How to Send a Group Email in Gmail Step By Step

Group emails allow you to segment internal communications and easily create customized messages. Get more eyes on your content by learning how to send a group email in Gmail.

Need to send a message exclusively to your leadership team? Trying to communicate with a group of people who are all working on a project together? Sending a group email is hands down the most efficient way to get everyone on the same page. 

Of course, if you’re not familiar with Gmail groups the process can feel a little intimidating. 

Don’t sweat it—learning how to send a group email in Gmail is super easy. In this post, we’ll show you how to send group messages in Gmail one step at a time.

What is Group Email?

A group email is an email message that is sent to multiple recipients all at once. Instead of composing individual emails for each recipient, you can create a single message and send it to a group of people at the same time.

In Gmail, you can create a group email by adding multiple email addresses to the “To,” “Cc,” or “Bcc” fields when composing a new message. But you can also make things simpler by creating a group or list of contacts in your Gmail account, and then selecting that group as the recipient of your email. For example, if you have a new group of employees starting together, you can send out new employee welcome emails to only this group.

It’s important to be careful when sending group emails, however, as you want to make sure that you’re not sharing sensitive or confidential information with unintended recipients. An internal communication software like ContactMonkey helps you send group messages in Gmail quickly and securely. You’ll also have access to dozens of other integrations!

Sending Gmail group emails with ContactMonkey 

With seamless Gmail integration, ContactMonkey lets users create and embed dynamic HTML emails into any Gmail group email. 

Not only does ContactMonkey let you level up your group emails using responsive templates, the tool’s Email at Scale feature allows you to send more than 2000 emails per day in Gmail. 

This is not possible with Gmail alone. Bonus perk: your emails will also be sent faster than sending Gmail emails without ContactMonkey.

Gmail customers can also enjoy a hassle-free email-sending process with Dashboard Sending. This feature allows users to send employee emails from within the ContactMonkey dashboard, while still using their Gmail infrastructure. Users will have the ability to:

• Send emails to List Management lists
• See, reschedule, and delete scheduled emails
• Send test emails

Benefits of Sending a Group Email in Gmail

Sending a group email in Gmail can be useful for many different reasons. Below, we’ve narrowed down just a few of the top benefits and uses of Gmail group messages:

1. Sending a message to a team or group of colleagues: If you need to communicate with a group of people who are all working on a project together, sending a group email can be a quick and efficient way to get everyone on the same page. You can include all the necessary information in one message and make sure everyone receives it at the same time.

2. Internal marketing or promoting a product or service: If you want to promote a new internal product launch or start an internal marketing campaign, sending a group email to specific employee groups can be an effective way to get the word out. You can include all the important information in one message and reach a large number of people at once.

3. Sending an internal newsletter or update: sending a group email to specific workplace departments can be a great way to keep employees tuned into your content through tailored messages. You can include links to new articles or updates, and encourage your subscribers to visit your site again. If you’re using a Gmail integration like ContactMonkey, you can even send internal emails with embedded pulse surveys, interactive content, and commenting options.

How to Send a Group Email in Gmail

Learning how to send a group email in Gmail is easy. But sending a compelling message that truly garners attention takes a bit of strategizing. 

On their own, Google groups are limiting due to sending limits and a lack of email design capabilities. Below, we’ve listed the key steps for sending a Gmail group message while using ContactMonkey’s Gmail integration to amp up your Gmail capabilities:

Step 1: Creating a Contact List

Before you send any group messages in Gmail you’ll want to set up your contact list.

Setting Up a New Contact List in Gmail

First, set up your Google group In Gmail:

1. Click on ‘Contacts’ on the left-hand side of the Gmail dashboard and then select ‘Create contact’
2. Enter the contact information, including the email address and name
3. Add the contact to a new list: On the right-hand side of the window, you will see a “Labels” option. Click on this and select “Create label”. Name the new label whatever you like (e.g. “Social Committee”).
4. Save the contact: Once you have entered all the information, click on “Save” to save the contact to your new contact list.

