In fact, just speculating here \u2014 I\u2019d bet there are many college administrators out there who don\u2019t know this type of software even exists.<\/p>\n
Today we\u2019ll cover some of the\u00a0most common types of mass emails college administrators and administration staff send<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 and how to set those up in a fraction of the usual time in GMass.<\/p>\n Running an\u00a0entire college<\/i>\u00a0requires mass emails. To send mass emails, you may be:<\/p>\n There\u2019s\u00a0mass email software out there that can make the email process so much easier<\/b>.<\/p>\n With a tool like GMass you can:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve talked with lots of college administrators about how they\u2019re using GMass to send emails to students, faculty, businesses, alumni, and more.<\/p>\n Here are some of the most common ways college administrators are using GMass:<\/p>\n Through the rest of this article we\u2019ll cover the four most popular types of mass emails and go over how to set them up in GMass.<\/p>\n Note: Before you can send any of these\u2026 you\u2019ll need the GMass extension for Chrome<\/b>. Download it from the\u00a0Chrome Web Store<\/a>, then take a quick run through the\u00a0GMass quickstart guide<\/a>\u00a0to get rolling.<\/p>\n You need to keep students, prospective students, faculty, alumni, businesses, and the community informed about important things happening at school.<\/p>\n That can range from a major on-campus event to an update to your school\u2019s COVID restrictions.<\/p>\n And mass emails \u2014 especially personalized, trackable ones \u2014 are the best way to get the word out.<\/p>\n For this example, we\u2019ll send an email to all students, faculty, and staff about a welcome event for the new academic year.<\/p>\n The\u00a0best way to send personalized mass emails is with Google Sheets<\/b>. GMass has a native integration with Google Sheets and every column in the sheet becomes a\u00a0Gmail mail merge field<\/a>\u00a0for quick personalization.<\/p>\n There are other ways to add contacts for individual mass emails with GMass, including just pasting all of them into the To field. But for this example, we\u2019ll use the Google Sheets option.<\/p>\n Note: It\u2019s good to include your own email on your Google Sheet to test your campaigns before you send them.<\/i><\/p>\n Connect your Google Sheet to GMass by clicking this icon in Gmail.<\/p>\n Or by opening a new compose window in Gmail and clicking the icon in the To field.<\/p>\n Add recipients from a Google Sheet by\u00a0selecting your Google Sheet from the dropdown<\/b>.<\/p>\n In the Optional Settings, we won\u2019t need to do any filtering here \u2014 we\u2019re sending to everybody.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve made sure \u201cKeep duplicate emails\u201d is unchecked, since everyone on our list only needs one email. And I\u2019ve checked \u201cUpdate Sheet with reporting data\u201d so GMass will update my Google Sheet with opens, clicks, replies, and bounces.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll also add a second sheet of contacts to this email, the school\u2019s faculty and staff. With\u00a0GMass\u2019s Multi Merge feature<\/a>\u00a0you can connect multiple lists to a single email campaign.<\/p>\n To connect to the second sheet, I\u2019ll click the GMass icon in the To field of the compose window.<\/p>\n And I\u2019ll connect my second Google Sheets with the same settings.<\/p>\n Now you can\u00a0compose your email like any normal Gmail email<\/b>.<\/p>\n For this example, I whipped up a quick flier in Canva to add to the email as well.<\/p>\n If you want to format the email further, you can use Gmail\u2019s built-in formatting tools. You can also format your email by editing the HTML in the GMass settings. (HTML editing isn\u2019t something you can normally do so easily in Gmail \u2014 GMass adds the HTML editing function.)<\/p>\n After I\u2019ve made my formatting edits (I used HTML to set the background color and turn my link white), my email looks like this:<\/p>\n For this example, I\u2019ll add the person\u2019s name to the top of the invitation.<\/p>\n Type a left curly brace\u00a0 I\u2019ll set it up with a fallback value (in case we don\u2019t have someone\u2019s name filled in on the Google Sheets). I went with\u00a0 Now that I\u2019ve finished composing my email I\u2019m going to adjust the campaign settings.<\/p>\n To get to the GMass settings (which I alluded to earlier in the section about editing HTML), click the arrow next to the GMass button in the compose window.<\/p>\n I want to\u00a0send two follow-ups<\/b>, once a week, to people who haven\u2019t clicked on the RSVP link.<\/p>\n To set those up, go to the Auto Follow-up section of the GMass settings box.<\/p>\n Check the box for Stage 1. I\u2019ll set this so if there\u2019s no click on my original email after seven days, it will send a follow-up.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to make it a quick, one-sentence follow-up \u2014 mostly to bump up this email thread in the person\u2019s inbox.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll set the Stage 2 reminder to go out seven days after that.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it looks in the GMass settings box:<\/p>\n I want this email to go out on Monday morning. To\u00a0schedule the email<\/a>, click into the Schedule section of the settings box. Then select the time and date you want.<\/p>\n Google sets a limit of up to 2,000 emails per day for Google Workspace accounts. That\u2019s not going to work if you\u2019re sending to the entire student body and faculty.