How to Mail Merge in Gmail

Originally published November 11, 2020, updated April 06, 2021

Ever wondered which poor sod’s job it is to sit down and type out individual emails for each of these multinational mega-corporations’ customers? That poor intern, sitting there on a measly wage getting lost in spreadsheets as they copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, and paste a hundred thousand times over.

Well. We’ve got some news for you.

{{first-name}}, meet Mail Merge.

What is Mail Merge?

Mail merge is a widely-used feature of bulk email systems, that allows users to personalise mass email campaigns simply. It’s basically a macro, which gleans data from a source and places it inside your emails. A pre-mail merged email looks something like this, compared to a post-mail merged email.

Mail Merge helps you personalise emails. But without knowing why that’s good, you might mistake it as just another thing to do.

Bulk email outreach is a direct, cost-effective way of reaching out to your customer or lead base. First of all, email marketing is convenient; having your brand name pop up on consumer phones is a great way to stay fresh in mind. It’s also easy. In fact, it’s probably too easy. That’s why my inbox is full of job recommendations and vouchers for winter wear. Finally, it’s cheap. After all… it’s pretty much free to send an email after you’ve paid your internet bill.

You already knew that, we’ve already told you. What you might not have know is that by personalising your bulk email campaigns, you can supercharge your email campaign results. Personalised emails stand out much more prominently in recipient inboxes, appearing as highly-relevant and tailor-made content. They strengthen the customer experience, helping the customer form a stronger bond with a brand. It humanises your outreach. The results speak for themselves.

74% of marketers say targeted personalization increases customer engagement. – eConsultancy
Marketers see an average increase of 20% in sales when using personalized experiences. – Monetate
Email subject lines that are personalized generate an average of 50% higher open rates – Oberlo

Sounds good. We’ve got two ways to magically personalise your emails with next to-zero effort. The not NetHunt Way… and The NetHunt Way.

Let’s get growing!

The Sheets Way.

There is a kind of roundabout-native way to Mail Merge in Gmail, using Google Sheets in Workspace. It’s relatively straightforward, once you get the gist… but it involves a lot of manual data entry and management. That’s not The NetHunt Way. But if you’re interested, simply follow these step-by-step instructions.

Step 1.

Download a copy of the Gmail Sheets Mail Merge spreadsheet, it’s available here.

Step 2.

Update the column labelled Recipients with all the email addresses you want to target with your bulk email campaign, as well as their first name, last name, and any other data you need to include. As your contact list grows, you might find it useful to add their name to this list as you go along.

Step 3.

Open Gmail and create a draft of your bulk email. Make sure you include a subject line that is specific to your email. If you need some inspiration, we’ve got loads of templates here.

As you draft the body, use macro commands such as {{first-name}} to merge data columns you need. Make sure those forms match the column names in the merge Sheet. The more columns you have with different data, the more specifically you can personalise your bulk campaign.

Step 4.

Head back to the Sheet, and hit the Mail Merge button on the top toolbar. Then, Send Emails. When prompted, copy and paste the subject line you drafted in your message and hit OK. The {{macro-commands}} have now populated.

Step 5.

The email should have been sent. If you’re not sure, check the Email Sent column and it should have updated from blank, to sent.

Note.

If you want to edit the original columns that were included in the Sheet, such as First Name, Last Name etc. then you need to faff with Script Editor, which you can find in tools. In my opinion, it’s probably better to create your own, new columns.

The NetHunt Way

As a Gmail CRM, there’s no better way to get a grip of and personalise your email campaigns than NetHunt CRM. Our system adds huge mass mailing capabilities to your existing Gmail inbox. In fact, Mail Merge is just half of the story. We’ve got automated contact management, supreme customer segmentation, fields upon fields of data, lead generation and enrichment integrations, unlimited send capabilities… even when Gmail limits you to just 500 email per day!

Have a taste of how we do things The NetHunt Way.

Step 1.

Open the email campaign tab and click New. Create a campaign by naming it and choosing the folder where you want to pull your recipients from.

Step 2.

If you want to send a list of emails to a specific set of prospects, leads, or clients, you simply need to segment your customers by filtering them based on a specific characteristic. Let’s email an irresistible offer to all our new users.

Step 3.

Compose a template, using the Add Macros button. You can include absolutely any field you have populated in your NetHunt contact records.

Step 4.

Add an unsubscribe button, you’re probably required to by law. Make sure there are no duplicates in your emailing list, and only then can you proceed to preview your personalised campaign. It’s also possible to send a test email, to see how it looks in your recipients’ inboxes.