Overview
Email templates in CiviPlus are reusable layouts that allow you to send consistent, professional messages to clients and partners. You can use them to communicate efficiently with people involved in a case, for example:
Acknowledging new support requests
Confirming appointments or assessments
Sending action plans or service agreements
Notifying clients about case updates
Following up after closure, maintain quality, and personalise outreach while saving time.
What are Email Templates in CiviCRM?
Email templates are pre-defined messages you can use repeatedly for common communications.
Standard subject lines
Body text
Formatting (HTML or plain text)
Tokens to automatically personalise messages
Tokens act as placeholders (like mail merge fields) that get replaced with actual data when you send the email.
Email templates help:
Ensure consistent language and branding
Reduce staff time writing repeat messages
Avoid errors or omissions
Support professional, client-focused communication
Creating an email template for Case Management
There are several articles about email templates in the Knowledge Base, which we recommend you review before reading the remainder this article which only focuses on aspects that are significant in the context of Case Management.
To create a new Mailing Template navigate to Administer -> CiviMail -> Message Templates, and click ADD MESSAGE TEMPLATE to create a new one, or select Edit against one of the existing message templates that relates to a case.
Once the Message Template page is shown you can complete it and Save so that you can use it from within your Case, and using CiviRiles automation.
In the example above certain important parts of the Message Template have been highlighted:
Message Title - It is important yo give this template a clear title, since it is this that users will look for when deciding which particular message they are sending.
HTML format body - Here the body of email template is created, and once again tokens can be used.
Using a mail template in a Case manually
Having created a Mail Template that can be used with a Case it is easy to actually send it. From within the Case, simply click on the ADD NEW button on the right of the page, and then select Create Email.
You will now see the Email page, most of which is completed for you.
The From email address defaults to the current user who is sending the email, but you can replace this with any of the From addresses configured in the system. The Recipient(s) field is pre-filled with the Case Client, and you can add cc and bcc recipients if you want.
The Use Template field allows you to specify the particular Message Template you want base this email on, and in this example we will select the one we created earlier in the article called "Notification of Support Assessment". Once selected, the email Subject and HTML body fields will be pre-filled with the contents of the template. Typically users keep them as they are, but you can tweak either/both if you want and then choose to select Update Template or Save As New Template if you want these changes to be saved.
Finally, click SEND EMAIL and you will receive a pop-up message telling you that "One email has been successfully sent".
Outcomes after using a Case Mail Template
As a result of either manually sending an email using a template from the Case (the same is true if triggered automatically by CiviRules) a new email activity has been created with the details of the email.
This is the email that the Case Client received
