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How do I send an email to a list of email addresses in Excel?



How do I send an email to a list of email addresses in Excel?


If your work involves sending out lots of emails to people on lists or mailing lists then it's likely that at some point you'll want to use Microsoft Word for this task. However if you're not using Outlook as part of your standard Office 365 subscription (and chances are you aren't) there are alternatives available which make running large-scale campaigns much easier and more efficient than doing so through Word alone. One such alternative is Mail Merge.

Mail Merge allows you to create letters, flyers, newsletters etc., by importing information about recipients either directly from existing data sources like Access databases or spreadsheets, or alternatively by creating new contacts via the web interface. Once contact details have been added to your document, they will be used to personalize each letter sent out to those individuals. In essence, once all the hard work has been completed, Mail Merge essentially automates the process of writing thousands of identical pieces of correspondence. It does this by making extensive use of VBA scripts.

The downside of using Mail Merge lies in its limitations when compared to other solutions. For example, if you need to sort names alphabetically rather than based upon their first name, Mail Merge won't offer any assistance here. There may also be situations where you would prefer to attach files to specific letters whilst others remain free of attachment material. These drawbacks don't mean that Mail Merge cannot be relied upon however, simply because there is no one size fits all solution. That said, below we discuss how you might get started with Mail Merge and what functionality it offers. We also outline several scenarios whereby you might find yourself needing to employ it.

In order to begin setting up our template we must first add our own company logo image, which can be found under "Insert" -" Logo... Selecting this option opens up a window allowing us to browse the folder containing the file until we locate the correct graphic for inclusion within the final product. To avoid having to manually update every instance throughout the course of our campaign, ensure that images can automatically change according to the text contained within them. This feature can be activated through File-" Options-" General-" Edit menus and selecting Yes next to Automatically insert logos & pictures..

Once selected, the program should prompt you to save/launch the project, after which time it will open before you ready for editing purposes. From here we can proceed with adding our recipient data. The quickest way to start off is to click on New Contact and select Create Multiple Contacts... Next, scroll down until you reach Add Columns... Here you can input the required fields regarding the person whom you wish to target. When finished, return back to the previous screen and enter a suitable name for the column heading before clicking OK. Repeat these steps for each row of data relating to your intended recipients. You can also choose to skip ahead and populate certain rows prior to moving onto the rest. If you opt to take this route, note that columns will only appear once sufficient input has been supplied.

When done, go back to the main menu bar and select Save As Template.... Enter something descriptive into the File Name box but ensure that Document Type is set to Macro enabled otherwise it will default to.xlsm instead of macro enabled. Click Browse... Find the location where you wish to store the resulting documents and double check that Allow Editing was ticked. Finally, press Ok.

Now that our core structure is complete, let's move on to the meaty stuff. Before proceeding further, ensure that you've saved your workbook just in case things go awry. Also, consider taking advantage of the auto-save function. By enabling this, whenever changes are made to the worksheet, the software will automatically backup your spreadsheet. Now that we know everything is safe, let's look at how to use Mail Merge to send out our messages!

How do I send a personalized email in bulk?

To begin, launch the application and head over to Tools-" References. Check the box next to Developer object model and click ok. Then, navigate to Form_Initialize(). Within this code, type Dim strMessageText="" and press Ctrl + S to run it. Ensure that the message body contains whatever content you require for your particular scenario. At this stage, feel free to alter the formatting of the message itself. Keep in mind that in addition to HTML elements, Mail Merge supports plain text too.

Next, head over to Tools-" Run macros". Under Macros select Main Workbook. Choose Application.SetStatus("Sending..."). Press F5 to continue. A small pop-up window will display advising us that the document is being updated. After 30 seconds (the maximum amount of time allowed), the status window will close. Upon completion, a dialogue box will inform us whether our results were successful or otherwise. Assuming yes, we now have a finished document containing our customized message, plus any attached files.

It's worth mentioning that for those who would prefer to keep their hands clean, there is an alternative method for saving our result. Simply copy and paste the entire outputted document to another sheet within the same workbook. Should you ever need access to this original version again, simply click View-" Show Rows "" 0-100% to view the full range of cells.

How do I send a bulk email with individual attachments?

