{"id":10671,"date":"2019-12-16T17:07:33","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T17:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/?p=10671"},"modified":"2026-02-13T19:37:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:37:05","slug":"mail-merge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/mail-merge\/","title":{"rendered":"Mail Merge: A New, Helpful How-To Guide for Gmail, Word, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mail merge<\/strong>\u00a0is an antiquated term. Let&#8217;s just put that out there to start. The term dates back to when people would use software to print out \u201cpersonalized\u201d form letter templates and mailing labels.<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s the best term we&#8217;ve got \u2014 even as mail merging has gone fully digital.<\/p>\n<p>Because, yes, you <strong>can<\/strong>\u00a0mail merge with all your favorite email, word processing, and spreadsheet software.<\/p>\n<p>You just have to know how.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, I&#8217;m going to give a <strong>brief overview of how to create mail merges<\/strong>\u00a0with all of the most popular apps (namely, Microsoft Office and Google Workspace\/Gmail).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also going to (hopefully) <strong>answer any lingering questions<\/strong>\u00a0you might have about running your own mail merges.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Also: Note that our blog has several related articles available where we&#8217;ve done deep dives into the merge process with different apps. I&#8217;ve linked to those throughout this guide.)<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"mail-merge-table-of-rltm\"><strong>Mail Merge: Table of Contents<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-mail-merge-lykn\">What Is Mail Merge?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-mail-merge-in-owqi\">How to Mail Merge in Gmail<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-mail-merge-in-qsir\">How to Mail Merge in Google Docs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-mail-merge-in-fuif\">How to Mail Merge in Microsoft Word<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"what-is-mail-merge-lykn\"><a href=\"#how-to-mail-merge-in-jsol\">How to Mail Merge in Outlook<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#mail-merge-faq-answe-qggh\">Mail Merge FAQ: Answers to Your Questions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#mail-merge-which-sho-kkpf\">Mail Merge: Which Should You Choose?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>What Is Mail Merge?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A <strong>mail merge<\/strong>\u00a0lets you create <strong>personalized<\/strong>\u00a0messages, documents, labels, and more that are automatically customized on a recipient-by-recipient basis. This spares you the trouble of manually personalizing each document yourself.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"what-types-of-docume-unau\"><strong>What types of document can you create using mail merge?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>You can use mail merges to create personalized messages automatically for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/cold-email\/\">Cold emails<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Marketing emails.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/theyec\/2019\/09\/19\/four-ways-to-fuel-the-success-of-your-newsletter\/#e8f6ca66d05b\">Newsletters<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Corresponding with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/gmail-applicant-tracking-system-recruiting\/\">job seekers<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Custom promotions.<\/li>\n<li>Sending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/online-wedding-invitations\/\">invitations<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Form letters, labels, envelopes, and other printed items.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Note: <\/strong><\/em><em>A form letter is a<\/em><em><strong>\u00a0template <\/strong><\/em><em>file used to create mass letters. Instead of typing a letter for each recipient, you can use a form letter to make quick, unique, personalized letters for each person.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Essentially, if there\u2019s a document you need to personalize at scale, mail merges can take care of that for you.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"why-would-you-use-ma-pfot\"><strong>Why would you use mail merge?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Mail merge is far better than CCing (or BCCing) a bunch of people on an email.<\/p>\n<p>With mail merge, you can <strong>send personalized messages<\/strong> that are proven to <strong>get better engagement<\/strong> than generic mass emails. (After all, personalization and relevancy are essential for email success.)<\/p>\n<p>Using mail merge also <strong>saves a ton of time over manually customizing<\/strong> anything, from emails to documents; once you use it, you\u2019ll wonder why you <em>ever<\/em>\u00a0tried to do the process by hand.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"how-to-do-a-mail-mer-odog\"><strong>How to do a mail merge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>There are two documents that are essential to running a merge: A <strong>template file<\/strong> and a <strong>data source<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Your <strong>mail merge template<\/strong> is an email or document that uses specific <em>merge tags<\/em>\u00a0or <em>merge fields<\/em> as placeholders for where your data will go.