College Admissions Email Guide: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n\n- What Are Personalized Mass Emails for College Admissions and Financial Aid Offices?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Sending Automated Emails to Connect with Prospective Students<\/a><\/li>\n
- Sending Acceptance, Rejection, and Wait List Notifications \u2014 All with One Email<\/a><\/li>\n
- Sending Tuition Collection Emails with Individual PDF Attachments<\/a><\/li>\n
- Sending Emails with Automated Follow-Ups Until Students Click or Reply<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What Are Personalized Mass Emails for College Admissions and Financial Aid Offices?<\/h2>\n
As someone working at a college admissions or financial aid office, you\u2019re likely sending lots of mass emails. But sending\u00a0personalized<\/i>\u00a0mass emails is a challenge. Odds are you\u2019re doing one of these things:<\/p>\n\n- Sending mass emails with lots of people\u00a0BCCed<\/b>.<\/li>\n
- Using\u00a0email groups<\/b>\u00a0that are hard to maintain.<\/li>\n
- Using a\u00a0custom-made email system<\/b>\u00a0that\u2019s\u2026 quirky.<\/li>\n
- Or having to take the time to make tiny\u00a0one-by-one adjustments<\/b>\u00a0to almost-identical emails as you send them to students.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The entire process becomes far easier when you use a tool built to send personalized emails at scale.<\/p>\n
With mass email platforms like GMass you can:<\/p>\n
\n- Send your mass emails,\u00a0personalizing each one with a mail merge<\/b>.<\/li>\n
- Send mass emails with\u00a0personalized attachments<\/b>\u00a0or links.<\/li>\n
- Send\u00a0automated emails<\/b>\u00a0(both entire campaigns and follow-ups).<\/li>\n
- And\u00a0send them all from right inside Gmail<\/b>\u00a0without learning any new software.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What types of personalized mass emails are admissions offices sending?<\/h3>\n
We\u2019ve talked with lots of GMass users at college admissions and financial aid offices to learn what types of emails they\u2019re regularly sending.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the\u00a0most popular types of messages<\/b>:<\/p>\n\n- Connecting with prospective students<\/li>\n
- Acceptance, rejection, and wait list emails<\/li>\n
- Tuition collection and reminders<\/li>\n
- Entrance exam results<\/li>\n
- Financial aid status<\/li>\n
- Scholarship announcements<\/li>\n
- On campus and work-study job postings<\/li>\n
- Updating student records<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In this article we\u2019ll cover how to set up four of those emails in GMass.<\/p>\n
One thing before we get started: You\u2019ll need the\u00a0GMass extension<\/a>\u00a0for Google Chrome to use GMass. You can download it from the Chrome Web Store \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s free to start<\/b>. You may also want to check out the GMass\u00a0quickstart guide<\/a>\u00a0to get a fast overview of how GMass works inside Gmail.<\/p>\nSending Automated Emails to Connect with Prospective Students<\/h2>\n
There are lots of ways you may connect with prospective students. They may fill out a form on your website. You may meet them at an event. You may get a list of students from a high school guidance counselor or college advisor.<\/p>\n
Regardless of how you get your list of prospects, though \u2014\u00a0you need to get in touch with them<\/b>. I\u2019m going to walk you through a method to set up automated messages that will go out to every new prospective student you add to a spreadsheet.<\/p>\nHow to connect your Google Sheet of contacts<\/h3>\n
In order to set up an automated recurring email campaign (which is what we\u2019re doing here), you\u2019ll need to\u00a0connect a Google Sheet of contacts to GMass<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Make sure your Google Sheet has at least one column with email addresses. It can also include any other columns you want with info about the prospective students (First names, last names, hometown, how you met them, and so on.)<\/p>\n
Note: It\u2019s good to include yourself on the sheet for testing purposes as well.<\/i><\/p>\n
Connect your Google Sheet to GMass by clicking either the spreadsheet icon next to the Gmail search bar\u2026<\/p>\n
![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-connecticon-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u2026 or by opening a new Gmail compose window and clicking the GMass icon in the To field.<\/p>\n
![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-connectcompose-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nChoose your spreadsheet of prospects from the dropdown menu. In the optional settings, make sure \u201cKeep duplicate emails\u201d is unchecked. And if you want GMass to\u00a0update your Google Sheet with opens, clicks, replies, and bounces<\/b>, check the box to \u201cUpdate Sheet with reporting data.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-sheetconnectoptions-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nComposing your email<\/h4>\n
You can compose your email as you normally would in Gmail. Use any of Gmail\u2019s formatting options and insert pictures to design the email.<\/p>\n
