Mail merge is one of those features that Gmail users are not much aware about but is highly efficient and time-saving. Mail merge helps you send personalized messages to one or more recipients. You can create and send HTML emails with email tracking, clickable links, and unique file attachments with mail merge in Gmail.
You can create a single email draft and specify the recipients in Google sheet. Once the sheet is ready, the mail merge feature will automatically send your customized drafted email to all the recipients in a single click. This feature is mostly used by marketers to send cold emails and promotional messages to their subscribers.
Mail Merge is a feature provided by Microsoft Outlook but with the help of Google Scripts, you can create and send personalized email using mail merge in Gmail as well. Additionally, Gmail offers a mail merge schedule that can be used to send emails at a later time and date. Mail merge feature might be just what you need to send email to one or more of your clients or users. Here’s how you can create mail merges in Gmail!
How to Create Mail Merge in Gmail?
Firstly, you have to install the Mail Merge for Gmail offered by Google Workspace Marketplace. The installer is available for both Gmail users and Workspace users. If you are a Workspace user, you can install the mail merge in your Workspace domain. For regular Gmail users you can add the Gmail merge as an add-on to your Google account.
Once you have installed the Mail Merge for Gmail:
- Open Google Spreadsheet. You can either use Google Drive or simply type “Sheets.google.com” in your browser.
- Click on add-ons menu and you will see a new option “Mail Merge with Attachments”.
- Click on “Create Merge Template” to create a blank mail merge template in the spreadsheet. It automatically contains mandatory fields like Name and Email Address. You can also add more fields as required.
- Fill the recipient’s details in the fields manually or click on the “Import Google Contacts” menu to import the contact groups from Google Contacts. Importing the contacts will save you time.
- Click on the “File Attachments” column if you want to add attachments.
- Get a file link from Google drive and paste it in a sheet to add clickable links. To get a link, go to Google drive, right click on the file and click on get link.
- Once the list is ready, run the mail merge and it will send all the emails automatically. You can also schedule the mail for later date and time. To schedule the mail merge, go to the Scheduled Date column, and insert date and time in dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm format.
How to Create a Mail Merge Template?
You can create a mail merge template within a few steps. The only thing you need to confirm is the content of the message. The content will be similar except the few fields like Salutation, and First Name. All you need to do is add columns in the sheet for each variable that will be different. When you draft an email you represent these variables as {{Salutation}}, {{First Name}} etc.
As you can see, we can add multiple fields that will be changed according to the template. In the above email {{City}}, {{Salutation}} and {{First Name}} will be replaced by the content you have provided in your Google sheet template.
Also Read: How to Create a Group Email in Gmail?
