Category: Productivity Tips
Tags: Email AutomationGmail TipsGoogle SheetsMail MergeWorkplace Efficiency
Entities: GmailGoogle SheetsGoogle Workspace for DevelopersJeffMartin Hoxie
00:00
hey friends in this video i'll go over how to use gmail and google sheets to send personalized emails in bulk i'll then leave you with three realistic situations where you might want to apply this new technique immediately let's get started hi everyone my name is jeff and welcome back to another episode of think
00:16
outside the box where i show you creative ways to stand out at work i actually first used this mail merge method back when i was an account manager in the sales team and covering more than 200 clients per quarter sometimes i would need to send a mass communication to all my clients and at
00:32
first i just use the bcc method where you add your own email in the to field and all the actual recipients in the bcc field so they don't see each other's email addresses but i thought there must be a less generic and more efficient way to do this and that's where google's very own mail merge script comes in
00:49
huge thanks to martin hoxie for building this and helping me receive some extra recognition at work all right step one go to this google workspace for developers webpage i'll link it down below and scroll down to the try it section and click create a copy of
01:05
sample spreadsheet confirm you want to make a copy and you'll see this sample mail merge spreadsheet appear by the way mail merge is the technical name for sending customized bulk emails so if you want to sound smart at work use use
01:20
that phrase right off the bat you can change any of these column headers except for these two that i'll highlight in a different color uh recipient column email send column recipient is where you input the email addresses and email sent has a confirmation pop-up when the email
01:36
has been successfully sent in my first sales example of my clients first name their last name their email addresses their industry verticals and their unique customer id cid with all this filled out i can go to my gmail and compose a new draft in the to field i
01:52
can start by typing two open curly brackets go back to my mail merge sheet copy the recipient header cell to ensure no typo can possibly occur and paste that back here and close this with two more crowley
02:08
brackets for the subject line of the email i want to tell them we have research reports for their specific industries so i have read top vertical trends of 22nd century but the word vertical is enclosed within curly brackets because my clients are in different verticals in the body of the
02:23
email you can see i have their first name in curly brackets they're vertical in curly brackets and their customer id cid in curly brackets to prove that this is a legit email from their account manager and not spam or something right and now we're ready to go back to the mail merge sheet to start sending the
02:40
emails so you click mail merge here click send emails you'll see you need to provide authorization press continue choose your google account and although this says google hasn't verified this app we got the script from the official google developer website right and more
02:55
importantly i'm a youtuber you can trust me no but seriously this is fine so click advanced uh go down and go to go to gmail sheets mail merge which is safe and then you click allow and now you should have the ability to
03:12
click mail merge again but before we do that go back to your gmail draft copy the subject line command or control c go back to the mail merge sheet click mail merge send emails and this time command or control v paste the subject
03:29
line like exactly as you have it here and press ok and in a few seconds you'll see the email sent or will hopefully see the email sent column populate with the date and time the email has been sent hopefully you decided to test this with
03:46
your own email first so you can go back to your inbox and confirm the mail merge has run successfully in my case the vertical for me is fashion which is correct i am also very fashionable and my name is correct here and my customer
04:01
id cid is correct also now without watching the next part of this video let me know down in the comments how you might use this tool and we'll see if my examples cover your use case all right no cheating okay second example you're in school and you're organizing events
04:17
for your fellow classmates you have their first name last name their email address the date of their specific event and their unique id or uid pro tip i created a dynamic uid here by using a combination of the left and and
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functions this is basically just taking the left two characters from their email address and combining that with their event date and number format to create an id you know specific to them to use when they check in or something and it's important to note that this dynamic output uh works with the mail merge
04:49
function as well the email can look something like this uh the recipient in the to field doesn't change uh title hi first name you're confirmed for tryouts hi first name last name uh please join us on this date for tryouts and you can check in with your unique id uid scene
05:04
here simple and elegant alright this last example is for professional suck-ups i've never done this i've heard of people doing this i'm just including it here for the sake of being comprehensive uh no judgment and this is where you get to send you know personalized holiday
05:19
greeting emails to colleagues managers directors people who can give you a promotion and raise you have their first name last name email team they're currently on and the years you've known them for and in the email hi first name i can't believe it's
05:35
been this many years since we've met i miss working with you so much your team was the best your team was the best anyways happy holidays you're my favorite colleague ever
05:51
jokes aside here are some last pro tips if you want to use this free mail merge tool uh first make sure to highlight the two columns you can't delete in another color like i did in this tutorial so you can remind yourself to be extra careful with the recipient and email sent columns second whenever you want to
06:07
rerun the script clear out the email sent column by deleting the cell contents like this i'm not sure whether this is completely necessary but it's better safe than sorry finally always remember to send a test email first to yourself before sending the final copy to others
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common mistakes i've seen include uh using one curly bracket instead of two second uh not copy pasting the column header exactly and third not giving this video a like if you found it helpful if you enjoyed this episode of think outside the box make sure to check out
06:38
the entire playlist where i share even more creative ways to stand out at work see you on the next video in the meantime have a great one