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Make Your Emails Pop with our Free HTML Editor for Gmail

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Are you an HTML dabbler and want to make your emails a little more eye-catching?

If so, you’ll be happy to hear about our Free HTML Editor extension for Gmail, which easily customizes your emails like never before. Get your creative juices flowing and design your emails exactly how you envision them for mobile or desktop view.

Turning a plain old generic email into a masterpiece can instantly grab your recipient’s eye!

Design an Email in HTML Format—Quickly and Easily

It’s all about the visuals: the moment your recipient opens your message, it needs to POP.

That’s where our HTML Editor for Gmail comes in. It puts the power in your hands to create fully customized, visually stunning emails that get your message across effectively.

Here’s a quick video showing how the extension works:

But wait, there’s more!

Let’s take a look at some of the other great features you’ll enjoy:

  • The fully embedded intelligent HTML editor monitors your code in Gmail as you type, automatically adding closing tags and alerting you to common problems like missing brackets (so you won’t have to wonder what went wrong if you make a tiny error!).
  • Customize every feature of your messages, including fonts, colors, and spacing—so your email content will be more expressive than ever.
  • If you need it, you can upgrade to the premium version for full email and phone support too- costing you less than a cup of coffee.

Plus, like the video shows, you can edit any HTML file stored in your Google Drive. You’ll love how easy it is to touch up your code!

Intrigued? Installation only takes a few seconds and it’s 100% free.

You don’t have to be an expert coder to make it work. The intuitive WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor makes this tool straightforward for a total newbie, too!

So, let’s take a closer look at the process.

5 Simple Steps to Getting Your HTML Game On

 

Step 1: Install with a Single Click

To get started, head over to the Chrome Web store to download the Free HTML Editor in seconds!

Click on the “Add to Chrome” button and follow the on-screen prompts. (And if this is your first time using one of our Gmail products, you’ll need to set up a cloudHQ account to manage your extensions.)

Step 2: Start Designing Your Email

Once you have the HTML Editor installed, begin composing a message and click on the “Edit as HTML” button that looks like a pencil drawing on paper.

Then the editor screen will pop up and you can begin composing your HTML code.

Step 3: Check Out the Live Preview

We’re all about keeping your workflow efficient.

Tabbing back and forth between windows and compiling code slows down the design process and breaks you out of that sweet creative headspace.

Not to worry: the HTML Editor includes a live preview of the output of your code on the right side of the screen, so you can instantly check your progress:

And if HTML coding is not exactly your forte, don’t sweat it—we added in the WYSIWYG design tab so you can create your email visually as well!

At the top of the left side of the screen, select “Design” to switch the editor from coding to visual design. In the visual builder, you can still add everything you need to create a stunning message, including embedded videos and images:

Plus, add tables, graphs, and headings—and boost sales and leads with a custom call-to-action button! Make adjustments on the fly and enjoy a seamless design experience from start to finish.

Step 4: Activate Mobile Preview

By default, the editor shows how your message will look on desktop, but nowadays recipients are more likely to check their emails on mobile while out and about.

So to make sure your email looks just as good on a smartphone as it does on desktop, switch the editor preview to “Mobile” and check out how your email will look on a mobile device:

Step 5: Send your Masterpiece

Once you’re finished and your email is looking fabulous for desktop and mobile, hit that send button and razzle-dazzle your audience!

Bonus: Edit Existing Email Templates

The HTML Editor will work with any existing email template to help you get the exact look you want.

If you don’t have any templates of your own, consider downloading our free Gmail Email Templates extension. It offers over 200 designs that you can easily customize using the HTML Editor—so you don’t even have to start from scratch!

Or if you’re one of our MailKing email marketing software users, take advantage of this HTML Editor to add some extra pizzazz to your professional email campaigns.

Try the Free HTML Editor Today!

Break away from the same boring emails—and don’t get caught up in using generic email templates if you have a great design idea of your own.

Instead, bring some color to your audience and liven up their inbox… Unleash your creativity and become the ‘Van Gogh’ of emails with our Free HTML Editor for Gmail.

