and I'm here to show you how to create your own YAMM templates in Google Docs.

If you are familiar with Google Docs,

you'll love the fact that YAMM lets you design your email template

using the very simple point-and-click interface in Google Docs without learning any HTML code!

You have two options: You can visit the following link on the screen to copy one of our templates,

or you can start with a blank Google Doc template.

If you're going to use one of our templates,

please make sure you do click on File and then 'Make a copy'.

I will start with a blank Google Doc and I want to design a simple how-to newsletter for YAMM,

which will include the tip of the week.

Let's start with a layout of my template.

Essentially I'm going to use the tables to structure my template into different sections:

It will have a header, the body will have the steps and the images, and then the footer.

Reduce the page margins to zero to provide you with greater design flexibility.

(this is optional)

I can do this from the Page setup menu.

Insert an overall table: 1 row and 1 column.

Edit the Table properties to change the cell padding to 0.5.

Insert another table: 1 row with 2 columns.

This is for the header.

Press Return to create a line space.

Insert a table with 4 rows and 2 columns,

and this is where my how-to steps are going to be placed:

This is the body of the how-to newsletter.

Press Return to create a line space at the bottom of the table.

Now insert a table with 1 row and 2 columns,

and this is going to be for the footer.

I'll design each section. I'll start with a header.

I type 'How to install YAMM' as my first header.

I change the background color using the custom color option in Google Docs.

Either I can enter a specific HEX color code,

or use the color spectrum selector to find a suitable option.

I change the color of the text to white to ensure it stands out.

In the right column I type Newsletter #1 and I update the size to 18 to match the other side.

I'll now move on to the body section which is where my steps will be.

I insert my content into the rows and columns available for the body section

With the content inserted, I now change the cell background color.

I first need to select the body content and then use the paint bucket tool to fill with my desired color.

I change the positioning of the text to be in the middle of each row,

and I can do this from the Table properties menu:

Change both the Cell vertical and Table alignment to Center.

I also write in left-aligned text based on the positioning of the steps.

I also use the Recolor functionality built into Google Docs.

I click on each image and click on the image options,

and then choose my recolor option.

I'll finish off with the last section which is the footer.

In this section, I add some useful information about how my subscribers joined our mailing list,

and include an unsubscribe section.

I also make the footer the same color as the header, and change the text to white.

An important step is to use Table properties to make all table borders disappear.

This removes the table borders which spoils the clean-looking design.

You must do this for each table in your design.

I have four tables in mind,

therefore I must do this for the overall table, the header, the body, and the footer.

I simply change the Table border to 0 pt.

It's best practice to do this at the end of you designing your template.

To import my design into Gmail

I simply copy and paste my newsletter from Google Docs into a blank draft email in Gmail.

To ensure my newsletter copies successfully,

I've used images only and not any drawings in Google Docs,

and where possible I've kept things simple.

Now that I've imported my template into Gmail,

I'm ready to start my mail merge using YAMM.

After sending my campaign, here's what it looks like

when one of my recipients opens my email:

In this video, I showed you how to create your own YAMM email template using Google Docs.

Mail merge made simple thanks to YAMM!

Thanks for watching and bye for now!

Want to learn more about this feature?

Click this card in the corner to visit our Help Center article.

And check out our other videos for more amazing features in YAMM!