New Gmail mail merge (previously Gmail multi-send)

Google introduced its Gmail multi-send mode for sending mail merges in Gmail in Q4 of 2022. Their Q2 2023 update replaces gmail multi-send mode with Gmail mail merge

Gmail mail merge allows you to send a personalized mass email right from your Gmail inbox. This is a great first step towards scaling your workflows that involve sending the same email to lots of people, but Google mail merge’s fairly limited feature set may leave you wanting more.

Below, we’ll break down exactly what Gmail’s mail merge can (and can’t) do. Since we also offer a free mail merge tool in Gmail, we’ll look at how it compares to Streak’s mail merge feature.

<a href="#benefits-of-gmail-mail-merge" class="anchor-link">Benefits of Gmail mail merge</a>
<a href="#pros-of-gmail-mail-merge" class="anchor-link">Pros of Gmail mail merge</a>
<a href="#cons-of-gmail-mail-merge" class="anchor-link">Cons of Gmail mail merge</a>
<a href="#when-to-use-gmail-mail-merge-vs-streak" class="anchor-link">When to Use Gmail mail merge vs. Streak</a>

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Send mass emails individually with Gmail’s mail merge

The main benefits of Gmail’s mail merge are that you can create email lists in your Google Contacts and send a mass email to each person individually. With light personalization, you can include each person’s name or other personal information in the body of the email. 

An email draft using Gmail mail merge

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Pros: simple way to send a basic mail merge in Gmail

Gmail’s native tool to send a mail merge has some advantages for basic use cases. 

Mass email in Gmail

The most obvious benefit of Gmail’s mail merge and mail merge features is that you can send a mass email from your Gmail account without any additional apps, tools, or subscriptions. 

Each recipient gets a separate copy of the email, including any personalization, and won’t see that the email was sent to other people. 

Mailing lists in Google Contacts

Gmail’s mail merge allows you to create mailing lists in Google Contacts to easily manage email segments and add recipients to your mail merges in Gmail.

Google contacts list

Once your Google Contacts are added to a list, begin typing the name of the label into the recipients field to add all contacts. The ease of use makes it quick and simple to create mail merges in Gmail.

Adding recipients to Gmail mail merge

Google Sheets integration

You can also create mailing lists using Google Sheets. This enables additional features over mailing lists based on Google Contacts, including:

1. Personalizing your mail merge email using variables from your Google Sheet.
2. Ability to share and collaborate on mailing lists in Google Sheets.

You can take advantage of the Google Sheets integration by clicking “Add from a spreadsheet” appearing immediately below the “Mail Merge” checkbox that enables Gmail mail merge through an email’s recipient line.

1,500 send limit for Google Workspace accounts

If you use a Google Workspace account, Gmail has a daily sending limit of 1,500 emails per rolling 24-hour period for messages sent with mail merge. Keep in mind that this factors into the total daily sending limit of 2,000 messages per rolling 24-hour period.

For many Google Workspace users, this should be an ample amount of messages to send daily, but you’ll need to find a more robust email marketing tool if you’re looking to send upwards of 1,500 messages a day. 

However, Gmail doesn’t have a quota view to check your current status, so this can be hard to keep track of if you’re nearing the daily sending limit. 

Unsubscribe link

When you compose an email using Gmail’s mail merge, Gmail automatically includes an Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the draft. As you’d expect, recipients can use this link to unsubscribe from your emails - a common feature that helps you reduce spam mail and improve email deliverability.

According to Google, “You’ll get an email notification whenever a recipient unsubscribes or resubscribes to your emails but you can’t get a list of all unsubscribed recipients.” The next time you send a mail merge email in Gmail, you’ll see how many people from your recipients list have unsubscribed, meaning they won’t receive the email.

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Cons: Limited personalization and functionality make Gmail’s mail merge too lightweight for many use cases

While Gmail’s mail merge offers a simple way to send a mail merge, its limited feature-set and very basic UI won’t meet many email outreach needs or help optimize your outreach to increase engagement. 

No automatic follow-up messages

Typically when we send a mass email to a group of people, we’re looking for some type of engagement – often a response or an event scheduled. 