You’ll boost your productivity and your sales leads.

 

 

How to Send a Halloween Email Campaign to Your Clients in 5 Minutes

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Halloween is upon us, and if you’re looking for a fun reason to contact your clients, this is a great one to do it!

Whether you’re having a ghoulish sale, or throwing a thrilling event, let us show you how easy it would be to create an email campaign with MailKing in just a few seconds.

MailKing is an easy email marketing software system that works right out of Gmail, and one of the best reasons to use it is for its high quality email template library.

Let’s take a look at this 2 minute video to see how fast it is to create a Halloween email campaign:




Let’s go through each step to make sure that it’s foolproof.

Step 1. Download MailKing

Go to the Google Chrome Store and download MailKing by clicking on the “Add to Chrome” button on the top right of your screen.

Your Gmail will refresh automatically, and you’ll be ready to get started.

Step 2. Getting Started

Now, you’ll notice a new button with the MailKing logo on it called “Campaigns” appearing under Gmail’s “Compose” button on the top left hand side of Gmail. Click on it.

After having clicked on it, you’ll see a new cloudHQ page with a button called “New Campaign”. Click on that, and you’ll be ready to start designing your entire email.

Step 3. Name Your Email

Naming your email should be a quick organizational way for you to remember what you sent, and when. I’ll name mine “Halloween 2018” so that when I look over all my campaigns in 2019, I’ll be able to know what this campaign was about.

Step 4. Who Are You Sending Your Halloween Email To?

The next step is about setting up who you’re sending your email campaign to. You can either upload your recipients via XLS or CSV file, Google Contacts, or you can just manually enter in your contact recipients.

Personally, I like the first two options best because then I get to use merge tags like someone’s first name, or another feature that makes it feel more personalized, which you can’t take advantage of if you just manually include someone’s email address.

Step 5. Your Email Design

This part is by far, my favorite. There’s so much I can address here, I feel like I absolutely need to break it all down:

  1. You can change your “From” name to anything you want. Maybe it’s your event name, your business name, whatever name it is that you want to show your email recipients, you can easily adjust right on top.
  2. For your email subject, you really should use something punchy like a question, an exclusive offer, or something along the lines of breaking through the noise.
  3. Next is “Use Template” and by gosh, this is the most fun part. If you click on that, you’ll find so many fun templates to use. And if by chance you see that we don’t have a template that you think would be really helpful, please email us and we’ll get one in the works for you!

Step 6. Choose Your Email Template

You’ll see so many templates, but to keep things simple, just enter a search term on the free email templates to see what pops up. I typed “Halloween” as my search term, and I’m going to choose from any of these email templates that popped up so that I can customize it before I send it out to my email recipients.

Step 7. Customize Your Email Template

Once you chose your template, you can customize it as much or as little as you want. All of the images are interchangeable for things like your own logo, or maybe even a picture of yourself-which by the way, works great if you’re a realtor or in sales.

In any case, whatever image you want to show, you can easily upload it just by clicking on the current image in the email template and replacing it. The same goes for any wording that you see and want to change, too. Maybe you want to show a sale that’s only 10% off, in which case, just click on the “20%” below, and change the wording to reflect “10%”.

I’d also suggest that you preview any emails before sending them. Near the top, and just under the “Email Template” gray line, you’ll see two tabs: “Edit” and “Preview”. Click on “Preview” to make sure everything looks perfect because sometimes, when you preview the email in a mobile format versus a web format, it helps you get an idea of what might need to change in order for you to add that special final touch.

And if you’re really wanting to change the bones of the entire email template, you can also use our built in HTML editor and play with it if you’re familiar with HTML and CSS. But have no fear if you’re not- we’ve given you over 200 high quality email templates to choose from, so it’s very likely that you’ll find one to suit your needs.

Step 8. Send!

This is the best step aside for customizing your template, because you’re done! Make sure that you check the box about understanding Gmail send limits, and then click on send!

A quick note about Gmail email sends:

We designed MailKing so that emails send directly from your email address. Google limits the number of emails that you can send from each email address to about 2,000 per day.