If you want to create an HTML email,\u00a0you can paste in HTML code in the GMass settings<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Click the red arrow next to the red GMass button to bring up the GMass settings.<\/p>\n
Then click \u201cHTML\u201d above the templates dropdown. You can edit the HTML of your email from there.<\/p>\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-edithtml-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFor the example campaign in this article I made a quick flier image in Canva. Then I edited the HTML to set a background color.<\/p>\n
![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-infoflier-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPersonalizing with a prospect\u2019s name<\/h4>\n
We can personalize this email by adding the each prospect\u2019s name in the subject line.<\/p>\n
If you type a left curly brace\u00a0{<\/code>,\u00a0GMass will display a list of your available mail merge fields<\/b>. Those fields correspond to the column names in your Google Sheet.<\/p>\n![\"Mail](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-curlybrace-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019ll add the prospect\u2019s first name to the subject line to show them this isn\u2019t \u201cgeneric\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s intended just for them.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll also add a pipe\u00a0|<\/code>\u00a0after the mail merge field to include a fallback option \u2014 in case the FirstName field is blank for someone in the Google Sheet.<\/p>\nThe final version is\u00a0{FirstName|you}<\/code>. So the subject line will be \u201cInfo for Laura on State University of State\u201d or \u201cInfo for you on State University of State.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Using](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-fallbacksubject-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTurning this email into a recurring campaign<\/h3>\n
Right now, if we pressed the red GMass button, this email would go out to every prospect on our list. But if we added future prospects to the list, we\u2019d have to manually send the campaign again to get it out to them.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s unnecessary work.<\/b><\/p>\n
Click the arrow next to the GMass button to bring up the GMass settings for the campaign.<\/p>\n
Then go into the Schedule section of the settings.<\/p>\n
Check the box next to \u201cRepeat\u201d and set the frequency to Every\u00a01<\/code>\u00a0Day<\/code>\u00a0to\u00a0new<\/code>rows.<\/p>\nThat means:\u00a0Once a day, GMass will check your Google Sheet<\/b>. If there are any new rows featuring new prospects,\u00a0GMass will send the email to them automatically<\/b>.<\/p>\n
![\"Repeat](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-repeat-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nYou can tweak any other GMass settings now as well. For instance, you could\u00a0schedule<\/a>\u00a0this first email to go out in the future. Or you could create\u00a0automated follow-up emails<\/a>\u00a0to go out to the prospects who don\u2019t click.<\/p>\nTesting the email, then sending it out<\/h3>\n
You can test the email by clicking the purple Send Test button in the GMass settings. (That\u2019s why earlier I recommended adding yourself to the spreadsheet for testing.)<\/p>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-sendtest-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd in my inbox, I can see the email looks like I want. The\u00a0mail merge personalization<\/a>\u00a0in the subject line also worked as intended, adding my name.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/prospect-testemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSince everything is good, I\u2019ll\u00a0click the red GMass button in the Gmail compose window to send the campaign<\/b>\u00a0to everyone on my Google Sheet. And from that point on, the email will continue to go out to anyone new I add to the sheet.<\/p>\nSending Acceptance, Rejection, and Wait List Notifications \u2014 All with One Email<\/h2>\n
While many admissions offices still send acceptance packets and rejection letters in the mail, we have seen some turn exclusively to email. We\u2019ve also seen some cases where admissions offices will send an email to deliver the good (or not-so-good) news immediately, then follow up with the standard mail package after that.<\/p>\n
In this example, I\u2019ll cover GMass\u2019s conditional content so you can use one email to deliver multiple (very different) messages.<\/p>\n
Setting up and connecting to your Google Sheet<\/h3>\n
The first step in this process is to make sure your Google Sheet of applicants has the right columns. At a minimum: You\u2019ll need an email and a column with their status (accepted, rejection, wait list). Ideally you\u2019ll also have each applicant\u2019s first and last name.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how my example spreadsheet looks.<\/p>\n
![\"Applicant](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-sheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nConnect your Google Sheet to a new campaign in GMass like we covered in the previous example. (Use the spreadsheet button next to the Gmail search bar or click the GMass icon in the To field of the Gmail compose window.)<\/p>\n
