Mail Merge with Gmail & Google Sheets - Beginner Tutorial

Follow this step-by-step tutorial to send your first mail merge campaign using BetterMerge (formerly Mailway Mail Merge).

Step 1: Prepare Your Contact List in Google Sheets

The first step is to prepare your contact list in Google Sheets.

Note

• Ensure that Row 1 (the top row) contains the Column Names, which will act as Placeholders or Variables in your email template.
• If you want to skip sending emails to certain rows, simply hide or filter those rows. Emails will only be sent to Visible Rows.

Step 2: Log In to the Web Dashboard or Open the Google Sheets Add-On

You can access BetterMerge in two ways:

1. The Web Dashboard: app.bettermerge.com
2. The Google Sheets Add-On: Mailway Mail Merge

Choose whichever option suits you best.

For detailed guides, refer to:

• Install and Launch the Mailway Mail Merge Add-On in Google Sheets
• Log In to the Web Dashboard

Step 3: Create a New Campaign

From the Dashboard page, click on New Campaign.

Next, click on the Create Campaign (v2) button.

This will open the campaign editor page, where you can fill out details to configure your campaign.

Basic Details

In this section, you can provide the following details:

• Campaign Name (required): A name to help you identify the campaign (only you will see this).
• Sender Name (optional): The name that appears as the sender in your emails.
• Reply-To Address (optional): An email address where recipients can reply.

Recipients

In this section, you’ll select the Google Sheets that contains the email list (i.e. contact list).

1. Select Google Sheets:

   • Click the Select Google Sheets button to launch the Google Drive popup.
   • In the Google Drive popup window, locate and select the Google Sheet that contains your email list. The sheet should have your contacts’ details like names and email addresses.

   

2. Choose the Sheet:

   • Once the Google Sheet is selected, a dropdown menu will appear with the names of sheets within the document.
   • Select the sheet that contains your email list.

   

3. Select Email (To) Column:

   • In this dropdown, select the column that contains the email addresses of your recipients.

   

4. CC Column (Optional):

   • If you need to send emails with CC recipients, toggle the CC column option.
   • Select the column from your sheet that contains the CC email addresses.

5. BCC Column (Optional):

   • If you’d like to send emails with BCC recipients, toggle the BCC column option.
   • Choose the column that contains the BCC email addresses from your sheet.

6. Personalized Attachments (Optional):

   • Toggle the switch if you want to send unique attachments to each recipient.
   • Read this guide to configure Personalized Attachments.

Note

For this beginner tutorial, we will only fill up the required fields.

Email Template

In this section, you’ll select the email template. Either use an existing template or create a new one. For this tutorial, we’ll create a new email template.

Click on click here link to create a new email template.

This will open the template editor page.

Enter the Subject line and Body of the email template.

Note

Use merge tags to personalize both Subject and Body of your emails by dynamically inserting data from your Google Sheet. A merge tag corresponds to the name of a column in your sheet, enclosed in double-curly braces. For example, if your Google Sheet has a column titled “First Name”, you can use {{First Name}} in your email content. When the email is sent, {{First Name}} will be replaced with the actual name of the recipient from the sheet.

Example:

• Google Sheet:

  First Name	Email
  John	john@example.com
  Jane	jane@example.com

• Email template:

  Hello {{First Name}},
  We are excited to invite you to our upcoming event!

• Final email:

  Hello John,
  We are excited to invite you to our upcoming event!

This allows each recipient to receive a personalized message without requiring manual customization.

Pro Tips:

• Ensure that your column names in the Google Sheet exactly match the merge tags used in your email (case-sensitive and no extra spaces).
• Merge tags can be used in various parts of the email, such as the subject line, body text, or even links.
• For advanced use, combine multiple merge tags to create highly personalized content.

Click on the Save Template button to save the email template.

Next, click on Campaigns.

Next, click on the draft campaign you’ve just created.

Click on the Select Template dropdown and select the email template you’ve just created.

Email Tracking

The Tracking section allows you to track your emails:

1. Track Email Opens: Track when recipients open your email.
2. Track Link Clicks: Track which links were clicked along with time and location information of the recipient.
3. Track Unsubscribes: Easily add unsubscribe links to your emails and track unsubscribes.

All options are optional—enable only the ones relevant to your campaign.

Preview Emails

Next, go to Preview tab to preview individual emails before sending.

Use the Next and Prev buttons to cycle through individual email previews.

View Summary

Next, go to Summary tab to view a summary of your campaign before sending.

Submit the Campaign

Finally, go to Submit tab. Next, click on Save Draft to the save the campaign as draft and then click on Start Campaign to initiate your campaign.

Step 4: View Campaign Report

The Campaign Report page will open automatically once the campaign is submitted. You can use the available action buttons: Refresh to update the report, Pause to temporarily stop the campaign, and Stop to halt the campaign permanently.

Once the campaign is completed, you’ll receive a Campaign Report Email. You can also click the Send Report to My Email button at any time to get an updated report.

Additionally, two new columns will be added to your Google Sheet as soon as the campaign starts:

• STATUS: Displays the status of each email, such as SENT, OPENED, CLICKED, etc.
• METADATA: Shows timestamps and message details.

The Google Sheets status columns are updated in real-time along with tracking information.

Next Steps

Congratulations!

You have successfully sent your first mail merge campaign using BetterMerge. Now that you’ve completed your first campaign, take a moment to explore the full capabilities of BetterMerge to maximize your results. Check out the other documentation sections for more tips, advanced features, and best practices to enhance your experience.

Important Notes

• Read the Email Sending Guidelines before sending emails with BetterMerge to ensure your campaign is compliant with best practices.
• If your Gmail or Google Workspace account is new, it’s essential to warm up your email account by gradually increasing the volume of emails sent. This helps avoid triggering spam filters.
• Your Gmail or Google Workspace account may have a daily email sending limit, which is usually capped at 100 emails for new accounts. This limit is imposed by Google. Start by sending a small number of emails regularly to help increase your email quota over time.
• Ensure your email list is clean and up-to-date to avoid high bounce rates, which can negatively impact your sender reputation.
• Be aware of spam laws and ensure that all recipients have consented to receive your emails. Always include an option for recipients to unsubscribe.
• Avoid sending too many emails in a short period to prevent your account from being flagged for suspicious activity.