As we all know, this doesn’t always happen on the first try. Instead, you’ll often need to follow up with your contact to catch them at the right time and get the desired response. 

Gmail’s mail merge is effective for sending one-off messages, but doesn’t include a mail merge follow-up feature that allows you to optimize your response rate. 

No variables in email subject line

While Gmail’s mail merge allows you to include limited variables in the email body, you won’t be able to put one in your subject line.

Personalizing your subject line can increase open rates by 20%, so the lack of this feature means you could be missing out on connecting with your audience. 

Of course, there are still other ways to write great subject lines that increase open rates and conversions, even without personalizing your subject line.

Limited variables for personalization outside of Google Sheets integration

If you’re not using a Google Sheet and instead simply typing email addresses into the recipient field, you’ll only be able to use your recipients’ names and email addresses as variables in your message. 

Adding variables in Gmail mail merge

Of course, using your contact’s name is a great improvement over starting your message with “Hey friend!”, but people have come to expect this level of personalization for most email marketing outreach. 

When compared to other mail merge tools that allow you to use a pipeline or database to manage contacts, the limited number of variables can be a major limiting factor to the success of your email marketing and outreach campaigns. 

A Streak mail merge draft with unlimited variables

For example, Streak allows you to use any of the data in your CRM as a variable in your mail merge. That means you can use data from any of your pipeline columns or contact and organization fields. You can also upload a list of mail merge recipients with a CSV file and use any of the data in your spreadsheet columns as variables.

The result is a much more personalized message that allows you to connect better with your recipients and improve your email marketing KPIs.

One-off mass emails don’t become part of your workflow

There are many use cases for mail merge emails. They’re useful as newsletters, outreach to new contacts and leads, regular check-ins, and sharing or requesting for information. 

Much of this email activity is repeatable. For example, every morning a sales rep will reach out to new leads and after a few days of inactivity, they’ll send a follow-up message.

With Gmail’s mail merge feature, each email is a one-off mail merge that can’t be reused or repeated. That means every morning, the sales rep has to create a new draft, add recipients, insert variables, and test the message before hitting send.

Other mail merge tools, like Streak’s mail merge, allow you to keep the mail merge running and add new recipients. That means you can create a “New lead outreach” mail merge and each morning, add your new leads to the email campaign. 

No performance data and insights

Sending mass emails from your Gmail account can help you reach hundreds or thousands of contacts efficiently, but without performance data it’s hard to improve your email open rates and conversions. 

Gmail doesn’t provide any data on open rates, link clicks, or even a clear way to see your response rate with their mail merge. This lack of feedback makes it impossible to A/B test or iterate on your email copy and CTAs. 

Very basic UI

Gmail’s mail merge has a very approachable UI that makes it a breeze to send mass emails to an email list. 

However, their limited interface is less robust when it comes to viewing your recipients list, previewing how variables will appear for each recipient, and handling errors with variables. 
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When to use Gmail’s mail merge vs. Streak’s mail merge

Each tool offers a way to send a mass email in Gmail and there are certain scenarios where each one may be helpful in your workflow. 

Gmail mail merge

Gmail’s mail merge is an excellent lightweight option for people looking to send the same email to a group of people in their Google Contacts or Google Sheet. Newsletters and other simpler messages work well with Gmail mail merge, provided you don’t need engagement and conversion data. 

Streak mail merge

Streak mail merge with automatic follow-up sequences

For those looking for a more personalized mass email, performance data, and more control over the editing process and user interface, Streak’s mail merge offers a solution right inside Gmail. 

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The Streak mail merge list with email data for views, clicks, and replies

Streak’s mail merge in Gmail offers: 

• Unlimited number of variables that can be included in the email body and subject line
• Automatic follow-up sequences to increase responses and engagement
• Reusable mail merges that become a part of your ongoing workflow process
• Performance and engagement data to help you A/B test and optimize your campaigns
• Message previews and more control in the editing process

Try Streak’s mail merge for free to start sending mass emails with automatic follow-up in Gmail today.

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