Then, on the sheet connection window, we won\u2019t set a filter. We also won\u2019t keep duplicate emails. And we will update the sheet with reporting data.<\/p>\n
![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-connectsheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNote: Advanced GMass users might want to use a filter here. For instance, you could filter the campaign so you\u2019re only sending to people who\u2019ve been accepted. That would work\u2026 but you\u2019d need to create different campaigns for accepted, rejected, and waitlisted applicants. The method I\u2019m covering here keeps it tighter and all in one campaign.<\/i><\/p>\nComposing the email message<\/h3>\n
We\u2019ll\u00a0use GMass\u2019s conditional content for this email<\/b>. With\u00a0conditional content<\/a>, GMass will put different text in this email based on the AppStatus column.<\/p>\nMy email uses this conditional logic:<\/p>\n
{{If AppStatus=\u201cAccepted\u201d Then}}<\/code><\/p>\nMessage for people who are accepted<\/p>\n
{{Else If AppStatus=\u201cRejected\u201d Then}}<\/code><\/p>\nMessage for people who are rejected<\/p>\n
{{Else}}<\/code><\/p>\nMessage for people on the waitlist<\/p>\n
{{End If}}<\/code><\/p>\nYou can see the message here:<\/p>\n
![\"Email](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-conditionalemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTesting, then creating drafts<\/h3>\n
To test the email, click the purple Send Test button. Based on the applicant status you gave yourself, you should see the correct message.<\/p>\n
When I send a test and I have \u201cAccepted\u201d in the AppStatus column for my email address in the Sheet, I get this email:<\/p>\n
![\"Testing](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-testaccepted-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI changed my status on the Google Sheet to rejected. Then I reconnected the Sheet and sent the test again. Here\u2019s what I got:<\/p>\n
![\"Testing](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-testrejected-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd when I changed my status to Wait, reconnected the Sheet, and sent the test again, here\u2019s what I got:<\/p>\n
![\"Testing](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-testwait-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCreating drafts before sending<\/h4>\n
Even though my tests showed my conditional content is working perfect, this is an email I can\u2019t get wrong. If you accidentally send acceptance letters to hundreds of rejected applicants,\u00a0that kind of thing makes the news<\/b>.<\/p>\n
So\u2026 rather than clicking the red GMass button to send the campaign, I\u2019m going to\u00a0create my emails as drafts first<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn the GMass settings, under Action, choose the button to \u201cCreate Drafts.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-createdrafts-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNow when I click the red GMass button, rather than sending the emails, GMass will create drafts of all of the emails. I can go to my drafts folder to spot check some of the emails \u2014 to make sure everyone\u2019s getting the correct message.<\/p>\n
![\"Checking](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-draftsinfolder-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGMass sends you an automatic email once your drafts are ready. And in that email you can\u00a0click a link to send the emails<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 or delete the drafts to make changes to your campaign.<\/p>\n
![\"Sending](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/applicant-draftemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSending Tuition Collection Emails with Individual PDF Attachments<\/h2>\n
The next popular email scenario we\u2019ll cover are tuition messages. This includes\u00a0invoices, overdue payment reminders, or statements \u2014 with PDFs attached<\/b>.<\/p>\n
With GMass, you can create a mass email where every recipient gets their own\u00a0unique PDF attachment<\/a>.<\/p>\nBelow I\u2019ll demonstrate sending an email campaign with personalized PDFs. I\u2019ll also walk through the steps of setting up a recurring campaign to automatically send payment reminders once an account has come due.<\/p>\n
Adding PDFs to your spreadsheet<\/h3>\n
You\u2019ll add links to each individual student\u2019s PDF in your Google Sheet. Then\u00a0GMass will turn those PDFs into individual email attachments<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Make sure the column header in your spreadsheet has the word \u201cattachment\u201d in it.<\/p>\n
Then include links to each student\u2019s PDF. They need to be on some server (Google Drive, Dropbox, your own server, and so on).<\/p>\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-spreadsheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNow connect your spreadsheet to a new campaign in GMass. (Use the same method as I covered in the previous two examples.)<\/p>\n
