Steps to add the static block in magento template files.

There are various ways to add static block in magento frontend.If you are dealing with .phtml and .xml files then this is described how to add the static block in template file. The following steps are:
Steps 1:
First in magento admin panel, navigate to CMS > Static Blocks. Then select “Add New Block” , fill up all the related information and save it.

Step 2:

Call the static block from .xml file where you want to put. Just paste this code in .xml file

<block type="cms/block" name="cms_test_block" before="-">
<action method="setBlockId"><block_id>cms_test_block</block_id></action>
</block>

remind that here the “name” attribute will be same as “Identifier”.

Step 3:

Modify the template file with this code.

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml(' cms_test_block '); ?>