Once you’ve set up your Google groups in Gmail, you can access limitless sending and dynamic design capabilities with ContactMonkey’s Gmail integration. Here’s how to send to a Gmail group contact list in ContactMonkey:

1. Sign in to your ContactMonkey account by clicking ‘Sign in with Google.’
2. Click the ‘Compose & Send’ tab on the upper right corner. 
3. Click the ‘Send From’ field. You’ll see a dropdown of all the addresses you have permission to send from. 
4. Click the ‘Add New Address’ tab next to the ‘Send From’ address field.
5. Type in the email and choose a display name. Once it’s added, it will be populated in the dropdown for future sends. Note, you’ll only be able to send from the email addresses that you have permission to send from. 
6. Click the ‘Send To’ field and select ‘Google Groups and Individual Addresses’ from the dropdown. A new box will appear below. 
7. Click the ‘Add New Addresses’ tab to the right of the second box to add new contacts or new Google groups. Start typing in an email address or group name and they’ll be added to the group.

ContactMonkey also gives you access to list management, which allows you to create a directory within ContactMonkey, and use it to customize sublists of recipients. 

To add contacts to list management, you can easily upload a CSV or connect your Azure Active Directory or a Human Resources Information System (HRIS), such as Workday Directory. 

You’ll then be able to configure your list based on a range of attributes such as job title, department, and/or location. This makes it easy to create emails that are tailored to employee preferences. 

Importing Contacts from Other Services

There are two ways to import contacts from secondary platforms. You can use a CSV or you can update your Google groups in Gmail and then proceed to follow the same steps as the section above. 

Method 1:

To edit your Google group in Gmail, log in to your Gmail account and navigate to the Google Groups homepage. Click ‘Create Group,’ and then add a name and description for your group. Next, set the group permissions to control how your employees can interact with the group.

Once this is done, start adding your employees as members of your group. 

You’ll be able to do this in multiple ways, including:

• Adding members individually by adding their email addresses.
• Adding members from an admin list, selecting from a list of employees instead of entering emails individually.
• Adding members using a CSV file. 

Once you’ve created or updated your Google group in Gmail, it will automatically be updated within your ContactMonkey account, where you can select your desired Google group in the ‘Send To’ field of the ‘Compose & Send’ page. 

Method 2:

Alternatively, you can import a CSV directly with ContactMonkey. Here’s how:

1. Sign in to your ContactMonkey account by clicking ‘Sign in with Google.’
2. Click the ‘Compose & Send’ tab on the upper right corner. 
3. Click the ‘Send From’ field. You’ll see a dropdown of all the addresses you can choose from.
4. Click the ‘Send To’ field and select ‘CSV’ from the dropdown. Here you’ll be able to import your most recently updated CSV list of contacts. 

Adding and/or deleting a contact from your list

To edit or delete a contact from your list you’ll need to access your contacts, find the contact you’re looking for, and make the necessary modifications.

To edit a contact, follow these steps once you’ve accessed your ContactMonkey dashboard:

• Open the ‘Compose & Send’ window to start a new email. 
• Click the ‘Send To’ field and select ‘Google Groups and Individual Addresses’ from the dropdown. A new box will appear below.    
• Click the ‘Add New Addresses’ tab to the right of the second box. A prompt will appear to ask for a new email address and display name. 
• Type in an email address or group name and save it.

Step 2: Writing and Sending Group Emails in Gmail

Learning how to properly write and send a group email in Gmail is the key to building quality engagement. Here’s how it’s done:

Creating a Draft Message

1. Click the ‘Compose & Send’ tab on the upper right corner. Once you’ve set your desired ‘Send From’ field and ‘Send To’ field, you’re ready to draft your email. 
2. Click the ‘Subject’ field to add your desired email subject line. 
3. Go to ‘Tracking Options’ to select your preferred email tracking settings.
4. Go to the ‘Insert Email’ field and select from the preview of your most recent email templates. If you don’t see the email you want, click ‘See More’ to view a complete list of your emails. You’ll be able to search and filter to find your desired template. 
5. Click ‘Select’ on your chosen email to see a preview of it populated in the right-hand sending window and make sure everything’s in order. 
6. Choose ‘Send Test’ and select the test email addresses you want to send it to. 

Customizing your Gmail group message

ContactMonkey’s mail merge tool for Gmail enables you to send personalized employee emails and include customized formatting. Using merge tags, you can add your employees’ first names, last names, full name, and more to your email body copy and subject line. 

