Get Mail Merge In Gmail With This Google Docs Template

Want to send a bunch of emails personalised to each recipient? Sending mass emails is easy using Microsoft Word’s mail merge, less so with Gmail. This Google Docs template, however, brings email merging to Gmail.

The free template is provided by consulting firm IT4SmallBusiness and includes in-depth instructions on the first tab. It’s similar to a another Google Docs template we’ve previously highlighted for mail merge in Gmail except this one lets you lets you do a test mail merge run before sending and is a little easier to write the email text in thanks to the layout. This template, however, doesn’t include the Gmail contacts importing that the previous one does.

To start using this template, log into Gmail, open the MailMerge Google Docs template, and make a copy of it to your Google Docs account (under File > Make a copy…). Write your email on the second sheet, “Email text” and add the special fields like <>. Then go to the third sheet to add the data that will replace those special fields (e.g. the list of email recipients, their names and other personalised info).

Note that you’ll probably want to send your mass emails in batches, lest Google label you a spammer. Mail merge with Gmail would be handy for a lot of uses, from mailing clients/customers to sending party invitations with custom instructions, as the example shows.

MailMerge [via CNet]