![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-connectsheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCompose your email (GMass will add the attachments automatically)<\/h3>\n
Compose your email normally. Don\u2019t worry about the attachments \u2014 GMass will include those automatically later.<\/p>\n
![\"Compose](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-composeemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSend a test to yourself to see the PDF attachments, then send the emails<\/h4>\n
You can send a test to yourself by opening the GMass settings and clicking the Send Test button. Assuming your PDF links work, you should\u00a0get an email like the one below with the correct attachment<\/b>.<\/p>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-personalpdftest-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAssuming everything is working right, you can send the emails by clicking the red GMass button.<\/p>\n
Setting up an automated email for overdue accounts<\/h3>\n
Now that we\u2019ve successfully sent PDF attachments, we\u2019ll create an automated email that will go out when accounts come due.<\/p>\n
The first step is to set up a column of due dates in your spreadsheet, along with a column indicating whether accounts are paid or not.<\/p>\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-duedates2-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nConnecting to the Google Sheet using a filter<\/h4>\n
We\u2019ll connect to this Google Sheet with a filter. I want this campaign to go out to students who fit two criteria:\u00a0Their balance is due today\u2026 and their account is unpaid.<\/b><\/p>\n
So in the Filter Rows section, I\u2019ll add:<\/p>\n
DueDate = CurrentDate<\/code>\u00a0AND<\/p>\nPAID? = NO<\/code><\/p>\n(You can read this article for more on\u00a0GMass filtering to send to select rows only<\/a>.)<\/p>\n![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-filter-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe initial campaign will pull everyone who matches today\u2019s date and hasn\u2019t paid. According to my spreadsheet, there are six people with today\u2019s date as their due date, and four haven\u2019t paid.<\/p>\n
And I can see the filter worked; GMass pulled the four correct recipients.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-filteralias-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCompose your email<\/h4>\n
You can write your email here. Use any mail merge personalization you feel is necessary.<\/p>\n
And remember: GMass will automatically attach the PDFs with tuition statements here, since we included those in our spreadsheet. (You could also attach invoices.\u00a0GMass can handle multiple attachments<\/b>\u00a0in a campaign. Just add another column in your sheet.)<\/p>\n
![\"Compose](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-composeoverdueemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSet this up as an automated recurring campaign<\/h3>\n
To create a\u00a0recurring campaign<\/a>, go into the GMass settings by clicking the arrow next to the red GMass button.<\/p>\nIn the Schedule section, go to repeat. Check the box next to Repeat, and make the settings Every\u00a01<\/code>\u00a0Day<\/code>\u00a0to\u00a0all<\/code>\u00a0rows.<\/p>\nWith those settings, GMass will check your Google Sheet every day. Whenever someone\u2019s due date matches the current date and their paid status is unpaid, GMass will send this email to them automatically. (This is different than the recurring campaign we set up earlier in the article which went to new<\/code> rows. Here we want GMass to check all rows to match our filter criteria.)<\/p>\n![\"Set](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-repeattoall-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTest your email, then send<\/h3>\n
Test your email by clicking Send Test in the GMass settings. Check to make sure all the mail merge tags work properly and the correct PDF is attached.<\/p>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tuition-duetodaytest-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIf everything looks good, you can\u00a0send the email by clicking the red GMass button<\/b>. The first round of emails will go out today. And these messages will continue to go out daily in the future to anyone whose tuition is due.<\/p>\nSending Emails with Automated Follow-Ups Until Students Click or Reply<\/h2>\n
You may find yourself in a position where you\u00a0need<\/i>\u00a0students to take an action on an email. Whether it\u2019s updating their records, confirming receipt of a document, or anything else \u2014 you know not everyone will reply after the first email.<\/p>\n
So for the final example in this article, we\u2019ll show you how to\u00a0set up an email with automated follow-ups<\/b>. Those follow-ups can continue until a student clicks or replies.<\/p>\nCreate your email campaign<\/h3>\n
Connect your Google Sheet of students.<\/p>\n
![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/followup-connectsheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThen compose your email and make it clear what action you need the students to take. You can\u00a0require a click or a reply<\/b>. (You can also require them to open the email; although opens are not quite as reliable as they used to be due to some\u00a0changes by Apple<\/a>\u00a0to their Mail app.)<\/p>\n![\"Compose](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/followup-composeemail-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSet up automated follow-ups<\/h3>\n
