Skip to main content

Gmail Mail Merge Beginner Tutorial

Follow this tutorial to send your very first mail merge campaign from gmail in less than 5 minutes.

1. Install and open Mailway Mail Merge addon​

Follow this guide to install Mailway Mail Merge addon.

Once installed, open Google Sheets. Then click on Extensions > select Mailway Mail Merge > Select Dashboard.

open mailway mail merge addon

2. Prepare contact list in Google Sheets​

The first step is to create your contact list in Google Sheets. You can use your existing email list or prepare a new list.

info

The column header names will be used as placeholder or variable when you compose the email template.

caution

Row 1 must contain the column header names.

tip

Pro Tip Use simple and short name for column headers.

3. Prepare mail merge campaign​

On the Mailway Mail Merge addon, click on New Campaign.

3.1. Enter basic details​

Enter a name for the campaign and optionally enter your name as the sender name.

enter campaign basic details
info

Campaign Name is only used for identifying the campaign in the addon, it's not visible on emails.

3.2. Validate recipients​

The addon will calculate and display the summary of current sheet. You can edit the sheet data while the addon is open. Once you've finished making necessary changes to the sheet, click on Reload Summary button to view updated summary.

tip

If you want to skip some rows, just hide the rows and no emails will be sent to the recipients of those hidden rows.

validate recipient summary

3.3. Prepare email template​

Expand Email Template section and click on Manage Templates button to open the email template editor window.

Click on Create button to open the template editor.

Compose the email template by using the column header values as placeholder within double curly braces – {{ Column Header Name }} (e.g. {{ First Name }} , {{ Email }} etc.).

You can use the placeholder in both Subject and Body of the template. Once the template is ready, click on Save button.

tip

Recommended Use the Insert Placeholder option to insert column header (i.e. placeholders) to the template body.

create the email template
caution

Column header names (i.e. placeholders) are case-sensitive. If you are entering the placeholder values manually, make sure to double check the spelling of the placeholder values. (e.g. If the column name is First Name, you must enter {{First Name}} as placeholder, {{first name}} or {{First name}} will not work).

Once the template is saved, click on the X button at the top right corner to close the template editor window.

Click on Reload button.

Select the newly created template from the dropdown.

3.4. Preview emails​

Click on the Preview Emails button to open the preview window.

Use the preview feature to verify individual emails. Make sure that placeholder values are calculated correctly. Click on X button to close the preview window.

4. Start the mail merge​

Finally, click on Start Sending button to start the mail merge. Depending on the size of your email list, if can take a while to complete the mail merge.

Once completed, the sheet will be updated automatically with mail merge status.

5. View campaign report​

Once the mail merge is completed, you can view the campaign report by clicking on Open Campaign Report button.

tip

Congratulations! You have successfully sent your first mail merge campaign using Mailway Mail Merge addon.

caution

Important Notes

  • Read the Email Sending Guidelines before sending emails with Mailway Mail Merge addon.

  • If your gmail account is newly created, it is very important to warm up your email account before sending emails to your contact list recipients to avoid landing your email in users’ spam folder. Read this guide.