How to send mass emails using Gmail

Mass newsletters are an integral part of any email marketing and allow you to reach the widest possible audience. However, how do you bulk send if your email marketing tool is Gmail? In this post, I am going to show you two ways how to send mass emails in Gmail.

But prior to sending bulk emails via Gmail, you need to export them from Stripo to the featured email client if you are going to send HTML emails for your business.

How to export emails from Stripo to Gmail

You can do it in just a few clicks:

• click the "Export" button above the template area;
• in the pop-up window, choose Gmail;
• enter your Gmail credentials;
• find your email in the Drafts folder in the featured email client.

Note:

By doing so, you grant us access to your drafts folder only. We will not have access to your contacts or any other email folder in Gmail. To make sure that your account and all the data in it are safe with us, we passed the Bishop Fox security test.

For more information on how to export emails to Gmail, please refer to our video:

So, there are two ways of sending mass emails to multiple recipients via Gmail.

Way 1. Gmail mass emails

Before I started my own investigations on this topic, I had not known that it was technically possible to send bulk email in Gmail.

So how can you do it?

Certainly, you need to create a group.

How to create email distribution list in Gmail?

• click the "Google apps" button right in your Gmail account;
• go to the Contacts page in your Gmail account and select the contacts you want to add to the distribution list;

• choose the "Create label" option and give the mailing list label name. This label icon will now appear as a contact group in your Google Contacts;

• then click the "Create contact" button;

• and now choose the "Create multiple contacts" option;

• add this Gmail contact group as recipients to your email via one click to send the message to your family members, friends, or any multiple recipients in the existing group;

• push the "Enter" button on your keyboard to activate the "Create" button";
• done! This is how you make a Gmail distribution list for your Google contacts. All the contacts you just entered have been added to the group.

You may want to check if all the contacts have been added correctly. Just enter the segment in the "Label" section.

If you upload a CSV file with a phone number, name, and job title of the contact, these data would appear in the group, as well.

Important:

Please reload your Gmail account page before you start sending mass emails to your newly created contact groups. Gmail needs to update all data.

Above, we said that when you export an email template designed with Stripo to your Gmail account, it gets delivered to the folder “Drafts.”

Once you have exported your custom template from Stripo, go to your Gmail drafts, open the email, and then enter the contact group's name in the address line. Edit the subject line, add some text above the bulk email campaign template, and now it is done!

Easy-peasy!

I had previously created two groups: “Testing Gmail again” and “Testing groups in Gmail.” So, Gmail suggested that I select one of them.

But there are some limits:

1. A group contains under 100 contacts for regular accounts and up to 2 000 contacts for Workspace (formerly G-Suite) users.

2. By using this way for sending mass email in Gmail, you can send out up to only 500 emails per day for free. The Workspace users (formerly G-Suite) are allowed to send out up 2 000 emails per day. Those with trial Workspace accounts can send under 500 emails a day, though.

Note: Google will not deliver emails to invalid addresses. You will be able to remove them before you send the next newsletter.  

When sending mass emails via Gmail, you can get a simple report provided by Gmail Postmaster tools. It will show you:

• how many emails of yours have been marked as spam;
• if you are sticking to Gmail best practices to pass spam filters;
• the reasons why your emails have not been delivered if this has occurred.

Certainly, it will not show you the open rate or click-through-rate of your emails. So, if you need them, you may need a third-party tool.

Way 2. Mail Merge for Gmail by digital inspiration

Mail Merge for Gmail is a paid add-on. It is provided by an external email marketing service, yet it is promoted by Gmail. It lets Google Workspace users send up to 1 500 emails per day, while Gmail users can send up to 400 emails. It's a great email marketing software for more convenient managing of mass email campaigns.

But before I start showing how to install Mail Merge and the ways of using it, I would love to describe its advantages and main Mail Merge features:

• it enables you to send personalized mass email campaigns;
• enables you to apply individual attachments for each recipient;
• this tool lets you schedule multiple emails;
• provides you with a detailed report on the open rate, click rate, and even quantity of those who unsubscribed.

So how can you do it?

Prior to using this application, you will have to install it.

Installing the app

It's a paid add-on, so here's the pricing list.

Sending personalized mass emails with individual attachments

Mail merge personalization is a great feature, and to make it work, you will have to create contacts and put them in one group first. Easy to do it — just import all your Google contacts in Mail Merge Spreadsheet.

You may create a few groups of contacts in your Gmail account and then import a desirable group before sending mass emails. Once you have imported your contact base and segmented it into groups, you may now configure the marketing emails you are about to send.

Here you set the sender name and mass email campaign name and choose which metrics you are about to track.

Then you have to select what you are about to send: a prepared draft or you want to create a new email.

I prefer the option with drafts because, as you remember, all Stripo templates you export to Gmail will be located in the drafts folder. Edit the subject line and remove your standard signature from the body of your email if you have previously set one.

The tool even automatically suggests that you choose the template from the ones existing in your folder.

In order to send out multiple emails with personal names, you should:

• wrap the parameter in braces, and include it into the draft;
• make sure every little symbol is written correctly, including upper and lower cases.  

Your draft will look like this: “Hello, {{First Name}}”

Note: you may apply this kind of personalization to the subject lines if you like.

You can also include a recipient's last name and anything you wish. It is up to you to decide what parameters to apply to your emails.

Those can be Meeting day and Delivery date, for example… then you can send out personalized emails with the correct individual date.  

Note: this tool imports only “First Name,” “Last Name,” and “Email Address.”

Fields like date of birth, location, etc., are to be filled in manually.

You can also attach individual files to each and every single email.

Scheduling mass emails

What I love most about this tool is that you can schedule each email individually.

In the column “Scheduled Date” insert the necessary date for every email.

If you want to send them all instantly, just do not insert any date in the column — keep them blank.

When you have some emails scheduled and other emails are sent instantly, you will have a pop-up window that will look like this:

Detailed reports

Yep, not only can it schedule emails, but it also provides you with detailed reports. When configuring Gmail Mail Merge for every email marketing campaign individually, you may choose what metrics you are going to track:

•  email opens, aka open rate;
•  link clicks, aka click-through-rate;
•  unsubscribe links, aka unsubscribe rate.

Or tick them all…

Your report will look like this:

Wrapping up

As you can see, there are two ways to send a mass email campaign in Gmail. Each way has its pros. So, it is up to you to decide which way to use and what suits more for your bulk email campaigns more. Anyway, both methods will help your emails reach the recipient's inbox and not the spam folder.

I wish you good luck!