First off, decide on a format for your document. Although most templates contain both PDF and DOCX options, it's best to stick to whichever suits your requirements better. Whilst it's possible to embed multiple types of media within the former, the latter tends to provide greater compatibility across platforms. Secondly, let's determine exactly how many copies of the document we'd like to produce. If necessary, adjust accordingly. Next, right click on the desired cell(s) and select Send Email. Inputting all relevant info including the sender address, subject line, recipient details and finally, attaching the appropriate document.

You can also use this technique to simultaneously send out numerous versions of the same document to different groups. Simply repeat the above procedure for each group. Additionally, it's wise to separate your recipients into folders depending on their role within the business hierarchy. For instance, salespeople could receive a different set of instructions than managers. Furthermore, it's recommended that you test your document thoroughly before applying it live. Do so by opening a second document and copying portions of it wholesale. Make sure you understand the impact this has on performance. If you encounter errors, try refreshing the page. Lastly, remember that you can always delete unwanted entries manually.



How do I send unique attachments to my email list?

As previously mentioned, Mail Merge makes heavy use of VBA scripting. One area where this shines is in dealing with attachments. Because of this, it's important to bear two points in mind when utilizing the tool. First, never forget that your attachment must be named correctly. Second, while it is possible to upload a single file per communication, it is advisable to split larger ones. Let's say you intend to give everyone a video presentation of the event along with associated slides. Instead of uploading the whole package, break it down into smaller chunks.

By splitting your videos and presentations into segments of roughly 1MB each, you will reduce overall bandwidth usage significantly, thus improving your website speed scores. All attachments uploaded to Mail Merge must reside inside ZIP archives, which can easily be created using WinZip or 7zip. To achieve this, select Insert-" Attachments-" Upload Files, input your zip archive, and select Open. Your files should now be accessible within the script.

For convenience sake, allow me to summarize the key features of Mail Merge:

Accesses external data sources

Compatible with Microsoft Office 2003 onwards

Easily customizable

Simple to learn yet powerful

Fully integrated with Windows operating system

Why wouldn't you want to use it?

There are occasions when you may need to send emails to hundreds of users, but perhaps you lack the technical skills needed to write custom programs. In this situation, Mail Merge provides a great alternative since it requires little effort to customize, maintain or upgrade. Another reason why companies may refrain from employing the service is due to security concerns surrounding sensitive corporate data. With regards to this, you can rest assured knowing that your data remains fully protected during transit thanks to SSL encryption technology.

Finally, there may arise instances where a client requests a change to the contents of the document. Since Mail Merge produces files locally, alterations can be introduced quickly and efficiently. Conversely, if someone else had already edited the underlying source file, it would take far longer to implement the requested modifications.

Have questions or comments? Speak to our team today.

If your inbox isn't overflowing with messages but still needs some love, there's no reason not to use Microsoft Office. You don't even have to get all fancy. Mail merges are one of the easiest ways to bulk email lists on Windows or Mac computers.

Here we'll show how to set up a simple mail merge using Outlook for Windows 10 if you're running macOS Catalina (10.15) or newer. If you prefer another program like Apple Mail on macOS Mojave (12.1), just adjust it as necessary. It's also quite similar to Google Contacts in that regard. For simplicity, let's assume you already created an address book filled with contact information including name, phone number, and email address.

First things first: Let's make sure our data is clean. We want only those people who really want to receive this message. In my case, I'm going to delete any entries where either the "Name" field or the "Email Address" field contains more than four words. That should remove most spammy entry points.

Now open up Excel and create two new columns next to each other called Name and Email Address. Copy everything across—don't worry about formatting right now. This will be important later. Now head over to Word and select Insert - Table. Right-click anywhere blank space on your page, choose Table Properties, then click OK. Type in whatever table you'd like to call your contacts. Mine looks something like this:

The above screenshot shows what happens when you try to insert a regular old text box into the document. But hey! All we need is a block of cells with plaintext names and email addresses so why bother messing around with styles? The beauty of tables is they work exactly like normal rows and columns in Excel. So go ahead and drag that big ol' table onto the top portion of your Word doc. Then start dragging individual boxes down below it until you've got a row full of potential contacts. Don't forget to give them labels. Here I named mine Contact 1, 2, 3 etc., which makes sorting through them much easier.

When you reach the bottom of the table, hit Enter again. Create three more empty cells next to your last cell and label them Phone Number 1, 2, & 3. Next, repeat the process by creating another table below these ones. Label these new blocks Contact 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 etc.. And finally, fill out the rest of your headers. When you finish, you should have something resembling this.