Go into the GMass settings and head to the Auto Follow-up section.<\/p>\n
Type\u00a0your quick auto follow-up messages<\/b>\u00a0in the boxes.<\/p>\n
In the example, the first auto follow-up will go out after five days if the student hasn\u2019t replied. The next email will go out five days after that if there\u2019s been no reply. And the third email will go out seven days after that if the student still hasn\u2019t written back.<\/p>\n
![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/followup-setupfollowups-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTest the entire sequence, then send the first email<\/h3>\n
You can\u00a0test the entire sequence of follow-ups<\/a>\u00a0to see how it will look in students\u2019 inboxes.<\/p>\nIn the GMass settings, click the arrow next to the Send Test button. Choose to \u201cSend all stages.\u201d Then click the Send Test button.<\/p>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/followup-sendallstages-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nYou should get the entire sequence in your inbox.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/followup-testsequence-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIf everything looks good,\u00a0hit the red GMass button to send the campaign<\/b>. The first email will go out right away, and the follow-ups will go out on schedule to people who don\u2019t reply.<\/p>\nCollege Admissions Emails: Next Steps<\/h2>\n
We\u2019ve covered some of the most popular ways admissions, financial aid, and bursar\u2019s offices are sending personalized mass emails. And we hope\u00a0this article has sparked your imagination<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 and you\u2019ve thought of all sorts of other ways you can save time and send better emails with GMass.<\/p>\n
(You also may want to check out our article on\u00a0college administrator emails<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 you may find some great crossover ideas there.)<\/p>\nOne more note: GMass offers\u00a0team plans<\/a>\u00a0and features. So you can\u00a0get accounts for multiple people in your office<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 and share things across your accounts.<\/p>\n
What Are Personalized Mass Emails for College Admissions and Financial Aid Offices?<\/h2>\n
As someone working at a college admissions or financial aid office, you\u2019re likely sending lots of mass emails. But sending\u00a0personalized<\/i>\u00a0mass emails is a challenge. Odds are you\u2019re doing one of these things:<\/p>\n The entire process becomes far easier when you use a tool built to send personalized emails at scale.<\/p>\n With mass email platforms like GMass you can:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve talked with lots of GMass users at college admissions and financial aid offices to learn what types of emails they\u2019re regularly sending.<\/p>\n Here are some of the\u00a0most popular types of messages<\/b>:<\/p>\n In this article we\u2019ll cover how to set up four of those emails in GMass.<\/p>\n One thing before we get started: You\u2019ll need the\u00a0GMass extension<\/a>\u00a0for Google Chrome to use GMass. You can download it from the Chrome Web Store \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s free to start<\/b>. You may also want to check out the GMass\u00a0quickstart guide<\/a>\u00a0to get a fast overview of how GMass works inside Gmail.<\/p>\n There are lots of ways you may connect with prospective students. They may fill out a form on your website. You may meet them at an event. You may get a list of students from a high school guidance counselor or college advisor.<\/p>\n Regardless of how you get your list of prospects, though \u2014\u00a0you need to get in touch with them<\/b>. I\u2019m going to walk you through a method to set up automated messages that will go out to every new prospective student you add to a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n In order to set up an automated recurring email campaign (which is what we\u2019re doing here), you\u2019ll need to\u00a0connect a Google Sheet of contacts to GMass<\/b>.<\/p>\n Make sure your Google Sheet has at least one column with email addresses. It can also include any other columns you want with info about the prospective students (First names, last names, hometown, how you met them, and so on.)<\/p>\n Note: It\u2019s good to include yourself on the sheet for testing purposes as well.<\/i><\/p>\n Connect your Google Sheet to GMass by clicking either the spreadsheet icon next to the Gmail search bar\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 or by opening a new Gmail compose window and clicking the GMass icon in the To field.<\/p>\n Choose your spreadsheet of prospects from the dropdown menu. In the optional settings, make sure \u201cKeep duplicate emails\u201d is unchecked. And if you want GMass to\u00a0update your Google Sheet with opens, clicks, replies, and bounces<\/b>, check the box to \u201cUpdate Sheet with reporting data.