Do you know how to do a mail merge from Outlook?
Using mail merge, you can send out emails that are personalized for each recipient. It’s one of the fastest ways to produce personalized emails without manually customizing each and every one of your emails. You can use mail merge to personalize your emails by the recipient’s name, their address, and any other details.
In this blogpost, I will show you how to send out mail merges using two methods.
- Using Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel and Outlook)
- Using EmailMerge for Outlook
If you want to tailor-make your emails making them unique and relevant, this tutorial is just for you.
So, let’s start.
How to Mail Merge in Word, Excel & Outlook
Please note: This tutorial is created using Office 365.
You can use Word, Excel, and Outlook to send out mail merges. This is an efficient way of sending mail merges if you are not ready to invest in a paid email marketing software.
Open Microsoft Word. Go to Mailings > Start Mail Merge > E- Mail Messages.
Type your message. Once you are done, you need to set up your mailing list. The mailing list is your data source. Recipients of mail merge can come from an existing list, like an Excel spreadsheet, Outlook contact list, Access database or some other type of database.
For the purpose of this tutorial, I will use an Excel spreadsheet. Fill in all the necessary details in the Sheet 1 of the spreadsheet such as first name, last name, and email address. Save your spreadsheet. Now we will dynamically link our mailing list from Excel to Word to complete the mail merge process.
On the email message that you have written, go to Select Recipients > Use an Existing List. The file picker will open up and I will select the Excel spreadsheet that I have created and saved in my local PC. You can also type a new list or select recipients from Outlook contacts.
The following screen will open.
Click OK.
Now we will personalize the email I have written with the staff name. In the Write & Insert fields select Insert Merge Field.
You can preview your messages to see how they would appear to the recipients using the Preview function.
Once you are happy with everything, it’s time to send out your merges.
Click Finish & Merge > Send Email Messages.
The following screen will open. In the subject line, you can type your email subject. After that, click OK.
Your email messages will now be sent from Microsoft Outlook. You can view them in your Sent folders.
[Advanced Mail Merge] How to send Mail Merges using EmailMerge for Outlook
Although sending out mail merges using Microsoft Office Suite is available for free, it isn’t that easy to use as you have to use three different applications to accomplish a single goal. The mail merge feature isn’t directly available in Outlook, and it does have its limitations.
This isn’t an ideal situation for anyone wanting to send personalized emails effortlessly and seamlessly.
EmailMerge for Outlook is a much more practicable solution for sending large number of personalized emails using your existing Outlook contacts, Excel lists, Salesforce contacts or Access Databases
Here’s how easy it is to send out mail merges from Outlook:
Download and install EmailMerge. You can also install the trial version of EmailMerge to see how it works for you.
Restart Outlook after installing the software. You should see the EmailMerge button on the Outlook ribbon under the Standss Outlook Addins. Click on the EmailMerge icon.
The following screen will appear.
As you can see, EmailMerge has powerful functionalities compared to using the mail merge feature in the Microsoft Office suite. Apart from creating merges, you have a Scheduler for easy Pause, Cancel and Reschedule of merges. You can also segment your list using the List Manager. Targeted mailing to each segment will improve responses and reduce unsubscribes. Email Merge has templates which you can use, edit or add to the existing library.
Another handy feature of Email Merge is that it can allow you to track who has opened and clicked your emails. Get instant notification as to who opened or clicked on the email, when, where and how (what device they used).
Please note: (Tracking requires a monthly/yearly subscription to EmailCaddie).
To create a merge in EmailMerge click the Create a new merge icon ( as shown in the above screenshot)
You can select a template or just start with a blank email.
In the next screen, you can choose from where your contact information is going to come from. You can select from a variety of sources. In this tutorial, I selected Excel file as my data source.
Click on Next. In the next screen, I select the Excel sheet I want to use and then move on to the next step.
In the next step, I set what data fields in my list contain the email address, name and company. It is possible to send different attachments to different recipients with EmailMerge.
In the next screen, you can select the contacts who you want to send your emails to.
If there isn’t any required information, you can specify in EmailMerge what information should be used instead.
Continue with the EmailMerge wizard till you reach the step, where you can start composing your email.
Once you are done composing your email, click on Resume Email Merge from the EmailMerge group from the toolbar.
You will be taken to the following wizard. Click Next.
In the next step, you can choose between different sending options- you can send your merges via a scheduler or just send them away immediately after finishing. If you have to send a large number of merges, you can send them via the scheduler and the scheduler will automatically shut down your computer once the merge process is complete.
After setting up your sending options and merge tracking options, you can click on the Finish button
That’s it.
Just follow simple steps to send out tailor-made emails directly within Outlook. No need to jump between three different applications.
EmailMerge lets you send out personalized mass emails directly from Outlook in just a few clicks!
Interested to learn more about EmailMerge.
Reach out to us via sales@standss.com if you want to send professional and personalized emails.
Download the 30-day free trial version of EmailMerge and see what it can do for you. No credit card information is required.
