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Brilio.net/en - Have you ever wonder how those e-commerce newsletters have your nickname in their greetings? If you think its pretty cool and want to send the same kind of mass emails for your own businesses, this article will show you how.
You actually can send out the same email to dozens of people, with a touch of personalization. The solution is rather simple and classic: the mail merge function. Some email clients like Outlook have a built-in time saving mail merge function, but if you want to use it with Gmail, you need to download a Chrome extension.
This mail merge works by importing a spreadsheet and plugging in data from the cells to fill in specific parts of an email, changing them for different recipients as if youre sending a dedicated email for one person. You can download the Mail Merge for Gmail add-on here to start doing a mail merge.
Then watch this video tutorial of how to use the extension:
When youre done adding the extension, up next will be to create a spreadsheet in Google Drive. Go to Add-ons > Mail Merge and Scheduler > Create Merge Template, which will turn your spreadsheet into a standard mail merge spreadsheet layout.
From here, you may choose one of two things: either you fill in the data manually, or import them from your Google Contacts.
If youre using Google Contacts, make sure you have your group of contacts ready. Then in your spreadsheet, select Add-ons > Mail Merge and Scheduler > Import Google Contacts. Select the group you want and the information will automatically be added in the spreadsheet.
Once youve got everything on its place, go back to the Mail Merge and Scheduler menu under Add-ons, and select Configure Mail Merge. This window allows you to select different options, fill in your own name, add cc's and bcc's, and select an email template. You can either write your own template or use a Gmail draft.
At this point it will get a little bit trickier, but dont worry, once you understand the process, you will get used to it.
To let your Mail Merge add-on autofill data, you have to call for that data by using specific text calls. For example, to insert a name from the First Name column in your spreadsheet, type {{First Name}}, with those double wavy parentheses.
For an instance, if your email begins with:
Dear {{First Name}},
Every email you send will automatically replace the {{First Name}} with recipients names you filled into the column labeled First Name on your spreadsheet.
When youre all set with your email template, dont forget to hit Run Mail Merge to send out the emails, or hit Only Create Drafts to save the emails as drafts that you can send later.
This Mail Merge add-on is free and it allows you to send 50 emails per day. In case the business grow bigger and you need to send more emails, you can buy a premium version for US$29.99 and a domain license for US$299, which increases your email limit up to 1,500 per day.
Source: Mashable
(brl/red)
