White-Labeled SendGrid Email Templates for Customer Notifications

Route4Me’s Customer Alerting and Notifications Module is designed to help you raise your customers’ satisfaction, automate the process of notifying your customers about the status of their orders, and more. Depending on your particular business model or specific business requirements, you may need to customize the way your email notifications look and how your customers interact with them. For example, you may want to use your company logo, attach a link to your website, add a button for a customer survey, etc.

To make sure that your notifications are sent in accordance with your unique business vision, Route4Me allows you to add white-labeled designs and functionalities to your email notifications using SendGrid templates. In addition to customized styling, you can also use Route4Me’s placeholders that will allow you to automatically pull and attach various types of routing, customer, and order data to your notifications.

For example, action-triggered email notifications can contain automatically retrieved and attached tracking numbers, customer details, estimated arrival times, and so on. Using white labeled SendGrid email templates is as easy as adding your SendGrid API key and the preferred Template ID to your Route4Me Notifications Module.

Checklist for Setting Up and Using SendGrid Templates

Please follow the checklist below to set up your white-labeled SendGrid templates and use them with your Route4Me Alerting and Notifications Module.

1. Make sure that you have activated the preferred Route4Me Alerting and Notifications Add-On(s) (i.e., Geofence Entered, Geofence Left, etc.).
2. Log into your SendGrid account.
3. Create a new SendGrid Dynamic Template.
4. Make sure your SendGrid templates contain all the necessary elements for your email notification not to go to your recipients’ spam inbox.
5. Create a new SendGrid API Key specifically for your Route4Me Notifications.
6. Go through the Sender Authentication process (Single Sender Verification and Domain Authentication).
7. Copy the Template ID of the preferred SendGrid email template from your SendGrid account and insert it into the corresponding field in your Route4Me Notifications Module.
8. Copy the preferred API Key from your SendGrid account and insert it into the corresponding field in your Route4Me Notifications Module.
9. Make sure that your Route4Me Notifications are sent from an Authenticated Domain or a Verified Single Sender email address.

How to Create a New SendGrid Dynamic Email Template

To create a new SendGrid Dynamic Email Template, first, go to Email API from the navigation menu and then select Dynamic Templates from the list. Next, click on the Create a Dynamic Template button to create a new template.

After that, input the name of the new SendGrid email template into the corresponding field and click on the Create button to proceed.

Next, click on the new template’s name and then create a new version of this template. To create a new version of the template, click on the Add Version button.

After that, to create a new custom email template, go to the Your Email Designs tab and then click on the Blank Template tab.

To use the visual editor, select the Design Editor on the Select Your Editing Experience page.

The Design Editor provides visual editing experience, allowing you to drag and drop visual or text elements into the template, move them inside the template, change their color, add images, etc. You can use the Design Editor as the alternative to the Code Editor that requires using HTML for adding styling and functionality to your templates. The Design Editor also allows you to view and edit HTML of the given template.

To create customized SendGrid email templates using HTML, select the Code Editor on the Select Your Editing Experience page.

Next, use the Code Editor on the left to customize the given email template. On the right side of the screen, you can preview how your email template will look when opened on desktop and mobile devices. The Code Editor allows you to use HTML code for creating a custom structure and functionality for your email templates.

Furthermore, you can use the Code Editor to add Route4Me’s data placeholders that allow you to pull customer names, tracking numbers, ETAs, and other types of dynamic data from your Route4Me routes and insert this data into your notifications. To learn more about how to use Route4Me’s placeholders and what routing data can be automatically attached to your custom email notifications, visit this page.

After creating and testing the given version of the template, adjust the template’s version settings, and then click on the Save button to save this template version.

Once the new version of the template is created, you can view and manage it in this template’s menu. If you want to use a specific version of a particular email template, make sure that this template version is Active. When a template version is Active, it has the green Active icon displayed next to it.

How to Create a New SendGrid API Key for Your Route4Me Notifications

To use your SendGrid custom email templates with Route4Me’s Notifications, you need to use your SendGrid API key in your Route4Me Notifications Module. To create a new SendGrid API key for your Route4Me Notifications, first, go to Settings in the navigation menu and then select API Keys from the list. After that, click on the Create API Key button.

Next, select and then adjust the preferred level of permissions/restrictions for the given API key and then click on the Create & View button to save this new API key.

After that, make sure that you save your SendGrid API key. NOTE: Your SendGrid API key is shown in your SendGrid account only once right after you have created it. Make sure that you copy your SendGrid API key before clicking on the Done button. If you have lost your SendGrid API key, you can create a new one following the steps shown above.

Setting Up SendGrid Sender Verification

To make sure that your Route4Me Notifications with white-labeled SendGrid templates don’t go to the spam inbox of your recipients, it is recommended to Authenticate the Sender of your email notifications. To do so, first, go to Settings from the navigation menu and then select Sender Authentication from the list.

In the Domain Authentication section, you can set up domain authentication that will allow showing email providers that SendGrid has your permission to send emails on your behalf. Authenticating your domain will have a positive impact on your reputation as a sender and your email deliverability. To learn more about Authenticating Your Domain, visit this SendGrid support page.

In the Single Sender Verification section, you can verify the ownership of a single email address that you want to use as a sender of your Route4Me email notifications. To learn more about Verifying a Single Sender email address, visit this SendGrid support page.

NOTE: You can send your Route4Me email notifications only from verified email addresses.

How to Use Your Custom SendGrid Email Templates with Route4Me’s Notifications

To use your custom SendGrid email templates with your Route4Me Notifications, you need to specify your SendGrid API key and the preferred SendGrid Template ID in your Route4Me Notifications Module.

NOTE: Please make sure that you use your SendGrid API key that is shown to you right after you have created it. If you use the ID of your SendGrid API key (API Key ID), the system will not be able to read it, and your notifications will not be sent.

After that, go to the Advanced tab in your Route4Me Notifications Module and then insert the copied SendGrid API key into the corresponding field.

To copy the preferred SendGrid Template ID, go to Email API from the navigation menu in your SendGrid account, select Dynamic Templates from the list, and then copy the corresponding Template ID number.

NOTE: Make sure that the template version you want to use is Active.

Next, go to the Notifications tab in your Route4Me Notifications Module and then insert the copied Template ID into the Template ID field in the SendGrid Options section.

How to Adjust the Sender of Your Route4Me Notifications

To adjust the sender of your Route4Me email notifications, go to the Notifications tab and input the preferred email address into the From field in each preferred Notification Type (i.e., Scheduled, Completed, etc.).

NOTE: Make sure that your Route4Me Notifications are sent from the email address that is verified in your SendGrid account. If you use a different email address, your notifications may not be sent.

To check what email address or multiple email addresses are verified to be used as a sender of your Route4Me Notifications, go to Settings from the navigation menu, and select Sender Authentication from the list.