<\/p>\n With GMass, you can\u00a0break Gmail\u2019s daily limits<\/a>\u00a0and send virtually unlimited emails.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to set up an external third-party SMTP server to do so. Check out the\u00a0instructions for using an external SMTP server<\/a>\u00a0with GMass.<\/p>\n Also: Since you\u2019re sending non-commercial emails, you can\u00a0apply to use GMass\u2019s own SMTP server<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0the easiest way to break Gmail\u2019s limits<\/b>.<\/p>\n The campaign is ready. Time to test it to make sure everything works right.<\/p>\n In the GMass settings, click the arrow next to Send Test and check the box next to Send all stages<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then click the Send Test button. A few moments later you should see the first email and the sequence of follow-ups in your inbox.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the result:<\/p>\n All looks good to me. The\u00a0mail merge personalization<\/a>\u00a0worked right, everything else looks how I want \u2014 so this is ready to go.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re ready to send the campaign (or have it go out at the future date and time you scheduled), click the GMass button<\/strong>.\u00a0Not<\/i>\u00a0the regular Gmail send button.<\/p>\n The next personalized mass email we\u2019ll cover in this guide is a survey email. The most important part:\u00a0We\u2019ll send automated reminders to people who don\u2019t fill out the survey.<\/b><\/p>\n Before you create your email, you\u2019ll need:<\/p>\n Note: It\u2019s possible to use custom links for each recipient if necessary. Check out our guide to using personalized links<\/a> in GMass. The quick version: You\u2019ll just need to add a column in your Google Sheet with each recipient\u2019s link.<\/em><\/p>\n Connect your Google Sheet to a new GMass campaign in Gmail in the ways described earlier: By clicking the sheet icon next to the search bar or by clicking the GMass icon in the Compose window To field.<\/p>\n In the Google Sheet connection options, I\u2019ll leave \u201cKeep duplicate emails\u201d unchecked \u2014 every student just needs one survey. And I will check the box to update my sheet with reporting data.<\/p>\n If you\u00a0don\u2019t want to send the survey to everyone on your spreadsheet<\/b>, you can use the\u00a0Filter Rows options<\/a>\u00a0in the connection box.<\/p>\n For instance, if I only want to send this survey to students in the College of Arts and Sciences and not the School of Engineering and others, I could set up a filter. I have a column in my Google Sheet called \u201cCollege\u201d. And I\u2019ll set a filter where\u00a0 With that filter, GMass will only send to email addresses in rows where the College is CAS.<\/p>\n Now compose the email (like any normal email in Gmail) and include the survey link.<\/p>\n You can add names to your email (and\/or subject line) to help convey you value their specific response.<\/p>\n In the example email, I\u2019ve added the person\u2019s first name to the subject line (along with a fallback value \u201cAttention\u201d in case we don\u2019t know have their first name filled in on the Google Sheet).<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also\u00a0added their full name to the body of the email<\/b>. I used\u00a0conditional logic<\/a>\u00a0here to handle situations where we might not have someone\u2019s first and\/or last name.<\/p>\n This code tells GMass if the first name is empty, don\u2019t include a space for name, just put a comma. If we have the first name but not the last name, just include the first name followed by a comma. And if we have both, use both followed by a comma.<\/p>\n Open the settings for your campaign by clicking the arrow next to the GMass button.<\/p>\n Go to the Auto Follow-up section to create your follow-ups.<\/p>\n For the example, we\u2019ll\u00a0set up three auto follow-ups<\/b>\u00a0that will go to students who haven\u2019t clicked the survey link.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve set these up so the first message will go out if someone hasn\u2019t clicked after four days\u2026 the next one will go out five days after that if there hasn\u2019t been a click\u2026 and the final one will go out a week after that if the person still hasn\u2019t clicked.<\/p>\n But\u2026 what about students who click the survey but don\u2019t take it? There are ways to track that \u2014 but they\u2019re more advanced. To learn about those techniques, you can read up on GMass\u00a0suppression lists<\/a>\u00a0or the\u00a0GMass Zapier integration<\/a>; both would work for that situation.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s likely the faster method from this article will still catch\u00a0almost all<\/i>\u00a0of the students who haven\u2019t taken the survey.<\/p>\n You can test the entire sequence by clicking the arrow next to \u201cSend Test\u201d in the GMass settings box. Select \u201cSend all stages\u201d then hit the purple Send Test button.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what your test result should look like. The mail merge personalization worked as expected. I can see the survey link isn\u2019t included in the second follow-up (it was lumped in with the three dots section) so I\u2019ll bump that up for my final send. That\u2019s why we send tests.<\/p>\n Once the email is ready to go,\u00a0hit the red GMass button to send<\/b>. Follow-ups will go out automatically as needed.