\u201d<\/p>\n You can compose your email as you normally would in Gmail. Use any of Gmail\u2019s formatting options and insert pictures to design the email.<\/p>\n If you want to create an HTML email,\u00a0you can paste in HTML code in the GMass settings<\/b>.<\/p>\n Click the red arrow next to the red GMass button to bring up the GMass settings.<\/p>\n Then click \u201cHTML\u201d above the templates dropdown. You can edit the HTML of your email from there.<\/p>\n For the example campaign in this article I made a quick flier image in Canva. Then I edited the HTML to set a background color.<\/p>\n We can personalize this email by adding the each prospect\u2019s name in the subject line.<\/p>\n If you type a left curly brace\u00a0 I\u2019ll add the prospect\u2019s first name to the subject line to show them this isn\u2019t \u201cgeneric\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s intended just for them.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll also add a pipe\u00a0 The final version is\u00a0 Right now, if we pressed the red GMass button, this email would go out to every prospect on our list. But if we added future prospects to the list, we\u2019d have to manually send the campaign again to get it out to them.<\/p>\n That\u2019s unnecessary work.<\/b><\/p>\n Click the arrow next to the GMass button to bring up the GMass settings for the campaign.<\/p>\n Then go into the Schedule section of the settings.<\/p>\n Check the box next to \u201cRepeat\u201d and set the frequency to Every\u00a0 That means:\u00a0Once a day, GMass will check your Google Sheet<\/b>. If there are any new rows featuring new prospects,\u00a0GMass will send the email to them automatically<\/b>.<\/p>\n You can tweak any other GMass settings now as well. For instance, you could\u00a0schedule<\/a>\u00a0this first email to go out in the future. Or you could create\u00a0automated follow-up emails<\/a>\u00a0to go out to the prospects who don\u2019t click.<\/p>\n You can test the email by clicking the purple Send Test button in the GMass settings. (That\u2019s why earlier I recommended adding yourself to the spreadsheet for testing.)<\/p>\n And in my inbox, I can see the email looks like I want. The\u00a0mail merge personalization<\/a>\u00a0in the subject line also worked as intended, adding my name.<\/p>\n Since everything is good, I\u2019ll\u00a0click the red GMass button in the Gmail compose window to send the campaign<\/b>\u00a0to everyone on my Google Sheet. And from that point on, the email will continue to go out to anyone new I add to the sheet.<\/p>\n While many admissions offices still send acceptance packets and rejection letters in the mail, we have seen some turn exclusively to email. We\u2019ve also seen some cases where admissions offices will send an email to deliver the good (or not-so-good) news immediately, then follow up with the standard mail package after that.<\/p>\n In this example, I\u2019ll cover GMass\u2019s conditional content so you can use one email to deliver multiple (very different) messages.<\/p>\n The first step in this process is to make sure your Google Sheet of applicants has the right columns. At a minimum: You\u2019ll need an email and a column with their status (accepted, rejection, wait list). Ideally you\u2019ll also have each applicant\u2019s first and last name.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how my example spreadsheet looks.<\/p>\n Connect your Google Sheet to a new campaign in GMass like we covered in the previous example. (Use the spreadsheet button next to the Gmail search bar or click the GMass icon in the To field of the Gmail compose window.)<\/p>\n Then, on the sheet connection window, we won\u2019t set a filter. We also won\u2019t keep duplicate emails. And we will update the sheet with reporting data.<\/p>\n Note: Advanced GMass users might want to use a filter here. For instance, you could filter the campaign so you\u2019re only sending to people who\u2019ve been accepted. That would work\u2026 but you\u2019d need to create different campaigns for accepted, rejected, and waitlisted applicants. The method I\u2019m covering here keeps it tighter and all in one campaign.<\/i><\/p>\n We\u2019ll\u00a0use GMass\u2019s conditional content for this email<\/b>. With\u00a0conditional content<\/a>, GMass will put different text in this email based on the AppStatus column.<\/p>\n My email uses this conditional logic:<\/p>\n Message for people who are accepted<\/p>\n Message for people who are rejected<\/p>\n Message for people on the waitlist<\/p>\n You can see the message here:<\/p>\n To test the email, click the purple Send Test button. Based on the applicant status you gave yourself, you should see the correct message.<\/p>\n When I send a test and I have \u201cAccepted\u201d in the AppStatus column for my email address in the Sheet, I get this email:<\/p>\n I changed my status on the Google Sheet to rejected. Then I reconnected the Sheet and sent the test again. Here\u2019s what I got:<\/p>\n And when I changed my status to Wait, reconnected the Sheet, and sent the test again, here\u2019s what I got:<\/p>\n Even though my tests showed my conditional content is working perfect, this is an email I can\u2019t get wrong. If you accidentally send acceptance letters to hundreds of rejected applicants,\u00a0that kind of thing makes the news<\/b>.