<\/p>\n<p>Your <strong>software will then insert the relevant info into each mail merge field<\/strong> for each email message, mailing labels, or any other merge document.<\/p>\n<p>And the software gets that info from your <strong>data file<\/strong>, often a spreadsheet (but sometimes a database or customer relationship management platform).<\/p>\n<p>For instance, if you have a column in your Google Sheet data file called <strong>FName<\/strong>, anywhere your merge software sees the <code id=\"how-to-mail-merge-in-owqi\">{FName}<\/code>\u00a0field in your email message it will insert the recipient&#8217;s first name. Then it will create another email for the next recipient (with their first name inserted) and on and on.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How to Mail Merge in Gmail<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While I don&#8217;t have hard data to back this up, I&#8217;d feel confident saying <strong>the most common mail merge use case today is someone sending personalized emails through Gmail\/Google Workspace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, Gmail also has the most robust mail merge options out there.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few different methods you can use for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/gmail-mail-merge\">Gmail mail merge<\/a>, which we cover at extended length in that linked article.<\/p>\n<p>In brief, the three options are:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Sending mail merges from <strong><em>inside<\/em>\u00a0Gmail<\/strong> using a Chrome extension like GMass.<\/li>\n<li>Sending mail merges through Gmail from <strong>inside a Google Sheet<\/strong>, using a Google Workspace Marketplace add-on.<\/li>\n<li>Using <strong>Gmail&#8217;s <em>comically<\/em>\u00a0limited<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/gmail-multi-send\/\">built-in mail merge feature<\/a>. (It&#8217;s free for a reason.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to give you the walkthrough of using GMass to send your Gmail mail merge.<\/p>\n<p>One, you&#8217;re reading this on GMass, so we <em>really<\/em>\u00a0know every possible nuance of what it takes to send a high-quality mail merge. But two, the other options for mail merges in Gmail are much more flawed.<\/p>\n<p>We see it on (literally) a daily basis: Someone tries one of the other methods, gives up, comes to GMass, and leaves a <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/gmass-powerful-mail-merge\/ehomdgjhgmbidokdgicgmdiedadncbgf\">5-star review<\/a>\u00a0two days later.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-quick-step-by-step-eljo\"><strong>A quick step-by-step overview of doing a Gmail mail merge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Create your data file<\/strong> in a Google Sheets spreadsheet. (GMass has a native <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/google-sheets-mail-merge\/\">Google Sheets mail merge<\/a> integration.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18430\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2.png\" alt=\"Google sheet\" width=\"1026\" height=\"385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2.png 1026w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2-300x113.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2-1024x384.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2-768x288.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2-24x9.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2-36x14.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Google-sheet-2-48x18.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1026px) 100vw, 1026px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>first row<\/strong> of your sheet will become the <strong>names of your merge fields<\/strong>; each column header corresponds to a different field.<\/p>\n<p>Once your sheet is ready, head over to Gmail.<\/p>\n<p>Make sure you have the <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/gmass-powerful-mail-merge\/ehomdgjhgmbidokdgicgmdiedadncbgf\">GMass Chrome extension<\/a> installed. (If you don&#8217;t, it takes about 30 seconds. Here&#8217;s our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/quickstart-guide\">quickstart guide<\/a> if you need.)<\/p>\n<p>Now open a <strong>Gmail compose window<\/strong>, just like you would if you were typing a regular email.<\/p>\n<p>Click the GMass icon in the To field, then <strong>connect your Google Sheet of contacts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-23102\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified.png\" alt=\"GMass icon in the compose window\" width=\"1868\" height=\"1100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified.png 1868w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified-1024x603.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified-768x452.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified-1536x904.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified-24x14.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified-36x21.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/conngs-composeicon-tinified-48x28.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1868px) 100vw, 1868px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can now compose your email. Type a left curly brace <code>{<\/code> to bring up your list of merge fields; there&#8217;s no long, complicated \u201cinsert field\u201d process here.