What is a "Credential Template"?
A Credential Template is where you set up your credential for issuance: define its name, design, description, settings (e.g., expiration or recipient permissions), and more.
Why is this important? You set up your template once and use it whenever you need to issue credentials to your recipients.
Feeling unsure? No worries, we'll dive into more details right away!
👉 If you want to focus on specific functions, just jump to:
Navigating the Credential Templates tab
Once you log into your Certifier account, navigate to the Credentials tab in the left sidebar, then select Credential Templates. All the Credential Templates you create can be found there, and you can easily:
Find any specific Credential Template either by scrolling through the list or using the Search field.
Create a new Credential Template.
Enter and change the Credential Template's Settings.
Duplicate a Credential Template.
Delete a Credential Template.
View all Credentials issued with a specific Credential Template.
Issue Credentials from any of your Credential Templates.
Creating a new Credential Template
To create a new Credential Template, click on the Create Credential Template button.
If it's not your first Credential Template, you will see a pop-up reminding you about the option to reuse existing ones – you can go ahead by clicking on Create Credential Template!
💡 Tip: You can reuse the same Template for multiple credentials. For example, for courses or webinars that take place a couple of times per year, or a membership program you keep running.
However, please note that if you make changes in the Credential Template, it will affect all the previously issued credentials!
Choosing Info & Appearance
The only step needed before you can save your Credential Template is choosing a name and design. To proceed, you'll just need to:
Enter the chosen name in the Name field.
Choose a certificate design, badge design, or both. You can choose any of your existing designs or create a new one by clicking on +Create New Design.
3. Click on Create Credential Template. And that's it!
Next Steps: Setting Up Your Credential Template
Now that you've created your Credential Template, it's time to fine-tune its settings to ensure your credentials are well-structured and professional.
Each little touch of personalization can improve your credibility as an issuer, increase brand visibility, and give your recipients more incentive to share their achievements. Taking the time to configure these settings properly will enhance your credibility as an issuer and provide a seamless experience for your recipients. 🤝
Enhanced Description
While your Credential Template may technically be ready to issue credentials, your recipients would definitely appreciate the opportunity to learn more about your event or course. That's when the Enhanced description comes into play!
It's a place where you can specify everything your recipients should know about your offerings:
"Enhanced Details" section:
Type (eg. Certification, Achievement, Event)
Level (eg. Introductory, Professional)
Format (Online / Hybrid / Offline)
Duration
Price (Free / Paid)
Skills - List the skills your recipients have acquired through your training, webinar, or course.
"About" section:
Description - Give more details about your event or describe what your recipients had to do to get their award. Check out tips on enhancing the description's style in this article.
Learning Event Link - Paste the link to the learning event. The credential page will then have a hyperlink redirecting the viewers to the URL you provided.
"Earning criteria" section:
Add up to 10 earning criteria to showcase the specific requirements to earn this award.
Once you fill in those details, remember to click on Save!
Curious to see how that will look for your recipients? Just scroll back up and click on the Preview button. Here's the example:
As you can see, setting up those details adds a whole new layer of professionalism to your credentials. 😎
Advanced Settings
👑 This section of Credential Template settings is available to our Professional plan users and above.
The Advanced settings allow you to personalize multiple aspects of how your credentials are issued. You can select:
Expiration date settings - Once you toggle the "I would like my badges or certificates to expire" setting, you can choose the timeframe in which the credentials will automatically expire (eg. 1 year after issuing).
If you want to set more custom expiration dates, please take a look at this guide.
Recipient Interaction - In this section, you can change what your recipients are allowed to do with credentials. Once you disable any of the options, they will be hidden from the recipient view.
Please note that these settings only apply to the selected Credential Template. By default, all the options are enabled.
Default LinkedIn Share Message - When your recipients choose to share their achievements as a post on LinkedIn, the automatically created post can include your own, customized message.
Thanks to that, you can increase the value of each share, by showcasing the most important aspects of your event.
PDF Attachments - This feature allows you to easily share any documents that you'd like to include on your credential page. It can be a curriculum or a list of courses you offer - that's all up to you! To learn more about the value of PDF attachments, just click here.
You can add the files using the drag & drop feature, or by clicking on the upload button. After that, you can add a display name for your file and preview the document.
Duplicate Management - Disabling the option to Allow Duplicate Recipient Emails ensures that recipients cannot get multiple credentials using this Credential Template to the same email address. By default, the setting is turned on.
⚠️ Important note: Duplicate management silently skips the email address if the recipient already has a credential using this Credential Template.
Page Settings - In this section, you can add Page Title and Description, which will be displayed when recipients share their digital certificates or badges on social media or anywhere else. The Page Description should be a brief overview that captures the essence of the achievement.
Once you have filled in all the details and chosen the settings you wanted, remember to press Save! You can sit back and enjoy the benefits of increased credibility and better brand visibility 😎
Email Settings
👑 This section of Credential Template settings is available to our Professional plan users and above.
The Email section allows you to personalize how your credentials will be delivered.
Without making any changes here, both Sender Email and Email Template will be the ones chosen as default on your account.
💡 By default, Certifier sends credentials from [email protected].
To use any specific Sender Email and Email Template, you'll just need to toggle the corresponding settings - "Use Default Sender Details" and "Use Default Email Template".
Once you do that, you can select any of the senders and delivery email templates that you have added to your account:
Once you press Save, all the credentials issued using this template will be sent according to your settings. And that's all!
Conclusion
Credential Templates are the foundation of issuing credentials in Certifier. By defining the look and content of your Credential Pages through well-configured templates, you streamline the issuing process and maintain consistency across all your credentials.
With your Credential Templates set up, you're now ready to efficiently manage and distribute credentials while keeping everything organized.
👉 Check our Guide to Issuing Credentials!
Need more help?
If you still have some questions, do not hesitate to contact us via the chat icon or email us directly: [email protected]