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Template categories reference

Every template category and what it's meant for. A category is a label: it doesn't limit which pickers show the template, and templates have no draft or publish stage.

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Template categories reference

A template’s category is a label for what the template is meant for. It doesn’t control where the template can be used: no template picker filters by category. Templates created with Add template in Settings → Email Studio get the Notification category, starter templates carry their own category, and the public API can set or change it.

The five categories

  • Automation — Automation rules with Send email template actions — Confirmation emails, follow-up nudges, escalation notifications, follow-the-sun handoffs
  • CSAT — CSAT survey deliveries — Post-resolution satisfaction surveys, NPS campaigns
  • User Invitation — New-team-member invitation flow — Account setup invitation, role-change confirmation
  • Notification — System notifications to customers or agents — Internal alerts, “your password was changed” emails
  • System Email — Internal system communications — Backend service emails not customer-facing

How to pick

Three quick questions:

  1. Who triggers the send?
    An automation rule → Automation
    A CSAT survey configuration → CSAT
    A user-invitation flow → User Invitation
    A system event (password change, account update) → Notification or System Email
  2. Who receives the email?
    Customers / contacts → most likely Automation, CSAT, or Notification
    Agents / team members → likely User Invitation or Notification
    System / dev / admin → System Email
  3. Does it matter for sending? No. The category describes the template; any template can be picked wherever a template is picked.

Category doesn’t gate the pickers

Neither template picker filters by category:

  • The Send email template action in an automation rule lists every template in your workspace, whatever its category.
  • The Email Studio template picker in a CSAT survey’s delivery settings has no category filter either.

So you don’t need to re-categorize or duplicate a template to use it in both places. Duplicate it only when the two places need different content.

Common confusion: Automation vs. Notification

Both can send to customers. The split:

  • Automation — triggered by a rule you wrote in Settings → Automation Rules. Reactive to inbox events.
  • Notification — triggered by a system event (password change, account-status update, conversation reassignment). Not user-configured rules.

For most “the customer needs an email about X happening on their case” use cases, Automation is the right label: the email is sent by a rule with conditions and timing.

No draft or publish stage

Email Studio has no status setting for a template (no draft, active or archived), and no automation or survey send checks one. When you save a change to a template’s subject or body, the next email that uses that template carries it.

To iterate safely, use Duplicate in the template card’s menu, make your changes in the copy, and select the copy in the rule or survey when it’s ready.

See also

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