If you want to make your email campaigns smoother, learning how to do a mail merge with Excel can really help.
By using Microsoft Outlook and Excel together, you can easily personalize your emails for each person.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to do a mail merge with Excel as your data source by using the EmailMerge add-in for Outlook.
Whether you’re sending newsletters, invitations, or customer updates, this method will save you time and improve your email marketing.
Step 1: Prepare your Excel data source
Before you learn how to do a mail merge in Word using an Excel document, you need to prepare your data source.
When you run a mail merge, the EmailMerge add-in will pull recipient details directly from the connected worksheet.
Before starting a mail merge, ensure your Excel file includes all necessary information like first name, last name, salutation, zip codes, addresses, etc. It’s best to add any additional details before beginning the merge.
Key things to check:
- Each row in your Excel sheet represents one recipient.
- The columns in your spreadsheet match the fields you want to use in the mail merge. For example, if you want to address recipients by their first name, create separate columns for first and last names. If you plan to sort contacts by state or city, make sure you have a separate State or City column.
- If your Excel file contains postal codes or other numbers with leading zeros, format them as text to keep the zeros during the mail merge.
Here’s a sample Excel sheet you can use for a mail merge:
Step 2: Install the EmailMerge add-in for Outlook
EmailMerge for Outlook is the fastest, easiest and safest way to send out personalized emails using data in Excel. You can try it free for 30 days (no credit card required).
If you haven’t done so already, download and install Email Merge for Outlook.
If you have installed the software properly, you should see the EmailMerge button on the ribbon inside Outlook.
Step 3: Starting the Mail merge process
Click on the Email Merge button inside Outlook (shown above) to open the Email Merge menu.
Click on Create a new merge.
You can start your email merge process with a Blank email or using an Email template (pre-set email) from the list.
Click Next, after making a selection.
EmailMerge can use data from many sources including from inside Outlook and Excel. In this case select “Excel File” and then select the Excel file you want to use.
Step 3: Where are your Contacts?
The screen will now show you a list of all the sheets in your Excel workbook.
Select the sheet in which your contacts are and Click Next.
You will see a screen displaying all the contacts on the selected sheet as shown below:
Select the people you want to send this email to and click Next.
Step 5: Confirm Your Mailing List and Send your Mail Merge
EmailMerge will display a list of all contacts you had selected to send your email to.
The remaining steps of the EmailMerge Wizard allow you to:
- Preview how each customized email will look on both computers and mobile devices
- Send all the emails at once or in smaller batched.
- Send the email immediately or scheduled at a later time or date
- Track opens and clicks on your emails
- Choose the account to send the email out from… and much more
Click Finish to send out your emails.
EmailMerge for Outlook is the fastest, easiest and safest way to send out personalized emails using data in Excel. You can try it free for 30 days by clicking on the image below.
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