I want to know how to personalize email for each recipient on my list using mail merge so that each contact in my list of 5,000 names receives a personal greeting. Does GroupMail have a mail merge feature that will let me personalize my email?
Yes, not only does GroupMail allow you to personalize email for each recipient using mail merge fields in the Subject line and body of your email, but you can also use merge scripts that automatically correct instances when a recipient does not have any content in one of the fields that you want to merge.
You can even send unique attachments and links to each recipient on your list with GroupMail.
How to personalize email using mail merge fields
You can use insert mail merge fields in the subject line and body of your email. Just click Insert/Merge Fields Menu [or the Merge Fields Icon] and select the database field that you want to personalize for each recipient.
For example, if you want to merge the first name of each contact into your email, you would click Insert/Merge Field and select the field from your contact list which contains the first name for your contacts. In the example above, it would be under the “Firstname” field. So your email will look like:
Dear !*FIRSTNAME*!
When the message is sent, though, that !*FIRSTNAME*! merge field will be replaced by the actual first name for each contact on your list and each recipient will receive an email with their first name there. If I was on your list, I would receive my message from you that says,
Dear Tom
The mail merge data that you insert will be replaced by the actual data for each contact on your list when the message is sent.
“But what happens if some of my subscribers didn’t fill in the first name field on my opt-in form when they signed up for my newsletter? They only put their email address. Can I still personalize my email?”
Great question! It is not uncommon for someone to not fill in some of the information you ask for on your email opt-in form. If some of your contacts leave information out, then you can insert mail merge scripts in your email. Mail merge scripts allow you to add your own content in place of the merge field if nothing exists in that field for a particular recipient.
For example, if one of your contacts didn’t add their first name to your list when subscribing and you used a merge field for first name, they would receive a message that looked like this:
Dear ____________
With IF/THEN/ELSE merge scripts, you can tell GroupMail what to do if it doesn’t find any information in the field that you are merging. For example, you might tell GroupMail that IF !*FIRSTNAME*! contains a first name, THEN use it, ELSE use “Friend” (or whatever else you would like to add in that space for those contacts who don’t have any data in that database field.) So instead of having that awkward blank space, those contacts would receive a custom greeting such as:
Dear Friend
Pretty cool, eh?
How to personalize email using mail merge scripts
To add a merge script, just click Insert/Merge Script (instead of Insert/Merge Field) — then, create your IF/THEN/ELSE statement.
That is all there is to it.
As always, if you have any questions or need some help along the way, don’t hesitate to contact our technical support team.
Interested? Download GroupMail email marketing and newsletter software and start getting personal with your mailing list!