<\/p>\n<p>You can use the GMass settings box for all sorts of other features, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/gmail-email-tracking-track-opens-clicks\/\">tracking<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/features\/auto-follow-up-gmail\">auto follow-ups<\/a>, setting the sending speed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/how-to-schedule-an-email-in-gmail\/\">scheduling<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/ab-test\/\">A\/B testing<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/email-polls\/\">quick polls<\/a>, and dozens of others.<\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;re ready to send a personalized email to everyone in your Google Sheet, click the <strong>red GMass button<\/strong> to send.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Gmass-2.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-2\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18446\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Gmass-2.png\" alt=\"Gmass\" width=\"660\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Gmass-2.png 660w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Gmass-2-300x276.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Gmass-2-24x22.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Gmass-2-36x33.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Gmass-2-48x44.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"pros-and-cons-of-a-g-vlpn\"><strong>Pros and cons of a Gmail mail merge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;m well aware of how self-serving it&#8217;s going to sound but, again, GMass really is the best way to send your mail merge emails. (400,000+ people who&#8217;ve left over 9,000 reviews averaging 4.8\/5 over our decade agree.)<\/p>\n<p>Some of the pros are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A <strong>native integration<\/strong> between Google Sheets and Gmail.<\/li>\n<li>Send your campaigns from <strong>right inside Gmail<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Easy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/mail-merge-personalization\/\"><strong>mail merge personalization<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advanced mail merge personalization<\/strong>, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/how-to-include-personalized-image-in-email-marketing-campaign\/\">images<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/pdf-mail-merge-send-bulk-emails-pdf-attachments\/\">attachments<\/a>, and much more.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fallback values<\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/if-then-conditional-formatting-mail-merge-word\/\">conditional formatting<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Quick <strong>A\/B testing<\/strong> and <strong>auto follow-ups<\/strong>, all from the settings box.<\/li>\n<li>GMass can help you <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/how-many-emails-can-you-really-send-with-gmass-and-gmail\/\">break Gmail&#8217;s sending limits<\/a><\/strong> (including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/multisend-distributed-campaigns\/\">inbox rotation<\/a> options).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Automated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/recurring-reminder-emails\/\">recurring campaigns<\/a><\/strong> when you add new contacts to your linked Google Sheet.<\/li>\n<li>Advanced <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/features\/reporting\">analytics<\/a><\/strong>, including tracking on opens, clicks, replies, and more.<\/li>\n<li>99% of users report the <strong>best deliverability<\/strong> they&#8217;ve ever had; hit the inbox and not the spam folder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So what are the cons? Well, GMass isn&#8217;t free. If you&#8217;re, say, sending 10 emails one time where you want to mail merge in people&#8217;s first names, a paid GMass subscription might be overkill. (Then again, when you try to do it using Google&#8217;s free option\u2026..)<\/p>\n<p>But GMass is reasonably priced \u2014 in fact, we&#8217;re the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/cheapest-cold-email\/\">least expensive cold email software<\/a> out there \u2014 so <strong id=\"how-to-mail-merge-in-qsir\">it&#8217;s at least worth <em>trying<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0to see everything it can do to charge up your Gmail mail merges.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How to Mail Merge in Google Docs<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In general, Google products work better for mail merges than Microsoft products.<\/p>\n<p>Except if you want to create a template document in Google Docs to create mailing labels or other printed docs.<\/p>\n<p>In that case, the Word document merge is far superior to the Google Docs merge.<\/p>\n<p>The main reason: Unlike Word, <strong>Google Docs does <em>not<\/em>\u00a0have a native mail merge function<\/strong>. So you&#8217;ll need to bring in a third-party Google Workspace add-on.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-quick-step-by-step-gwrs\"><strong>A quick step-by-step overview of doing a Google Docs mail merge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I always recommend <strong>starting with a data file<\/strong> rather than a mail merge template; this is no exception.<\/p>\n<p>Create a <strong>new Google Sheet<\/strong> with the data you want to merge. The first row of the spreadsheet should be the headers you&#8217;ll use in your merge; each header becomes a field.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in Google Docs, create your merge document. Depending on your add-on of choice, the merge field tags will use different syntax. In this screenshot, I&#8217;m using <a href=\"https:\/\/workspace.google.com\/marketplace\/app\/autocrat\/539341275670\">Autocrat<\/a>, and it uses double carats.