When you use a larger email marketing software system, your email actually goes through outside servers like Amazon, which leaves the Google ecosystem. The down side to going that route is that your emails get flagged by Gmail as “promotional”, and often only shows up in your email recipient’s “Promotional” tab.

With MailKing, we avoid that by respecting Gmail send limits, giving you the added value of making sure that your email lands in the inbox portion of your email recipients’ accounts.

MailKing is free for anyone sending up to 200 emails/month. If you need more than that, you’ll be prompted to upgrade your account for less than the cost of a kombucha and muffin at your local coffee shop.

Try MailKing today, and witness how you can create your own professional-looking Halloween email campaign in about 5 minutes!

 
   

How to Use Video for the Easter Holidays

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We’re celebrating both Easter and Passover this week at cloudHQ. As we often do, we’re busy creating holiday messages for friends, family, and important clients.

Our CMO Naomi, in particular, has a tradition of sending emails to friends and family this time of year.  This year, however, she’s not writing emails. She’s recording videos using our new Video Email Gmail extension.

“It’s so easy, why wouldn’t I send videos?” she told us earlier in the week.

Video Email Is Perfect for Deeper Connections

Text can only feel so personal. It does a bang up job most of the time, and a decent-ish job when done right.  But video is on a whole other scale of its own. Check these stats out:

When you include a video in an email, you have 80% more chance of a conversion.

That’s on top of a 300% higher open rate.

Why is that? You create a more meaningful connection hitting on senses that are visual, and audio simultaneously. When you can hit more senses at once, you’ll reach your desired goal in a much faster way, with much more emotional attachment.

Whether it’s just to say “Hi” to your grandmother and have your kids in the video with you, or if it’s to reach out to your best customers and offer them something very exclusive, Video Email is the perfect tool to make them know you care.

How to Record a Video Email With A Few Clicks

Here’s how to record and send a video email in just seconds.

  1. Install the Video Email Chrome extension for Gmail
  2. Click “Compose” to open a new message
  3. Click the video button
  4. Record your video

cloudhq_blog_holidayvideo_1_record

The extension will spend a few seconds processing and embedding your video in the email. When it’s done, click “Send.”

That’s all it takes.

You can email the video to one person or a list of people. And if you want, it’s easy to copy the video link and drop it into Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp, or any other chat platform.

A Personal Video is as Special as a Handwritten Note

Receiving a personal video is as special as receiving a handwritten letter, but takes far less time, and a personalized video actually means more to the recipient because they visually get to see you and connect with you in a different way than text ever could.

The next time you want to send a note to someone important in your life, don’t spend 20 minutes writing an email. Spend 2 minutes recording a video instead. Your friend, family member, or client will be glad you did.

Send a Video Email Now 
 

10 Google Drive Hacks That’ll Make You Look Like a Genius

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Lots of you use Google Drive for your business.

We do too. It’s simple, easy-to-use, and packed with features that make work easier.

It’s so powerful—and yet, you probably don’t realize all of Google Drive can actually do… especially with the help of a few Google Chrome extensions.

Let’s change that, shall we?

Here’s a top 10 list of our favorite Google Drive productivity features for business:

10. Translate on the Fly

Sometimes you need to translate a document—and fast.

In Google Docs, this just takes a few clicks.

Under “Tools”, select “Translate Document”.

Choose a language, click the “Translate” button. Google will create a new, translated document and save it in Google Drive automatically.

 

cloudhqblog_1_Translate_original
 

9. Save Any File Type

Google Docs, Forms, Sheets, and Slides are all easy to save in Google Drive. But you can also save any type of file in Google Drive.

That means for everything you need on a single project, you can create a folder and upload all your files to keep everything together all in once place.

You can also create shareable links to any of these files, just like you can with a Google Doc or a Sheet.

 

cloudhqblog_2_filetypes

 

 

8. Research in a Single Window

If you’re working in a Google Docs, you might not have time to open a new tab or window to research.

In the drop-down menu under “Tools”, select “Research.”

A handy research area will open on the right side of the tab.

