Before You Automate Everything: 3 Simple Tools That Save Hours on Email

Feels like every time you turn around, someone's telling you about a new AI tool or automated sequence that's going to change your wholesale game. And hey, some of that stuff really is worth exploring.

But today we're bringing back some tools that are almost old-fashioned by comparison — and honestly, that's kind of the point. No prompts to write, no wondering what a bot might send on your behalf, no new subscription to manage. Just a few shortcuts (one's been sitting in your Gmail settings this whole time) that save you real time and help you stay personal without retyping the same sentence for the hundredth time.

You can't just send the same email to a bunch of stores and expect a positive response. Hear me when I say that efficiency does not equal spam. But having your "starter text" ready to go, so you're not reinventing the wheel every time, makes it so much easier to reach out consistently. That's where these three tools come in.

Tool #1: Gmail Templates

If you don't use Gmail, you can move on to tip #2 -- this one isn't for you. However, so many of our makers do use Gmail that I find myself recommending this to folks on an almost daily basis. 

The purpose: 
Obviously, every single email is different and you always want to speak directly to what you respond to a given store as well as how you see your work fitting in. That said, having an email template for all the parts of the email that don't  change can be crucial. If you use Gmail, templates are a way to save your email template in the actual window where you compose it -- and you can access it in just 2 clicks. Plus, you don't run the risk of creating formatting issues by copying-and-pasting from another program.

Follow these steps to enable Templates:

1. In Gmail, click the settings gear in the upper right corner. In the panel that slides out, click See all settings.

2. At the top, click Advanced.

3. In the Templates section, select Enable.

4. At the bottom, click Save Changes.

Here’s how to create a new template or update an existing one:

1. Open Gmail and click Compose.

2. In the Compose window, enter the text you’d like to use in your email template.

3. Click More More (the three-dot menu) and then Templates.

4. Choose an option:

   • To create a new template, click Save draft as template and then Save as new template.

   • To change a previously saved template, click Save draft as template and under Overwrite Template, choose a template and click Save to overwrite it.

5. When you’re ready to write your email, customize your message and click Send.

Tool #2: Keyboard Shortcuts

If you don't use a Mac, this tip isn't for you. But this tool will save you a lot of time if you do use a Mac, so it's definitely worth sharing here.

The purpose: 
Do you ever find yourself typing the same things to people over and over again? You absolutely mean them - and you value the relationship, of course. But some things you might find yourself typing repeatedly when you're growing wholesale are:

• Thank you so much for getting right back to me!

• To place an order, you can head over to my Wholesale ordering site.

• Sure thing! You can email me at [email protected].

In every one of these cases, retyping the phrase or sentence doesn't make anything more personal -- it just runs the risk of delaying your email or causing a typo. Mac Keyboard shortcuts let you input common things that you say and then you can trigger your computer or phone to type them for you with just a keystroke. For instance, perhaps you input the "To place an order..." sentence, so every time you type "77" your computer knows to insert that sentence.

How to do it:

1. Type command-space to pull up the Mac spotlight search.

2. Type "text replacements" in the search, and select Text Replacements. (You can also get here manually: Apple menu → System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Text Replacements.)

3. Click the "+" button to create a new shortcut. In the Replace field, type your shortcut; in the With field, type the longer version. For instance, perhaps the shortcut is "rr" and the long version is "So sorry for my delay in getting back to you!"

4. Once you're done, close the window — your changes save automatically.

Tool #3: Text blaze

Apple's built-in Text Replacement is a native macOS feature, which means it works great in apps like Mail and Notes — but it can be hit or miss inside Gmail (or any browser tab, really). If you're finding your shortcuts aren't firing when you're composing in Gmail specifically, here's a workaround.

Text Blaze is a free browser extension that does the same job (short trigger —> full sentence) but it's built to work inside Gmail and other web apps, not just native Mac apps. It's also handy if you're on a Windows machine, since Mac Keyboard Shortcuts obviously won't apply there.

How to set it up:

1. Install the Text Blaze extension from the Chrome Web Store.

2. Create a free account and open your snippet dashboard.

3. Click "+" to create a new snippet, give it a shortcut (like /order), and type out the full text you want it to expand into.

4. Save it. Now typing /order anywhere in Gmail, or any other website, will pop up your saved text, ready to insert.

The free plan covers up to 20 snippets with unlimited use, which is plenty to start with.

Let us know how these shortcuts work for you, and if you have any questions about the process!