Learn how to integrate Google Contacts and Gmail multi-send to merge names into personalized e-mails.
Image: Andy Wolber In late 2022, Google included the ability to personalize Gmail messages sent from multi-send mode. This means you might now place a @firstname, @lastname, @fullname or @email field within a multi-send email, and the system will merge the corresponding field information from a recipient’s Google Contact record. More significantly, when Google announced the feature, the company likewise suggested that “assistance for customized mail combine tags using spreadsheets” will be added in the future.
Multi-send mode is readily available to people who use:
- Google Workspace Person.
- Google Work Space Organization Requirement or Plus.
- Google Office Business Starter, Requirement or Plus.
- Google Work Space Education Standard or Plus editions.
Additionally, a Google Workspace administrator need to make it possible for the function by setting Enable Multi-send Mode to ON in the Admin console at Apps|Google Workspace|Gmail|User Settings|Multi-Send mode.
How to handle a recipient list in Google Contacts
A Gmail multi-send merge draws from data in Google Contacts, so ensure you have correct info for each contact field you plan to use in your multi-send combine. If you need to import details into Google Contacts, you might download a Google-provided design template to make certain you have data in the appropriate fields for a.csv import. Open Google Contacts in a desktop-class internet browser to examine the information fields (Figure A) utilized in the mail merge process:
- Prefix
- First Name
- Surname
- Suffix
Figure A
First, make sure the information for each recipient is correct in Google Contacts with a review of name and e-mail fields. For ease of use, you may want to label contacts, so you may later select that label to add all associated contacts in an e-mail recipient field. First, make certain the data for each recipient is proper in Google Contacts with a review of name and e-mail fields. For ease of usage, you might wish to identify contacts, so you may later on pick that label to include all
associated contacts in an email recipient field. For the most part, you will likewise wish to develop a contact label(e.g., Newsletter as displayed in Figure A), then add that label to every contact you wish to include on that list. This makes it possible to then pick the label while in the recipient field in Gmail to add all contacts with that label to the recipient list. You may select the checkbox to the left of each contact for a set of contacts, select the label icon (above the list of contacts), then select your contact label and choose Apply to add the label to the selected set of contacts.
SEE: How to manage your Google Contacts (TechRepublic)
Make certain your receivers lists do not go beyond Gmail sending out limits or rules. One significant numeric constraint is that the optimum number of recipients for a multi-send email is 1,500 e-mail addresses. Must you send this quantity of email from an organizational address, you’ll have the ability to send 500 extra email messages that day before you reach the everyday total limitation of 2,000 messages.
SEE: How to send mass e-mails from Gmail (TechRepublic)
The other considerable rule is to not send out spam: Ensure the people you email are individuals who wish to receive your e-mail. By default, every multi-send e-mail includes an “Unsubscribe” link that permits a recipient to remove themselves from this list. Nevertheless, when you send email internally– to people within your company– unsubscribing might not be an alternative. Simply put, individuals might not have the ability to unsubscribe from a multi-send internal message, such as those less-than-useful emails from a leader in your company who has mastered the art of the useless missive. If you truly want to never ever see email from a specific individual in your company, you could set up a filter to archive selected emails automatically.
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How to insert mail combine fields in a multi-send Gmail
To develop a new multi-send e-mail, you’ll need to utilize a desktop-class web browser, such as Google Chrome as follows:
- Go to Gmail.
- Select the Compose button in the upper left. (If the button isn’t shown, choose the three horizontal line menu alternative in the upper left corner and after that select Mail.) Alternatively, if keyboard shortcuts have been enabled, press the c secret.
- Select the multi-send icon from the lower-right part of the compose menu icons, as revealed by the red box in Figure B. The icon shows as an envelope positioned in front of another envelope. A text box conveys that “You’re using multi-send mode” in addition to extra text and a link to read more.
Figure B
Go into multi-send mode, then select receivers, include a subject and go into material. Type the @ type in the email body text to gain access to mail combine tag alternatives, which enable you to insert personalized merge fields.
- Include recipients (e.g., a set of recipients through a Google Contact label), an e-mail topic and content, much as you might in any standard Gmail.
- Move your cursor in the text location of the email to the location you want to insert your merge field, then type @ to gain access to readily available mail merge tags, as revealed by the red circle in Figure B. As of March 2023, these include @firstname, @lastname, @fullname and @email.
- Select the desired email tag from the list.
After you have gone into all of your multi-send email content, choose the Continue button. At that point, you might select:
- Cancel, which allows you to go back to editing your e-mail,
- Send out preview, to communicate a copy of your e-mail to your own Inbox, so you might thoroughly evaluate the email content, or
- Send out all, to perform the merge, which sends an e-mail to each chosen recipient.
Because, by definition, multi-send e-mails go to numerous receivers, make certain to preview every message prior to sending out. Inevitably, typos, mistakes, omissions and incorrect dates/times tend to remain well concealed and just reveal themselves after you push Send. Use the Send out preview option, integrated with mindful checking to decrease errors.
If several receivers do not have information in a merge tag you have actually utilized, the system will enable you to get in a default alternative (e.g., text to use when no very first or surname exists) or return to the draft and modify the recipient list to either add the missing out on data or get rid of the recipient. For example, if your email begins, “Hey there @firstname!” you may select “there” for contacts that do not have an entered first name, which results in “Hi there!” text to those contacts.