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-3\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18261\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template.png\" alt=\"Template\" width=\"814\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template.png 814w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template-768x399.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template-24x12.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template-36x19.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Template-48x25.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 814px) 100vw, 814px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once your document is done, head back to Sheets. You can install Autocrat (or your other mail merge plugin of choice) from the Add-ons menu.<\/p>\n<p>Now <strong>connect your Docs file with your Sheet<\/strong> in the document (much like you did with an Excel workbook, make sure you&#8217;re on the right sheet in your workbook). Match up each field in your Doc with the correct column in the spreadsheet.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/map-source-data.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-4\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18268\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/map-source-data.png\" alt=\"map source data\" width=\"729\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/map-source-data.png 729w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/map-source-data-300x189.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/map-source-data-24x15.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/map-source-data-36x23.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/map-source-data-48x30.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then hit the \u201c<strong>start mail merge<\/strong>\u201d button in your add-on. That will produce each merged document in your Google Drive.<\/p>\n<p><em>Check out our complete guide to the <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/mail-merge-google-docs\/\">mail merge Google Docs<\/a><\/em><em>\u00a0process for even more screenshots and helpful details.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"pros-and-cons-of-goo-vssi\"><strong>Pros and cons of Google Docs mail merges<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Again, there aren&#8217;t many pros of doing a Google Docs mail merge \u2014 unless you operate completely out of the Google Workspace suite. In that case, yes, grab an add-on and run your merges.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t even get into using Google Docs to create mail merge emails. That&#8217;s because it won&#8217;t get involved in the process.<\/p>\n<p><strong id=\"how-to-mail-merge-in-fuif\">We can go directly from a Google Sheet to Gmail without needing the extra step in the middle of using Docs.<\/strong> (This differs from the Microsoft Office process, where an Outlook merge requires using both an Excel spreadsheet and a Word document.)<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How to Mail Merge in Microsoft Word<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"a-quick-step-by-step-buzg\"><strong>A quick step-by-step overview of doing a Word mail merge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>To run a mail merge in MS Word, first up: You&#8217;ll need an <strong>Excel file to use as your data file<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Create a new Excel spreadsheet and use the first row as your line of headers. Each column header will correspond to a mail merge field.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-5\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17807\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information.png\" alt=\"Enter Contact information\" width=\"1166\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information.png 1166w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information-300x62.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information-1024x211.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information-768x158.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information-24x5.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information-36x7.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Enter-Contact-information-48x10.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1166px) 100vw, 1166px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now head over to Microsoft Word and create a new Word document.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a whole tab in Word around mail merging: the <strong>Mailings <\/strong>tab.<\/p>\n<p>Click to open the Mailings heading, then you can <strong>choose what type of merge you want to create<\/strong>: letters, email messages, envelopes, labels, or a directory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Letters.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-6\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17811\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Letters.png\" alt=\"Letters\" width=\"768\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Letters.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Letters-300x136.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Letters-24x11.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Letters-36x16.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Letters-48x22.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since this is your first time, you may just want to use Word&#8217;s built-in mail merge wizard to walk you through the process.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, you&#8217;ll need to use the <strong>Select Recipients<\/strong> option to find your list (in this case, your Excel file), then select the correct spreadsheet in the Excel Workbook.