 

cloudhqblog_3_Research

 

 

7. Search in the Link Box

Ever realize that you need to link to a source, but you haven’t looked up the source yet?

You could open a new tab or window and go hunting.

Or—because this is Google—you can select the text you want to hyperlink, then search directly within the link box:

 

cloudhqblog_4_SearchinLink_original

 

 

6. Desktop Sync

Need to work offline? No worries. It’s easy to sync your Google Drive files to your hard drive.

You can sync all your data, or just selected folders. This gives you full access to your files, whether you’re online or not.

As soon as you reconnect to the internet, your updated files will be synced to the cloud.

 

cloudhqblog_5_desktop

 

 

5. Keyboard Shortcuts

Google Drive is already simple to use.

But if you want to be a true productivity ninja, there are keyboard shortcuts galore that can get you there.

To see frequently used Google Drive keyboard shortcuts, click “Ctrl + /” on Windows or “Command + /” on Mac.

 

cloudhqblog_6_keyboardshortcuts_original

 

 

4. Make a Fancy Email Draft in Docs, then Send it as a Gmail Message

Google Docs has a huge number of formatting tools, including charts, images, tables, graphs, fonts, etc.

Few of those features are available in Gmail’s editor, however. That means it can be a challenge to create a nice-looking email using only the Gmail platform.

That’s where the Chrome extension Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts comes in.

You can create an email message or newsletter—including all its beautiful formatting—in a Google Doc, and then click a button to convert the Doc into a Gmail draft.

 

cloudhq_gmaildocs_1_Open-In-Gmail-Button

cloudhq_gmaildocs_2_draftemail

 

 

Pro tip: If you regularly send a newsletter, this is one of the easiest ways to make it look professional.

3. Use the Web Clipboard

Google Drive has a powerful clipboard.

Instead of using “Control + C” or “Command + C”, use the “Edit” drop-down menu, then choose “Clipboard.”

From there you’ll be able to copy, save, and paste multiple items on the clipboard.

It’s a great little feature for storing multiple ideas in one place.

 

cloudhqblog_8_Web Clipboard

 

 

2. Save Gmail Messages and Attachments Directly into Google Drive

You’ll need the free Save Emails to Google Drive Chrome extension for this one.

Once you have it installed, with a single click you’ll be able to save any email (plus attachments) into a Google Drive folder.

 

cloudhqblog_9_email to Google Drive_original

 

 

1. Tag Anyone

Need a friend or coworker to answer a question about a project?

Just type “+yourfriend@theircompany.com” in a comment.

Google drive will notify them of the comment and send them a link giving them access to the document.

It’s one of the easiest ways to ask questions, collaborate with coworkers, or send something to your boss for approval.

 

cloudhqblog_10_Google_Docs_Comments

 

More Productivity Tools

If you love hacks and tools, check out our full list of Google Chrome extensions.

Each one is designed to make your life easier—and your days more productive.

 

See Chrome Extensions
 

16 Free Chrome Extensions to Boost Your Productivity

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We’ve recently released a host of free Chrome productivity extensions for Gmail.

They are all free.

If you have Gmail or host your company’s email through Google Apps, you can use any of all of them.

Each one is designed to help you do more, faster, and better.

Here’s the complete list:

1. Gmail Label Sharing

This is our most popular Chrome extension. You can use it to:

  1. Share a bunch of emails all at once with an unlimited amount of people who have an email address.
    • How? Just create and share a Gmail label. You can put as many emails into your labels as you like. Anyone you’ve invited to share your label will have instant access to see it as a Gmail label in their Gmail too (or if they don’t use Gmail, in their email folder regardless of what email provider they use). This eliminates the need to send or forward any emails one at a time, which usually just gets confusing.
  2. Chat about specific emails in your Gmail label with anyone that you’ve shared your Gmail Label with.
    • Small caveat: Sorry non-Gmail users, to use this feature, you need to be using Gmail.

Install Gmail Label Sharing.

 

2. Slick Email Templates

Create beautiful emails using free, pre-designed templates. Great for:

  • Private announcements
  • Party invitations
  • Congratulations
  • Newsletters

Once you’ve chosen a template and personalized your message, you’ll be able to send it just like any other email you send with Gmail. New templates are added all the time.