Afterwards, save the file under the.docx format. Head back to Excel, grab your newly saved Word document, and upload it to OneDrive. Once uploaded, locate the document in File Explorer, right-click on it, and choose Open With followed by Word Viewer. Find the letterhead header at the very beginning of your Word Document. Just click on the word "Header." Highlight it and press Ctrl + C. Go back to Word Viewer, scroll to the end of the document, highlight the last line of text, and press Ctrl+ V to paste it underneath the Header. Repeat this step for every single page in your entire Word document.

In order to run a mail merge, we must have a destination folder ready to accept incoming letters. To keep track of said letters, create a separate sheet within your current spreadsheet containing only contact info. Each column will represent a different type of correspondence: Name, Home/Business Address, City, State, Zip Code, Work Telephone Number, Cell Phone Number, and Primary Email Address. Feel free to rename anything you wish. Make sure to leave enough room between each section so that you won't accidentally include extra information you didn't mean to add.

You may notice that the first few rows of your original contact list contain additional fields such as First Names Surname, Gender, Birthdate, Date Of Death, Relationship(s) etc... These aren't actually part of your main contact record. They were added automatically because several of us emailed our birthdays and anniversary dates during setup.

So far, so good. Now comes the hard part. How do I send an email to a list of recipients?

How do I send an email to a list of recipients?

Let's say we received 50 responses to our invitation to join Facebook. Instead of manually typing everyone's personal details individually, we can take advantage of the many timesaver benefits offered by mail merging. On my test sample, I used five columns instead of seven for a much cleaner look. However, you could easily scale this method up depending on how many records you're working with.

To begin, head over to the Merge tab. Click on Start Mail Merge. Select Send Invitation Letter From Sheet 1. Hit Browse and navigate to the location of your merged document. Choose Main Data Source A and then double-click on the first instance of your Contact ID. Under Column Information, change the Destination List dropdown menu to Recipient List.

Next, head over to the Design Tab. Scroll down until you find the following button labeled Add Labels. Press enter and pick a suitable background color for the body of your letter. Also, feel free to play around with font settings here. Try changing fonts to see their effect. Lastly, press Save As Template. Rename the template and double-check its contents before moving forward.

Now that we've established a design foundation, it's time to customize the content of each letter. Begin adding items to your letter by heading over to the Content Layout area. Double-clicking on the first item allows you to edit its title. Keep scrolling down until you come across a place where you can input custom text. Fill out the desired fields and remember to update both the Subject Line and Message Text fields. Press Save Changes once done.

Repeat this process for every subsequent record you would like to add to the letter. There shouldn't be too many since you're dealing with hundreds of pieces of personalized mail. Afterward, preview your finished product. Use Ctrl + P to bring up the Print Preview window. Finally, print off copies and distribute amongst participants.

Once completed, you can export your final master piece directly from Excel. Simply launch the Merge Wizard and choose Export Master Document. Pick a preferred output format and follow the instructions provided.

Note: Before printing, ensure that you check the spelling of all names. Misspellings are common due to inaccurate copying.

Can you mail merge from Excel to Gmail?

Mail Merging works best when sending bulk emails via desktop programs like Outlook or Mail on MacOS. Unfortunately, MailMerge doesn't support Gmail natively. Fortunately, there are plenty of third party solutions available.

One popular choice is known as Mailsmith Pro [No Longer Available]. Although pricey ($29 per month after 14 days trial period), this tool offers unlimited mailmerges along with a builtin scheduler. Setup takes mere minutes, making it perfect for beginners. Another option worth considering is SmartMovesoft Mail Merge [Broken URL Removed] ($19). Like Mailsmith, this tool has been designed specifically for professional mailing campaigns. Its features include smart scheduling capabilities, multi-language templates, and a comprehensive reporting system.

If you're running a mail-merge operation on your spreadsheet data it's often handy if you have someone else write and manage all those emails for you. But what about sending them out yourself as well—to individual people or large lists of recipients? In this article we'll show you how to use Microsoft Office 365 tools like Mail Merge, Send To Outlook Addresses, and Email & Autoresponder. You don't even need any coding skills!

Let's start by looking at some common problems that occur when trying to get our hands dirty with mail merges in Excel. Then we'll look at solutions to these issues so you can make sure everything works exactly as expected before moving onto more complex tasks later. This will help ensure your finished product meets expectations.

Here are five things to check first...