<\/p>\n<p>Now you can <strong>insert field names from the sheet<\/strong> into your template document either manually (with the format \u00abFieldName\u00bb) or via the mail merge wizard or Mailings tab. You can also include things like a greeting line, an address block (good for mailing labels), or any other mail merge field.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Address-block.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-7\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17819\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Address-block.png\" alt=\"Address block\" width=\"768\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Address-block.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Address-block-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Address-block-24x15.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Address-block-36x23.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Address-block-48x30.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once you&#8217;re done you can preview your merged document (whether it&#8217;s a form letter, mailing labels, or personalized email) in the Mailings tab bar. Then choose <strong>Finish &amp; Merge<\/strong>\u00a0to generate your individual, custom documents.<\/p>\n<p><em>We have a complete step-by-step walkthrough of how to <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/mail-merge-word\/\">mail merge Word<\/a><\/em><em>\u00a0from Excel available if you need.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"pros-and-cons-of-mic-cxvq\"><strong>Pros and cons of Microsoft Word mail merges<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>MS Word is a solid choice if you&#8217;re looking to create physical mail merge documents, like address labels or a form letter.<\/p>\n<p>There are also add-ons, like the <strong>Mail Merge Toolkit for Word<\/strong>, which allow you do to even more with personalization. (It also allows you to send different attachments to each recipient, which isn&#8217;t possible normally.)<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s <strong>less ideal if you&#8217;re trying to send bulk emails<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, when you use an Excel Spreadsheet \u2192 Word document \u2192 email software (Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, the rest) chain, you&#8217;re adding unnecessary steps \u2014 steps where things can go wrong.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll need to <strong id=\"how-to-mail-merge-in-jsol\">manually set up the connection between Word and either Outlook or Gmail<\/strong>, which is less intuitive than native options.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How to Mail Merge in Outlook<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Let&#8217;s make one important distinction clear off the bat: <strong>It&#8217;s hard to run a mail merge in Microsoft Outlook.<\/strong> (Or Outlook 365.)<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t just connect an Excel file data source to Outlook; it doesn&#8217;t have a native mail merge feature. You&#8217;ll need to <strong>add an intermediary step and get Word involved<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>But if you&#8217;re a Microsoft Outlook user and you want to send mail merge emails, here&#8217;s your step by step mail guide.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-quick-step-by-step-balx\"><strong>A quick step-by-step overview of doing an Outlook mail merge<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Much like I described in the Word instructions, go to Microsoft Excel and create an Excel spreadsheet. (Or import a CSV, if that&#8217;s where you&#8217;ve got the email addresses for your mass email.)<\/p>\n<p>The first row should, again, be your column header for each merge field.<\/p>\n<p>Now head over to Microsoft Word and create the email message in your main document. Use the <strong>Insert field<\/strong>\u00a0option in the Mailings tab to insert merge field names in the proper spots. (Again, if needed, you can use Word&#8217;s mail merge wizard here.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image8-2.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-8\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15793\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image8-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"704\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image8-2.png 704w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image8-2-300x184.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image8-2-24x15.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image8-2-36x22.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image8-2-48x29.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once you&#8217;re ready to start sending your personalized mass emails, go to the <strong>Select Recipients<\/strong>\u00a0menu.<\/p>\n<p>You should select your Excel spreadsheet here; however, you do have the chance to select a recipient list from your Outlook contacts. (Unfortunately, the Outlook contacts route is less ideal than the Excel spreadsheet, since you will unexpectedly run into missing fields <em>a lot<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p>Once you&#8217;re connected, you can preview the results in your Word document. If all looks good, you can go ahead and choose to <strong>start mail merge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In the <strong>Finish &amp; Merge<\/strong>\u00a0menu, choose <strong>Send Email Messages\u2026<\/strong>\u00a0from the dropdown. Choose your data file header for email addresses, then set the subject line and other options.