Automations & Sequences > Sequence to Google Form signups

I want to collect signups in a Google Form and send an automatic email sequence

If you’re using a Google Form to collect emails, you can then get GMass involved to send an automated email sequence to everyone who signs up.

Here’s how.

Step-by-step guide

1. In Google Forms, save responses to a Google Sheet

When you’re creating your signup form in Google Forms, head to the Responses tab.

Click on the option to Link to Sheets.

Choose the option to Create a new spreadsheet, give your sheet whatever name you want, then click the Create link.

Change the names of the columns in the sheet to names that are better for mail merge (e.g., single words with no punctuation). In my sample here, I changed the names from “What’s your email address?” to EmailAddress and “What’s your first name?” to FirstName.

(Note: As long as you don’t change the order of the columns, the Google Form will still feed the form responses into them.)

2. After you publish your form, fill it out yourself

We need to start with at least one email in your Google Sheet to create our automation.

Fill out your form in an incognito browser window. I recommend using a different email address here.

Then check the Google Sheet for your info.

3. Connect your Google Sheet to your new campaign

Go into Gmail.

Open a new compose window, then click the GMass icon in the To field to connect your Google Sheet.

Choose your Google Sheet from the dropdown. Then click Connect to Spreadsheet.

4. Create your email sequence

Now write your initial email in the sequence.

Then open up the GMass settings box and go into the Auto follow-ups section.

Check the box next to Stage 1. If you’re planning to send a drip sequence (where every person receives every email), set the first dropdown to Everyone. And choose how many days you want to wait before sending this email.

As you can see in the screenshot, I typed the first follow-up in the sequence into the text box.

If you’re ok with plain text emails going out as replies in the same thread, you can do that as well. If you’d like to use formatting though — or have your follow-up have a different subject line — you’ll need to use the rich text auto follow-up option.

I won’t go into the weeds on that, but you can find instructions for rich text auto follow-ups here.

Now continue to add more stages. You can use unlimited stages in GMass, so make your sequence as long as you need.

5. Make this a recurring campaign, instant on new rows

Once your sequence is done, head to the Schedule section of the GMass settings box.

Check the box next to Repeat. Choose Instantly from the “Day” dropdown menu. And keep the other dropdown on new rows.

6. Start your campaign — then set up the instant recurrence script

Once everything is set with your campaign, hit the red GMass button to get it started. Right now your email is the only address in the Google Sheet, so you’ll be the only recipient.

After you send the campaign, you’ll get a new email in your inbox from GMass Notifier with the subject Install this script into your Google Sheet.

It’s an extra step Google makes you take as we send messages the moment someone signs up on our form.

We’ll go through the process here.

Go back to your Google Sheet of responses and head to Extensions > Apps Script.

Give your Apps Script any name you want. Then copy the code block inside that Install this script into your Google Sheet and paste it over everything in the code section in the Google Apps Script window.

Click the disk icon to Save the script.

Then click the Triggers menu on the left (it looks like a stopwatch).

Click the + Add Trigger button on the bottom right.

Now follow the instructions from the email. You set the menus to editAddRow, Head, From spreadsheet, On form submit, and Notify me daily. (The only one you should have to actually change from the default is changing the event type to form submit.) Then click Save.

That’s done. You can close the window.

And now, whenever anyone fills out your Google Form, they’ll instantly get the first message in your sequence. From there, they’ll also continue to get the rest of the messages on the days you specified. (Test it out with another email address if you’d like to try.)

✅ You’re all set.

 

More resources

• Google Apps Script setup can be somewhat intimidating if you’ve never done it before. Check out our full guide to setting up instant recurring campaigns for even more screenshots and instructions.
• Here’s more about GMass’s powerful recurring campaign automations.
• Check out some tips on setting up evergreen email sequences.
• Read even more on setting up drip campaigns in Gmail.
• Yes, GMass really allows for unlimited stages in your sequences.