback for every merge field in it and save it. The second time it goes out, you'll have the time back.

00:03:35:39 - 00:03:39:15
Thanks for joining this SwiftFox Masterclass and we'll see you in the next one.