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image5-2.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-9\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15809\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image5-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"756\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image5-2.png 756w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image5-2-300x182.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image5-2-24x15.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image5-2-36x22.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image5-2-48x29.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s finally time to head over to Outlook.<\/p>\n<p>Click the Outbox folder and you&#8217;ll see your personalized mass emails there.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at them, then click the <strong>Send\/Receive All Folders<\/strong>\u00a0button to send your merged emails.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-10\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15816\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"862\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1.png 862w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1-300x154.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1-768x394.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1-24x12.png 24w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1-36x18.png 36w, https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image3-1-48x25.png 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 862px) 100vw, 862px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Here&#8217;s our full guide to step by step mail merges in <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/mail-merge-outlook\/\">Outlook<\/a><\/em><em>\u00a0if you want more granular detail or a more robust walkthrough.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"pros-and-cons-of-mic-quyz\"><strong>Pros and cons of Microsoft Outlook mail merges<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As I said at the beginning of this section\u2026 unfortunately, <strong>there aren&#8217;t many pros of sending personalized mass emails through Outlook<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The process <strong>requires three different Microsoft Office apps<\/strong>, which is cumbersome. You can&#8217;t even pull this off in the Outlook web app; you&#8217;ll need either a paid Office 365 subscription or the full version of Outlook on your desktop.<\/p>\n<p>Also, <strong>there are a lot of features missing<\/strong>. The Mail Merge Toolkit add-on can help with some, but not all, of your personalization needs. And there&#8217;s no way to do things like tracking your merges, sending automated follow-ups, throttling your sending speed, or anything else that experienced emails take for granted.<\/p>\n<p>So what are the pros? If you live inside the Office suite and want to keep everything there, this is the mail merge email process for you.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you&#8217;re <em>just<\/em>\u00a0doing this to send through Outlook, there are ways to do that with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/gmail-alias\/\">Gmail alias<\/a> that will <strong id=\"mail-merge-faq-answe-qggh\">allow you to use <em>much<\/em>\u00a0more robust software<\/strong> in a <em>much<\/em>\u00a0less Byzantine process.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Mail Merge FAQ: Answers to Your Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 id=\"what-are-the-advanta-kwpw\"><strong>What are the advantages and disadvantages of email mail merge?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Mail merge for your email marketing or cold emailing has several strong advantages, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Personalization: <\/strong>Mail merge personalization makes your form letter sound like individual correspondence, so it\u2019s more likely to be read.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Saves time:<\/strong>\u00a0Once you set up your mail merge template, it takes relatively little time to create a large number of personalized messages because it\u2019s tied to your Excel data \u2014 the single spreadsheet where all personalized information is kept.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Controls the appearance of your message: <\/strong>A mail merge template lets you manage how the type and images look, so your email is attractive even where the personalized content is different.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Allows for testing:<\/strong>\u00a0You can quickly adapt a template to create two versions of the message for A\/B testing. This way, you can effortlessly know what version of your message works best.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand, a mail merge also has some disadvantages for email campaigns:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>May require additional software: <\/strong>To go beyond the features of Microsoft Word, you may need email merge software, like GMass, with advanced features to automate data collection or add <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/conditional-content\/\">conditional formatting<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Requires accuracy: <\/strong>If your Microsoft Excel database is incomplete, inaccurate, out of date, or saved under a new name, then mail merge may not work.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Risk of error: <\/strong>If you make a mistake in your mail merge template or personalization data, that error will get reproduced on all the emails that use those elements. As a result, it\u2019s essential to allow time to test your email before sending it to your entire list.