Submittable lets you create custom email responses for most actions involving interactions with submitters. For example, you can create a response template acknowledging receipt of a submitter's submission, ask a submitter to edit their submission, or inform submitters of the status of their submissions using a saved Response Template.
Create a Response Template
1. Click on More>Configurations>Response Templates.
2. On the Response Templates page, click Create a response template.
3. In the Add or Edit Response Template form, enter a Template Title. The title is a name for the template, such as a Submission Decline Template. This title will not be seen by the recipient of the message.
4. Choose a Response Type. The Response Type will determine when this template will be available (i.e., only when Accepting a submission, only when Declining a submission, or Other).
5. Enter the Template Subject. This will help you identify it.
6. Enter the Template Body text. This is the text of the actual email message. You can use valid placeholder tags in your email.
7. Click Save Template.
Writing the Template Body
When creating the text for your response email, you can use a series of placeholder tags to personalize the message. For example, all the placeholder tags are in brackets in the rejection email below.
Dear [SubmitterFirstName] [SubmitterLastName],
Thank you for applying for the [Form] call for submissions at [OrganizationName]. We appreciate your interest, but unfortunately, your submission is not the right fit for us. Best of luck with your work.
Best regards,
Jane Smith
[OrganizationName]
[OrganizationWebSite]
If the above template is chosen when declining an application submitted by James Joyce for a Short Fiction Contest, the email that is sent will look like this:
Dear James Joyce,
Thank you for applying for the Short Fiction Contest at Pinecone Journal. We appreciate your interest, but unfortunately, your submission is not the right fit for us. Best of luck with your work.
Best regards,
Jane Smith
Pinecone Journal
Note that the submitter's name, the project's name, your organization's name, a staff person's name, and your website are all automatically filled in with the correct information when the email is sent.
Placeholder Tags
The following list shows all the currently available placeholder tags you can use in your email template.
Tag | The result displayed to the viewer |
[Title] | Submission title from the Submission Name Field or the submission number |
[SubmitterFirstName] | First name of the submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterLastName] | First name of the submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterEmail] | Email address of the submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterAddress1] | First line of submitter address from their account profile |
[SubmitterAddress2] | Second line of submitter address from their account profile |
[SubmitterCityTown] | City/Town of submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterStateProvince] | Full State/Province of submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterStateCode] | Abbreviated State/Province of submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterRegion] | Region of submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterZipCode] | Zip code of submitter from their account profile |
[SubmitterCountry] | Country of submitter from their account profile |
[SubmissionOrganizationLegalName] | Submitting organization's legal name |
[SubmissionOrganizationDbaName] | Submitting organization's DBA name |
[SubmissionOrganizationAddressLine1] | Submitting organization's first line of address |
[SubmissionOrganizationAddressLine2] | Submitting organization's second line of address |
[SubmissionOrganizationCity] | Submitting organization's city |
[SubmissionOrganizationStateProvince] | Submitting organization's state/province |
[SubmissionOrganizationZip] | Submitting organization's zip code |
[SubmissionOrganizationCountry] | Submitting organization's country |
[SubmissionOrganizationGovernmentEntityId] | Submitting organization's government ID number |
[ProjectName] | Name of the project |
[ProjectStartDate] | Project start date from the project's settings |
[ProjectExpireDate] | Project end date from the project's settings |
[SubmissionStatus] | Status of submission |
[SubmissionGuid] | Globally unique identifier from submission |
[StaffFirstName] | First name of the currently logged-in team member initiating the message |
[StaffLastName] | Last name of the currently logged-in team member initiating the message |
[OrganizationName] | Organization name from account public profile |
[OrganizationWebSite] | Website URL from account public profile |
[DetailsLink] | Direct link to the current submission in the submitter's account |
[LoginLink] | Direct link to the login page |
[ID] | Unique identifier of submission |
[AwardAmount] | Amount of submitter's most recently awarded Funds transaction |
Once you've created response templates that you plan to use in your communications with submitters, you can apply them to your automated responses for received submissions or select them in the various dialog boxes when sending other submission-related communications.