You can easily add merge tags to your desired group email location within the ContactMonkey email template builder:

Attaching Files to Your Group Email

ContactMonkey’s email template builder lets you embed files directly into any email as smart links. To do this, go to your ContactMonkey library and create a new Outlook or Gmail newsletter template or open an existing one. Learning how to create email newsletter templates with ContactMonkey is easy and intuitive. This tool makes creating internal company newsletters quick and easy. You’ll be able to add links either as a text hyperlink or as a button. Here’s how to hyperlink a text:

1. Insert your text box into the template and insert your text.
2. Highlight the text and click the link icon.
3. Change “Link Type” to “File Manager”. This will open the file manager for you. 
4. Upload the file you would like to share by clicking upload, selecting the file and clicking open. The file will then be uploaded to the file manager

To link a file to a button, follow these steps:

1. Insert a button box in the template from your email builder sidebar menu and label it as you wish.

2. Select the button and click ‘Link file’ in the sidebar.

3. The file manager will open and you can upload the file you would like to share by clicking upload, selecting the file and clicking open. The file will then be uploaded to the file manager.

4. Select the file you have uploaded to the file manager to connect to the link by clicking “Insert”.

5. The file will now be linked to the button. When the template is sent the recipient will then be able to download the file connected to the button by simply clicking on it.

Scheduling an email send time

If you want to send your group email at a specific time in the future, ContactMonkey’s Gmail integration lets you schedule your email to send later.

Before you plan out your scheduled send, access your email analytics in your ContactMonkey dashboard to see the best times to send employee emails. 

When you have a date and time in mind, go to your ‘Compose & Send’ window. From here, follow your usual steps to draft an email in ContactMonkey. At the end, instead of clicking ‘Send & Track’ click ‘Schedule’ to deliver your email at a future date and time. 

To view and manage your scheduled emails:

1. Click the ‘Scheduled Emails’ tab in the top ribbon menu. 
2. You’ll be taken to your scheduled emails page where you can view, edit, reschedule, and delete scheduled emails. 
3. Click on any email to see the ‘Reschedule’ or ‘Delete’ options at the bottom. Keep in mind, deleting the email will not delete the email body, which will live in the email library. It will only delete the scheduled email send. 

*Note, account users and managers can only reschedule or delete their own emails. Admins and owners can reschedule and delete everyone’s emails. 

Step 3: Post-Send Tips and Tricks for Group Emails in Gmail

Using tracking tools to monitor open rates and clicks

ContactMonkey’s Google groups add-in lets you collect in-depth email analytics with every send and for each individual recipient. This is not possible with most Gmail tracking solutions. 

With ContactMonkey, you can gather individual and overall email metrics to pinpoint what content is performing best across different groups of employees. 

To set up email tracking parameters, go to your ContactMonkey account and open the ‘Compose & Send’ window. Then follow these steps:

1. Set your ‘Send From’ field and ‘Send To’ field. Make sure to select ‘Google Group and Individual Addresses’ in the ‘Send To’ field.
2. Click the ‘Subject’ field to add your desired email subject line. 
3. Go to ‘Tracking Options’ to select your preferred email tracking settings. Select ‘Individual’ if you want to track each email send or ‘Overall’ if you want to track your group email collectively. 
4. Check the “Opens” and “Clicks” toggles in the ‘Tracking Options’ field and make sure they’re on.
5. Go to the ‘Insert Email’ field and select your desired email template. 
6. See the preview of your email populated in the sending window and make sure everything’s in order. 
7. If you’re ready to send, click ‘Send & Track’ at the bottom of the page to collect individual or overall email analytics on your communications. Your email metrics will display in your ContactMonkey dashboard once recipients begin interacting with your email. You’ll also be able to view survey response rates and analytics such as Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).

Automating follow-up messages after an email send

To automate follow-up messages after sending a group email in Gmail, you can use ContactMonkey’s email scheduling tool. Here’s how:

1. Compose your group email as you normally would.
2. Click the ‘Schedule’ button next to the ‘Send & Track’ button at the bottom of the page. 
3. Select the date and time that you want the follow-up message to be sent, and remember to choose times that correspond with your engagement analytics. 
4. ContactMonkey schedules your follow-up message automatically at the desired time. You can also use ContactMonkey to set email reminders and ensure all your workflows roll out on time.

Send Group Emails in Gmail More Efficiently and at Scale

The verdict: sending group emails in Gmail is a more efficient and effective way to communicate with multiple people, while also enjoying additional benefits such as personalization, spam protection, easy management, and collaboration. But if you want to make the most of group emails in terms of speed, scale, and design, you need to use an employee communications software like ContactMonkey. 

Level up your Gmail group messages with HTML templates, embedded surveys, and none of the pesky Gmail email limits. See how it works for yourself. Book a free demo and watch ContactMonkey in action.