> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://api.leadey.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Templates and personalisation

> Write once, send to thousands, and still sound like it was written for one person.

<Note>
  Video walkthrough coming soon.
</Note>

A **template** is a reusable message — email, LinkedIn, SMS or WhatsApp — with
placeholders that fill in per person. Workflows send templates, so this is where
the words in your outreach actually live.

## Create one

Go to **Templates** and create one. Give it a name that says what it is for, not
what it says — "First touch, hiring signal" beats "Email 1".

## Personalise with merge fields

Insert a placeholder and it is replaced per recipient when the message sends —
their first name, company, job title, and any custom field you have added.

## Always set a fallback

This is the part people skip and regret.

A merge field with no value produces an empty gap. "Hi , I saw that is hiring"
is worse than no email at all, and it tells the reader precisely how automated
your outreach is.

Set a fallback on every field: `there` for a first name, `your team` for a
company.

<Note>
  Test against a lead with missing data on purpose. Everything looks fine on a
  complete record — the broken version is the one that goes to the third of your
  list without a job title.
</Note>

## Personalisation that is worth the name

A first name is not personalisation; every tool does it and every buyer knows.
What earns a reply is a reason you are writing *now*:

* The signal that surfaced them — the role they are hiring, the funding they
  raised, the tool they adopted
* Something specific to their company that you could not have said to anyone
  else

This is why signal-driven outreach outperforms a static list. The signal is the
opening line.

## Keep it short

Cold email is read on a phone, in a preview pane, in about three seconds. If it
does not fit on one screen it does not get read. One idea, one question, one
link at most.

## Write a subject line that is not a headline

Lowercase, short, and something a colleague might plausibly send. Anything that
reads like marketing gets treated as marketing.

## Test before you scale

Add yourself as a lead and run the workflow. Read what arrives on a phone, not
just a desktop. Check every merge field, the signature, and that links work.

<Card title="Part 7 — Automate with workflows" href="/tutorials/07-workflows" horizontal>
  Where templates get sent from.
</Card>