<\/p>\n In the two examples above we\u2019ve sent individual, personalized emails \u2014 but we\u2019ve only personalized by including people\u2019s names.<\/p>\n Sometimes\u00a0you\u2019ll need to personalize a whole lot more than that<\/b>.<\/p>\n With GMass, you can personalize\u00a0entire paragraphs<\/a>,\u00a0links<\/a>,\u00a0images<\/a>, who\u2019s\u00a0CCed and BCCed<\/a>,\u00a0attachments<\/a>, and more.<\/p>\n For this example, we\u2019ll focus on attachments: Sending each new student a PDF of their class schedule for the fall semester.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need:<\/p>\n Create a column in your Google Sheet for the URLs to the schedule PDFs that includes the word \u201cattachment.\u201d I\u2019ve called mine AttachmentSched.<\/p>\n You can read more about the\u00a0attachment links<\/a>\u00a0here. If your files are on Google Drive, you can just include the file names. If they\u2019re on any other server (like Dropbox in my example), you need to include the full link.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve covered the process of connecting a Google Sheet to a new GMass campaign in the prior two examples, so I won\u2019t reiterate it here. It\u2019s the same deal: Connect your Google Sheet, then write your email in the Gmail compose window.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need to do anything special to add the attachments.\u00a0When GMass sees an \u201cattachments\u201d column in your spreadsheet, it knows to attach those files.<\/b><\/p>\n In the GMass settings, click the Send Test button to try out the campaign.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s my test; you can\u00a0GMass sent the correct PDF as an email attachment<\/b>.<\/p>\n Assuming everything looks right you can send the emails by clicking the red GMass button.<\/p>\n So far we\u2019ve covered situations where you\u2019re sending mass emails to students, faculty, alumni \u2014 basically, to people who know you and would expect emails from you.<\/p>\n This situation covers something different: Cold email.\u00a0GMass is one of the most popular cold email platforms<\/b>\u00a0and is fully equipped to handle your cold campaigns.<\/p>\n Cold email campaigns work a bit different than mass email campaigns. While\u00a0cold email is not spam<\/a>\u00a0and is\u00a0legal<\/a>, some people still may report your emails as spam. That can hurt your overall deliverability \u2014 so some of your regular emails in the future may go to spam.<\/p>\n Here are three steps to take before you dive into cold email campaigns to avoid some potential issues.<\/p>\n Are you ready to risk your primary email address? If you\u2019re sending emails from your college\u2019s .edu domain, some spam reports on cold emails won\u2019t ruin the entire domain \u2014 it\u2019s too powerful. But those spam reports could affect your specific email address<\/b>.<\/p>\n So consider getting a separate email address just for cold email, especially if you\u2019re sending large-scale cold email campaigns.<\/p>\n One of the big differences between cold email and spam is cold email is targeted. Your cold emails should go to a\u00a0carefully-curated list of recipients<\/b>\u00a0who would be interested in your offer. The better the list, the better the results. (And the less likely you\u2019ll get spam complaints.)<\/p>\n Take the time to build good cold email outreach lists for your campaigns.<\/p>\n In this example, I\u2019m cold emailing people (some alumni, but also local businesspeople unaffiliated with the college) about joining our campus advisory board.<\/p>\n You can read up on effective\u00a0cold email copywriting<\/a>\u00a0techniques elsewhere on the GMass blog. In short, I\u2019ve made sure\u00a0the offer focuses on the person, not on me \u2014 and I\u2019ve made it clear what\u2019s in it for them<\/b>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to\u00a0send automated follow-ups to cold emails<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 in fact, right around the fourth email is often where you\u2019ll see the results start coming in fast.<\/p>\n Click the arrow next to the GMass button. Then type up your auto follow-up messages. Send them if \u201cNo Reply\u201d \u2014 with cold emails, replying is usually the action you want recipients to take.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve set up follow-ups here to extend over the course of almost an entire month.<\/p>\n You can send yourself a test of the entire sequence by clicking the arrow next to Send Test in the GMass settings. Then choose to \u201cSend all stages.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it looks in my inbox:<\/p>\n If everything looks right, send your emails by\u00a0clicking the red GMass button in the compose window<\/b>. The first emails will go out, with scheduled automated follow-ups after as they\u2019re needed.<\/p>\n There are endless ways college administration offices can use personalized mass and cold emails.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve covered four of the most popular uses in this article. Once you\u2019re familiar with GMass, you\u2019ll undoubtedly come up with\u00a0all sorts of other ways you can use the platform to better communicate<\/b>\u00a0with everyone on campus (and beyond).<\/p>\n GMass also has plans for\u00a0teams<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 get everyone in your administration office using GMass. You can even share things across your accounts, like a list of unsubscribed email addresses.<\/p>\nCollege Administrator Emails: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n
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What Are Personalized Mass Emails for College Administrators?<\/h2>\n