1) Can you do a mail merge with attachments Gmail?

Mail Merging isn't just limited to one person writing up email messages with their name next to each recipient address. It also allows us to create new documents containing information which we then populate into other documents such as letters, postcards, flyers, etc. While most people know they can attach files to emails via Gmail, not everyone knows that there are limitations to doing this. For example, Google won't let you upload over 2GB worth of file space total. If you've got too many PDFs attached to go through here, try splitting them up into smaller chunks. Or maybe consider converting them all into Word Documents instead (or both).

2) Can Gmail send personalized mass emails?

While you could always ask your team members to manually type up separate messages for different potential customers, that doesn't sound very efficient does it? Thankfully, there are plenty of services available online where you can quickly set up templates for different types of correspondence, including newsletters and promotional materials. There are loads of options when it comes to choosing who gets sent specific content and the best part is that none of them require you to pay anything extra beyond the normal cost associated with setting up accounts. We recommend selecting a service with good support documentation because this helps greatly during troubleshooting times. One popular option is Constant Contact but there are lots of others around too. Just be aware that many companies now block access to third party sites due to security concerns.

3) How do I send multiple emails from Excel with attachments?

When using Excel to run a mail merge, you may find that you want to send more than one message to a single mailing list. However, if you open up the document inside the program itself you might see a warning saying "This action cannot be performed" alongside the Save button. The reason why this happens has to do with Windows 10 privacy settings. Since Microsoft introduced its updated operating system last year, users were given permission to automatically save certain files without asking for confirmation. Unfortunately, this includes.xls files created via Excel, meaning that whenever you attempt to edit a merged document you will receive said error.

The easiest way to avoid this problem while still saving the merged output directly to disk is to head to File " Options " Trust Centre " General " Prompt to change the value under Allow editing of personal macro files, sheets, and VBA code to No prompt. After making this small adjustment, you should be able to successfully save the final results within Excel. Remember to keep macros enabled though since they allow you to automate repetitive processes rather than having to click buttons every time.

4) How do you send bulk email from Gmail using Excel with attachment?

A lot of businesses today rely heavily on bulk messaging platforms like AWeber, GetResponse, MailChimp, Infusionsoft, among others. They provide simple yet effective ways to organize customer communications, allowing you to take full advantage of lead generation opportunities. Another great thing about these systems is that they allow you to import contacts straight into your database, thereby ensuring that no duplicates appear twice. But sometimes you may wish to continue managing your own contact list, especially if you already have an existing CRM tool setup elsewhere. When exporting CSV files from your original software, importing them directly into Gmail is another quick solution. Here again, however, you may encounter errors if you're working with larger spreadsheets.

To fix this issue, simply copy the entire column heading row in question and paste it above the rest of the sheet. Doing so ensures that your headers aren't mixed together with the actual cell contents. Now when you export this newly rearranged table back to CSV format, Gmail will recognize it immediately. From there, choose Tools " Import Contacts " Select Your Source and follow the steps outlined below.

5) What is a mail merge in Excel anyway?

So what exactly is a mail merge? Simply put, it involves combining several pieces of data, usually contained in text files, to produce one cohesive piece of work. Think of it as putting together a puzzle: you would never expect your completed picture to come together perfectly right off the bat, would you? Instead, you must slowly add pieces until the end result makes perfect sense. Likewise, merging records in Excel is something similar except that you're assembling information from two sources (usually separated by comma), creating a master record which contains information pertaining to each unique combination. Once accomplished, you can then proceed to the next step and repeat the process until you reach the desired number of rows.

As mentioned earlier, there are numerous benefits to performing mail merges in Excel versus traditional methods. Not only does it reduce labor hours considerably, you can also speed up the whole process significantly. And if you ever decide to switch providers down the road, migrating data between systems is easier than ever thanks to recent updates made to SharePoint technology. As long as you remember that any changes made to your source data after the initial creation of the tables will not affect the outcome, you shouldn't experience much trouble afterward.

Now that you understand the basics, take your knowledge further by learning how to design custom forms in Access.

Have questions regarding this guide? Reach out to us on Twitter @ExcelGenius or @jeff_kirwan.

Jeff Kirwan is Senior Consultant at Excella Solutions Inc., specializing in Microsoft applications development and consulting. He writes extensively on various topics related to business intelligence and analytics and is frequently published in industry magazines and journals. Jeff holds a Master’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Capella University.


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