<\/p>\n So\u2026 rather than clicking the red GMass button to send the campaign, I\u2019m going to\u00a0create my emails as drafts first<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the GMass settings, under Action, choose the button to \u201cCreate Drafts.\u201d<\/p>\n Now when I click the red GMass button, rather than sending the emails, GMass will create drafts of all of the emails. I can go to my drafts folder to spot check some of the emails \u2014 to make sure everyone\u2019s getting the correct message.<\/p>\n GMass sends you an automatic email once your drafts are ready. And in that email you can\u00a0click a link to send the emails<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 or delete the drafts to make changes to your campaign.<\/p>\n The next popular email scenario we\u2019ll cover are tuition messages. This includes\u00a0invoices, overdue payment reminders, or statements \u2014 with PDFs attached<\/b>.<\/p>\n With GMass, you can create a mass email where every recipient gets their own\u00a0unique PDF attachment<\/a>.<\/p>\n Below I\u2019ll demonstrate sending an email campaign with personalized PDFs. I\u2019ll also walk through the steps of setting up a recurring campaign to automatically send payment reminders once an account has come due.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll add links to each individual student\u2019s PDF in your Google Sheet. Then\u00a0GMass will turn those PDFs into individual email attachments<\/b>.<\/p>\n Make sure the column header in your spreadsheet has the word \u201cattachment\u201d in it.<\/p>\n Then include links to each student\u2019s PDF. They need to be on some server (Google Drive, Dropbox, your own server, and so on).<\/p>\n Now connect your spreadsheet to a new campaign in GMass. (Use the same method as I covered in the previous two examples.)<\/p>\n Compose your email normally. Don\u2019t worry about the attachments \u2014 GMass will include those automatically later.<\/p>\n You can send a test to yourself by opening the GMass settings and clicking the Send Test button. Assuming your PDF links work, you should\u00a0get an email like the one below with the correct attachment<\/b>.<\/p>\n Assuming everything is working right, you can send the emails by clicking the red GMass button.<\/p>\n Now that we\u2019ve successfully sent PDF attachments, we\u2019ll create an automated email that will go out when accounts come due.<\/p>\n The first step is to set up a column of due dates in your spreadsheet, along with a column indicating whether accounts are paid or not.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll connect to this Google Sheet with a filter. I want this campaign to go out to students who fit two criteria:\u00a0Their balance is due today\u2026 and their account is unpaid.<\/b><\/p>\n So in the Filter Rows section, I\u2019ll add:<\/p>\n (You can read this article for more on\u00a0GMass filtering to send to select rows only<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The initial campaign will pull everyone who matches today\u2019s date and hasn\u2019t paid. According to my spreadsheet, there are six people with today\u2019s date as their due date, and four haven\u2019t paid.<\/p>\n And I can see the filter worked; GMass pulled the four correct recipients.<\/p>\n You can write your email here. Use any mail merge personalization you feel is necessary.<\/p>\n And remember: GMass will automatically attach the PDFs with tuition statements here, since we included those in our spreadsheet. (You could also attach invoices.\u00a0GMass can handle multiple attachments<\/b>\u00a0in a campaign. Just add another column in your sheet.)<\/p>\n To create a\u00a0recurring campaign<\/a>, go into the GMass settings by clicking the arrow next to the red GMass button.<\/p>\n In the Schedule section, go to repeat. Check the box next to Repeat, and make the settings Every\u00a0 With those settings, GMass will check your Google Sheet every day. Whenever someone\u2019s due date matches the current date and their paid status is unpaid, GMass will send this email to them automatically. (This is different than the recurring campaign we set up earlier in the article which went to Test your email by clicking Send Test in the GMass settings. Check to make sure all the mail merge tags work properly and the correct PDF is attached.<\/p>\n If everything looks good, you can\u00a0send the email by clicking the red GMass button<\/b>. The first round of emails will go out today. And these messages will continue to go out daily in the future to anyone whose tuition is due.<\/p>\n You may find yourself in a position where you\u00a0need<\/i>\u00a0students to take an action on an email. Whether it\u2019s updating their records, confirming receipt of a document, or anything else \u2014 you know not everyone will reply after the first email.<\/p>\n So for the final example in this article, we\u2019ll show you how to\u00a0set up an email with automated follow-ups<\/b>. Those follow-ups can continue until a student clicks or replies.<\/p>\n Connect your Google Sheet of students.