\n
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What types of personalized mass emails are college administrators sending?<\/h3>\n
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How to Send Campus Announcement Emails<\/h2>\n
Creating the campus-wide email<\/h3>\n
Connect to your Google Sheet(s) of emails<\/h4>\n
![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announcement-connectgmassicon-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Connecting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announcement-connectcompose-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-choosesheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-addsecondlist-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Connection](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-connectlist2-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nComposing the email<\/h4>\n
![\"Begin](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-composefirst-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Edit](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-editHTML-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"College](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-flierformat-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAdding personalization<\/h4>\n
{<\/code>\u00a0in the email and the\u00a0list of mail merge options will appear<\/b>. The mail merge options are the names of the columns from your Google Sheet (or multiple Google Sheets).<\/p>\n![\"Curly](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-mailmerge-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n{FirstName|let\u2019s celebrate}<\/code>\u00a0for this email. That way it would say You\u2019re invited, Laura! \u2014 or, if we don\u2019t have the person\u2019s name, You\u2019re invited, let\u2019s celebrate!<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-finalemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nScheduling the email \u2014 and setting automated follow-ups<\/h3>\n
Setting up automated follow-ups<\/h4>\n
![\"Auto](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-autofollowup-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nScheduling the email<\/h4>\n
![\"Scheduling](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-schedule-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBreaking Gmail\u2019s limits to send all the emails at once<\/h3>\n
Sending a test of the entire sequence<\/h3>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-sendtest-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Test](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-test-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSending the email<\/h4>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/announce-sendwithgmass-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHow to Send Emails for Surveys (with Reminders)<\/h2>\n
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Sending out the surveys<\/h3>\n
![\"Connecting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/survey-connectsheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nUsing filters to send to a specific group of students<\/h4>\n
College=CAS<\/code>.<\/p>\n![\"Filtering](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/survey-filterrows-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWriting the email<\/h4>\n
![\"Compose](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/survey-compose-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAdding names for personalization<\/h4>\n
{{If FirstName = \"\" Then}},{{Else If LastName = \"\" Then}}{FirstName},{{Else}}{FirstName} {LastName},{{End If}}<\/code><\/p>\n![\"Added](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/survey-mailmerge2-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFollowing up automatically with students who don\u2019t take the survey<\/h3>\n
![\"Auto](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/survey-autofollowups-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTesting and sending the survey email<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/survey-testsequence2-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSending Emails with Personalized Attachments (e.g., Class Schedules, Housing Assignments, Email Credentials)<\/h2>\n
\n
Adding the personalized attachments to your Google Sheet<\/h3>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/attach-sheetwithpdfs-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCreate your campaign and connect the Google Sheet<\/h3>\n
![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/attach-composeemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSend a test, then send the campaign<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/attach-testpdf2-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCold Outreach to Advisory Board Candidates<\/h2>\n
Things to do before you send a cold email campaign<\/h3>\n
Consider creating a new email address<\/h4>\n
Build a targeted list<\/h4>\n
Write your cold email and follow-ups<\/h3>\n
![\"Write](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/coldadvisory-email-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSet up your follow-up emails<\/h4>\n
![\"Cold](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/coldadvisory-followups-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSend a test, then send the emails<\/h3>\n
![\"Cold](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/coldadvisory-sequence-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCollege Administration Emails: Next Steps<\/h2>\n