For many, branding an email is limited to creating an email signature. And while a customized signature is a good idea, it leaves out many possible options to really make your email represent you and your business.

This article shows how to create a branded email with settings that are applied every time you create a new email or reply to an existing one.

OPEN A NEW EMAIL

The first thing you’ll need to do is open a new email. This email won’t be sent to anyone, rather it will be used as a template for all future emails. Also, don’t worry about any text you create in this email as only the styling choices will be saved.

OPTIONS TAB

In the email you just created select the Options Tab. In this tab is a section called Themes. This section allows you to setup your color palette and choose your desired fonts.

If your company has a branded theme, you can simply choose it to get your setup quickly. After applying the theme, skip to the bottom of this article and read how to save your settings.

If a theme isn’t provided, click the Colors button then the Fonts button and make your selections. Here you can set your colors to match the style guide of your company and you can choose the desired fonts for your email.

Figure 1- New email with the Options tab selected

Figure 1- New email with the Options tab selected

FORMAT TEXT TAB

The next tab we want to use is the Format Text tab. Here we have the controls to make more granular style changes.

The Format Text tab has many detailed controls and you can spend a lot of time deciding exactly how you want your emails to look. You can create many styles and select them for specific situations. This includes the many default styles already provided.

For the sake of brevity, I’m going to focus on a couple of areas: bullet and numbered lists – and paragraph styling.

BULLET AND NUMBERED LISTS

You can add a bit of pop to your emails by customizing your bullet and numbered list formatting. The instructions are the same for both list types, so I’ll cover bulleted lists.

Click on the dropdown for the bulleted list shown in Figure 2, then click on Define New Bullet…

Figure 2 – Bullet List dropdown with Define New Bullet… highlighted

Figure 2 – Bullet List dropdown with Define New Bullet… highlighted

As a note, if your bullet dropdown menu item is disabled, you need to click into the main body of the email – the button will turn on.

In the Define New Bullet window, click on Font. Now you can begin to customize your bullet or numbered list. Give the bullet a branded color by clicking on Font color.

You can choose other modifications as well such as whether the bullet should be bolded. When you are finished, click OK and work yourself back to your email by closing all the pop-up windows.

Repeat these instructions on a numbered list to achieve the same effect.

Figure 3 – Define New Bullet and Font popup windows

Figure 3 – Define New Bullet and Font popup windows

PARAGRAPH STYLING

The second area where you can add a personal touch is by customizing your paragraph styling. Paragraph styling lets you control the horizontal positioning, line spacing, indent, font size and font color.

To get to these options, look to the far right of the Format Text tab and click the Change Styles button.

In the expanded menu, click Paragraph Spacing followed by Custom Paragraph Spacing… to open the Manage Styles popup window.

Figure 4 – Change Styles menu expanded to select Custom Paragraph Spacing

Figure 4 – Change Styles menu expanded to select Custom Paragraph Spacing

In the Manage Styles pop-up window you can set many individual settings. Here is a brief explanation of the options available:

  • Paragraph Position – allows you to adjust how much spacing exists between your text and the edge of the email. Special indenting allows you to indent either the first line or all lines following the first line. Finally, text alignment can be set (left, right, center, justified).

  • Paragraph Spacing – allows you to set the amount of spacing between paragraphs (how much vertical spacing you get from pressing ‘Enter’). Additionally, you can set the line spacing in between each line of text.

    Below are the settings that I use. Feel free to play with yours to get the style working for you.

Figure 5 – Manage Styles pop-up window with preferred settings

Figure 5 – Manage Styles pop-up window with preferred settings

SAVE YOUR SETTINGS

The last step in this process is to save these settings so that they are retained for all future emails. Doing so is simple – the menu is found in the Format Text tab.

Open the Change Styles button again (remember, its on the right side of the Format Text menu) and in the expanded menu, click on Set as Default.

That’s it! Now you can close this email without saving it. All your future emails will retain your settings and you’ll be able to produce emails that represent you and your company without all the hassle of continuously selecting fonts, sizes, and spacing like you’ve done before.

MOBILE MENTOR

Mobile Mentor is committed to empowering people to achieve more and is always looking for ways to help people work more efficiently. If you liked this article check out some of my other workplace productivity blogs as there’s plenty of topics similar to this.

Shane Sloan

Shane is our Vice President of Products and Innovation our managed service line of business as well as our enterprise Intune migration program. Shane is a graduate of Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management with a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). Prior to joining Mobile Mentor, Shane spent 9 years at AIG’s Life Insurance division focused on development, automation engineering and quality assurance leadership. In 2007, Shane obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Information Technology from Colorado Technical University. Prior to undergrad, Shane had a distinguished career with the US Army as a Blackhawk helicopter crew chief.