Gmail is one of the most popular online mail services today, with over 1.5 billion users. More than a million Gmail messages are being sent even as you read this sentence. Many people have no clue that Gmail offers to send group emails to the user. This feature can save a lot of time and effort.
And this is also useful for sending business mail or the same mail to several recipients. From a different perspective, it is a social medium just like the other online platforms, which allows its users to share pictures, videos, documents, and other small files. This article is all about what a group email in Gmail is and the details you need to know about it.
Distribution Lists in Gmail
A distribution list or a mailing list is a group of contacts, which come under labels. You can sort contacts in your google account based on criteria like family, friends, and colleagues. It is an organized list of people you want to contact at the same time.
Why create a group email list in Gmail for business purposes?
The group email feature is essential for businesses. For instance, if you have a group of clients to whom you would like to pitch your product or services, it is relatively easy to send information that they require. You can send them all in one email and not waste time sending the same mail to everyone.
This solves all your problems in one tap. This makes things easier for people in business and for whoever needs to send a common mail to multiple recipients who receive the same mail. This is a better way for the firm or the individual to reach out to their existing clients and those prospective customers on their contact list.
The difference between Gmail Contact Groups and Google Groups
The readers must know that Google Groups and Gmail Contact Groups are two different, functioning concepts. Google Groups is a discussion area for people with similar points of interest. A Google email group is a label that has a list of the contact information of the people who fall in the same workgroup.
When to Create a Group in Gmail
Anytime is a good time to create a group email in Gmail. If you are required to send messages in bulk, at any point in time, you can set up the group email feature for your benefit. This will help you save time and effort.
How to Create a Group Email Account in Gmail (Native Method)
To do this, you will have to sync your contacts on your mobile phone with your Google account. These contacts need their emails to be saved with them for this. This way, you can send group mail to your contacts. This is the procedure to create a group email in Gmail.
- From your Gmail account, click on the menu, on the top right corner, to the left of your profile picture, the icon of which is nine dots. You’ll see the list of all the services provided by Google Inc. Select Contacts from that list. You can also do this by directly visiting the Google Contacts website.
- When you place your cursor over the contact image in google contacts, it changes to a checkbox. Select the checkboxes of all the contacts you want to add to a group.
- In the list of options, below the search bar, click on the label icon. This is the Manage Label option. This lets you create a label or work on a previously existing label.
- Name your label and click Save. This label will be saved as a possible recipient group in Gmail.
You will be able to see the label on the list on the left of your window.
- Once you finish creating the label you want, compose an email to the label you just created. In the recipient name box, type in the name of the label to which the mail has to be sent and choose it from the drop-down box.
Compose the email and send it. The mail will be sent to the recipient’s email address.
Should you use the native method or not?
You can use the native method to create an email group offered by Google. It doesn’t cost you anything. You just need contacts with their email address and a Gmail account to do this.
The only drawback to this method would be that you won’t be able to track your email and see if the recipient read the mail. If you are conscious of your expenses, you can use the native method.
Create a Group Email Account in Gmail (Professional Method)
There is a professional way to send a group email. This method requires a third-party application or website, which is linked to your google email account and sends group emails to recipients as a whole.
The third party gathers information about your contacts. You are required to create a mailing list in Gmail. The contact group in the mailing list will then receive group mail, as per the sender’s command, through the intermediate email group software or website.
Should you use or not use the Professional method?
The services that are offered by applications and websites come with a cost. But it permits the user to track the email they sent. The professional method is more like an answering machine automated to send mail to each recipient’s email address.
If you or your firm is willing to invest in software that would take a load of work from the employee’s hands and provide them with extra time and resources, feel free to buy a subscription to a service that sends group emails.
Create a Group Email in the Gmail app for mobile
- Download the Google Contacts application. If you do not have the application, go into your Gmail account and from the hamburger menu, choose the contacts option. You’ll get redirected to the play store link for the Contacts application.
- In the application, you will see all the contacts that are saved to your google account. Touch and hold the contacts you want to add to your label. They get selected, which is acknowledged with a tick in a blue circle. The contacts with their email addresses by them will only receive the mail.
- Touch the menu (three dots) on the top right corner of the screen. You’ll see a drop-down menu. Select Add to label.
- Name the label as you want it to. Preferably a name that helps you categorize and identify the group you want to communicate with. You can see the contacts in your mailing list/label.
How to Send Email to a Group in Gmail Without Showing Recipients
The recipients of a group email can also be prevented from seeing the others who also received the mail. This is mostly done to protect the privacy of the recipients from others. This can be done in a few simple steps. This is how you do it.
- When you compose a mail, you have to mention that the specific recipients’ email addresses should not be disclosed. Add undisclosed-recipients before the sender’s email addresses in angular brackets.
- On the rightmost side of the To bar, select Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy). You will be able to send copies of the same message to different people without revealing the contact information of all the other recipients.
- Type in the recipients’ addresses, one by one or as a label (group). Tap Send when you’re finished.
Benefits of Creating Group Email / Mailing List in Gmail
You can send messages to a lot of people at the same time. For instance, you can create a label for your friends and family to send them invitations to an event. Or you can create an email group for your workmates to send assignments to them. You needn’t type the same message multiple times, repeatedly, this way and thereby save time, effort and communicate with a large audience.
Conclusion
When you have to send the same message to a bunch of people over mail, specifically Gmail, you can send it with the group email feature. This is a must-know for everyone who works in teams. You also have the option to recover the deleted emails in Gmail.
You can use the time you just saved with your group email list to do something productive. The Gmail group feature is another gem that is being overlooked by a lot of Gmail users who actually need it. You now know how to make and work with an email list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better: using software or doing it the native Gmail way, to send group mail?
Both are great methods to create a Gmail distribution list and send group emails to them. The software gives you more control over the mail you send and those you send it to. But it costs the users. On the other hand, creating the label with Google Contacts doesn’t cost anything but doesn’t offer such facilities.
Why are Gmail groups important?
You save time, effort, resources, and maybe money with Gmail groups. This will make things function more efficiently.
How to edit mailing lists?
In Contacts, you’ll see the edit icon near mailing lists. You can include or kick-out people from the lists with it