<\/p>\n Then compose your email and make it clear what action you need the students to take. You can\u00a0require a click or a reply<\/b>. (You can also require them to open the email; although opens are not quite as reliable as they used to be due to some\u00a0changes by Apple<\/a>\u00a0to their Mail app.)<\/p>\n Go into the GMass settings and head to the Auto Follow-up section.<\/p>\n Type\u00a0your quick auto follow-up messages<\/b>\u00a0in the boxes.<\/p>\n In the example, the first auto follow-up will go out after five days if the student hasn\u2019t replied. The next email will go out five days after that if there\u2019s been no reply. And the third email will go out seven days after that if the student still hasn\u2019t written back.<\/p>\n You can\u00a0test the entire sequence of follow-ups<\/a>\u00a0to see how it will look in students\u2019 inboxes.<\/p>\n In the GMass settings, click the arrow next to the Send Test button. Choose to \u201cSend all stages.\u201d Then click the Send Test button.<\/p>\n You should get the entire sequence in your inbox.<\/p>\n If everything looks good,\u00a0hit the red GMass button to send the campaign<\/b>. The first email will go out right away, and the follow-ups will go out on schedule to people who don\u2019t reply.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve covered some of the most popular ways admissions, financial aid, and bursar\u2019s offices are sending personalized mass emails. And we hope\u00a0this article has sparked your imagination<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 and you\u2019ve thought of all sorts of other ways you can save time and send better emails with GMass.<\/p>\n (You also may want to check out our article on\u00a0college administrator emails<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 you may find some great crossover ideas there.)<\/p>\n One more note: GMass offers\u00a0team plans<\/a>\u00a0and features. So you can\u00a0get accounts for multiple people in your office<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 and share things across your accounts.<\/p>\n\n
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What types of personalized mass emails are admissions offices sending?<\/h3>\n
\n
Sending Automated Emails to Connect with Prospective Students<\/h2>\n
How to connect your Google Sheet of contacts<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nComposing your email<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nPersonalizing with a prospect\u2019s name<\/h4>\n
{<\/code>,\u00a0GMass will display a list of your available mail merge fields<\/b>. Those fields correspond to the column names in your Google Sheet.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n|<\/code>\u00a0after the mail merge field to include a fallback option \u2014 in case the FirstName field is blank for someone in the Google Sheet.<\/p>\n{FirstName|you}<\/code>. So the subject line will be \u201cInfo for Laura on State University of State\u201d or \u201cInfo for you on State University of State.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nTurning this email into a recurring campaign<\/h3>\n
1<\/code>\u00a0Day<\/code>\u00a0to\u00a0new<\/code>rows.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nTesting the email, then sending it out<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSending Acceptance, Rejection, and Wait List Notifications \u2014 All with One Email<\/h2>\n
Setting up and connecting to your Google Sheet<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nComposing the email message<\/h3>\n
{{If AppStatus=\u201cAccepted\u201d Then}}<\/code><\/p>\n{{Else If AppStatus=\u201cRejected\u201d Then}}<\/code><\/p>\n{{Else}}<\/code><\/p>\n{{End If}}<\/code><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nTesting, then creating drafts<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nCreating drafts before sending<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSending Tuition Collection Emails with Individual PDF Attachments<\/h2>\n
Adding PDFs to your spreadsheet<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nCompose your email (GMass will add the attachments automatically)<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSend a test to yourself to see the PDF attachments, then send the emails<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSetting up an automated email for overdue accounts<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nConnecting to the Google Sheet using a filter<\/h4>\n
DueDate = CurrentDate<\/code>\u00a0AND<\/p>\nPAID? = NO<\/code><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nCompose your email<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSet this up as an automated recurring campaign<\/h3>\n
1<\/code>\u00a0Day<\/code>\u00a0to\u00a0all<\/code>\u00a0rows.<\/p>\nnew<\/code> rows. Here we want GMass to check all rows to match our filter criteria.)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nTest your email, then send<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSending Emails with Automated Follow-Ups Until Students Click or Reply<\/h2>\n
Create your email campaign<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSet up automated follow-ups<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nTest the entire sequence, then send the first email<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nCollege Admissions Emails: Next Steps<\/h2>\n