Install Gmail Email Templates.

 

3. Gmail Shared Todo

Create a shared to-do list for you and whoever you’re writing an email to. Keep track of accountability and watch your productivity rise!

Install Gmail Shared Todo.

 

4. Edit Emails in Google Docs

Save a Gmail message to Google Docs with one click.

This is great for creating an email collaboratively with your team. Before sending off that important email, you can save it to Google Docs and collaboratively work on it with your assistant, boss, or your entire team.

When it’s really important, team feedback is a good idea.

Install Edit Emails in Google Docs.

 

5. Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts

This is kind of like a continuation of #4 above, but it works the other way around: convert a Google Doc into a Gmail draft with one click.

All the formatting from your Google Doc will automatically carry through to your Gmail draft. Just don’t forget to take advantage of Google Drawings, Google doc templates, charts, tables, and images! Really, the possibilities are quite endless.

Install Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts and keep your perfect formatting.

 

6. Save Emails to PDF

Easily save Gmail messages as PDF documents to your computer. Simply click the “Save to PDF” button. Your email will be converted to a PDF and immediately downloaded to your computer.

Install Save Emails to PDF.

 

7. Save Emails to Google Drive

Save your Gmail message (and attachments) to Google Drive with a single click. SO helpful.

Install Save Emails to Google Drive.

 

8. Save Emails to Dropbox

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Dropbox with one click.

Install Save Emails to Dropbox.

 

9. Save Emails to Slack

Save any Gmail message to Slack with one click. This gives you one complete record of a conversation around a topic, instead of having to search between Gmail and Slack to find who said what about a project.

Install Save Emails to Slack.

 

10. Save Emails to OneDrive

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneDrive with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneDrive.

 

11. Save Emails to OneDrive Business

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneDrive Business with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneDrive Business.

 

12. Save Emails to Box

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Box with one click.

Install Save Emails to Box.

 

13. Save Emails to Salesforce

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Salesforce with one click.

Install Save Emails to Salesforce.

 

14. Save Emails to SharePoint

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Sharepoint with one click.

Install Save Emails to SharePoint.

 

15. Save Emails to OneNote

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneNote with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneNote.

 

16. Save Emails to Egnyte

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Egnyte with one click.

Install Save Emails to Egnyte.

 

More Free Productivity Tools Coming Soon!

We’re hard at work on more free productivity tools for you and your team.

To see our full list of Chrome extensions, visit cloudHQ’s page on the Chrome Web Store.

 

See Chrome Extensions
 

Create Beautiful Emails with One Click in Google Docs

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We love Gmail.

We don’t love formatting emails in Gmail.

For some reason, Google hasn’t made it easy to create good-looking, nicely-formatted emails using Gmail.

So… we built a free Chrome extension to fix that.

Format a Message, Newsletter, or Report in Google Docs, Then Import Directly to Gmail

It only takes one click.

Build your message, newsletter, or report in a Google Doc.

Then click the Open In Gmail button in the top right corner of your document.

 

 

 

cloudhq_gmaildocs_1_Open-In-Gmail-Button

 

And voilà!

Your message will import into a perfectly-formatted Gmail message.

 

 

 

cloudhq_gmaildocs_2_draftemail

 

Make your newsletter, click a button, add your distribution list, and send!

That’s all there is to it.

Convert Google Docs to Gmail is 100% Free

Convert Docs to Gmail is the best way we know to create beautifully formatted emails in Gmail.

It’s also 100% free for anyone using Gmail or Google Apps.

 

Download Chrome Extension
 

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cloudHQ
Specializing in email organization and team workflows, cloudHQ is an easy cloud app synchronization service used for backup, app integrations, and implementation of team workflows. To date, we sync over 5 million files a day, and service clients like HP, Gartner, and Uber.
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Gmail Label Share & Chat
A free tool designed to help incoming emails get answered by teams. It is the only effective way to write comments about emails before any team member replies to the email sender. This is an excellent tool for sales, customer service, or project management.
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