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"can-you-perform-an-e-cyra\"><strong>Can you perform an email merge with an attachment?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>When you\u2019re using Word, you don\u2019t have the option to include an attachment with a standard mail merge message, but you can if you use the <strong>Mail Merge Toolkit<\/strong>\u00a0add-in for Microsoft Office.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you\u2019re after a better solution, use a purpose-built mail merge platform like GMass that not only lets you include an attachment but even <strong>allows you to choose different attachments for each recipient<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"can-you-send-a-mail-rbsd\"><strong>Can you send a mail merge from a shared mailbox?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If you want to send a mail merge from a <strong>shared mailbox<\/strong> (such as from an email address named for a department, company, or event instead of a person), you can arrange it in Outlook.<\/p>\n<p>Start by finding the \u201cOther User\u2019s Folder\u201d and open it to navigate to the shared mailbox. Associate that mailbox with the spreadsheet that contains your recipients\u2019 data and prepare the mail merge as usual.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"how-do-you-do-a-mail-ajsd\"><strong>How do you do a mail merge in Word for labels?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>One of the coolest features of MS Word\u2019s mail merge functionality is the ability to drive printed labels with placement designed in Word and data-driven by your personalization data sheet.<\/p>\n<p>If you know how to do a letter or email mail merge in Word, labels are very easy.<\/p>\n<p>Under the <strong>Mailings<\/strong> tab in Word, click the <strong>Start Mail Merge<\/strong> selection and then the <strong>Step-by-Step Mail Merge Wizard<\/strong>. Choose Label as your template document type, and under <strong>Label Options<\/strong>, select a label manufacturer and style number (for example, Avery 5160, etc.).<\/p>\n<p>From there, follow the wizard\u2019s prompts.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"how-do-you-do-a-mail-slqy\"><strong>How do you do a mail merge with Outlook?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>To create an Outlook mail merge, you\u2019ll need to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook.<\/p>\n<p>Starting in Word, choose the Mailings menu, then <strong>Start Email Merge<\/strong>, and then <strong>Email Messages<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>When your message is ready, click <strong>Select Recipients<\/strong> to link to the Excel spreadsheet with your data. Then, select <strong>Finish &amp; Merge<\/strong> to send your email to your list using Outlook.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"what-is-extended-mai-mmuo\"><strong>What is extended mail merge?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If you\u2019re a Salesforce user, you have two options for mail merge \u2014 standard and extended.<\/p>\n<p>Standard mail merge is the preferred approach for those with specific CRM software and operating systems, such as Luminate CRM and Windows 10.<\/p>\n<p>Extended mail merge is a mail merge tool for all other Salesforce users. Although the tools are different, <strong id=\"mail-merge-which-sho-kkpf\">the results are the same<\/strong> \u2014 personalized emails to recipients listed in Salesforce.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Mail Merge: Which Should You Choose?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mail merge is a <strong>powerful<\/strong> and <strong>underutilized technique<\/strong> to <strong>create personalized emails, documents, and printings at scale<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>You can run mail merges with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace \u2014 however, different platforms excel at different types of merges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you want to send mail merge emails, Gmail is far superior to Outlook.<\/strong> The best option is using a third-party option, like GMass, to turn Gmail into a fully-functional mail merging email platform.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you want to create printed mail merge items, like envelopes or mailing labels, Microsoft Word will work better than Google Docs.<\/strong> Word has a built-in merge feature that excels at printed items. (It\u2019s much less useful for emails, though.)<\/p>\n<p>Ready to get started?<\/p>\n<p>You can <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/gmass-powerful-mail-merge\/ehomdgjhgmbidokdgicgmdiedadncbgf\">download the GMass Chrome extension<\/a> from the Chrome Web Store<\/strong> and get set up on a free trial in a matter of seconds. Join the <strong>300,000+ others<\/strong> who are sending out <strong>personalized mass emails<\/strong> and other mail merge campaigns effortlessly and without a learning curve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mail merge\u00a0is an antiquated term. Let&#8217;s just put that out there to start. The term dates back to when people would use software to print out \u201cpersonalized\u201d form\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mail-merge"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Mail Merge: A New, Helpful How-To Guide for Gmail, Word, and More<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to learn how to do a mail merge? 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