Although free, Gmail continues to be an excellent communications tool for small businesses. Many of Gmail’s options are hidden from plain sight, resulting in features such as email lists, group contacts and mass emailing to go unused.
As a business, you have the power to create various groups according to your criteria and broadcast emails without turning it into a repetitive task. This type of feature is generally associated with a premium service, but it is available in Gmail for free.
Business use includes internal memos for individual recipients, team-specific emails, and external send outs to clients and partners.
The limitations with Gmail are sufficient to cover the needs of a small and even medium-sized business. Recipient caps per message go upwards to 500 addresses, while message size follows Gmail’s standard limit of 25MB. For email heavy environments, Gmail has a daily cap of 150 emails.
Even better, it’s easy once you know how to make a mailing list in Gmail. In this guide we’ll be following the newest version, but there is also an option to revert to the older format.
How to Make a Mailing List in Gmail
Creating the List
Step 1 – Log in and click the “Gmail” drop down on the top left.
[1] This left section shows your existing groups and functions. Some groups are automatically created based on your activities. For example, if you import records into Google Contacts, it will create a new contact label. Another example is “Starred” contacts, which are shown at the top of your contacts list.
[2] The right section displays the contact’s primary fields. In some cases, you may see incomplete entries. For example, you may have a starred contact synced from your Android phone, but you don’t have their email address.
How to Create Groups in Contacts
Groups or labels can either be created ahead of time or at the time you select your contacts. Google does have two contact repositories – Contacts and Other Contacts. Most likely, you will just be using the main group.
- In this scenario, you hover your mouse over the contact’s icon and check the box to include. Once you select a contact, new control buttons appear at the top.
- Click the Manage labels button at the top and select Create label. It’s the button that looks like a price tag.
- Enter in your new label name and click Save.
Your new group should show on the left side with an indicator of how many contacts are in this group.
Creating a Distribution List from Search Criteria
In this example, I wish to create a group for members of the city council. I added the text “city council” in their Notes field for each contact record.
- Open Google Contact Manager.
- In the text box at the top, enter your search criteria and click the Search button with the magnifying glass. You should see the contacts that match your criteria.
- Click the checkbox for one of the contacts. This should show the controls above your search results. To select all the displayed contacts, use the first button called Selection actions.
- Click the Manage labels button and select + Create label from the drop-down menu.
- In the New group text box enter a descriptive name and click OK.
If you click a contact, you should also see their group labels under their name.
An important point to remember is if you create a group based on search criteria, the group isn’t dynamic. So, for example, if I make a group based on contacts with the email address containing @timeatlas.com and add another contact with the same domain, it will not join my existing group.
Conversely, changing a group member’s address to @gmail.com won’t delink the contact from my existing group.
Removing a Contact’s Label
One item you may need to do is to change a contact’s group(s). In my example of “city council,” I would probably adjust the members based on elections.
- Click the contact record you’d like to change to see the details.
- Click the More actions button on the top right. It has 3 vertical dots.
- In the Change labels section, click the label with the checkmark you’d like to remove.
Send Email to Groups in Gmail
Once a group is created from your Google contacts, emailing the members is simple. Although you can email from the Google Contact Manager, most people do it from their Gmail page.
- Open Gmail.
- Click the Compose button.
- In the To: text box, type the Google Contacts group name. It should appear once a match is found.
- Click the Group name and all the members will show individually in your To: field.
As you can see, the process is pretty straightforward. One item you may have to look out for is contacts with multiple email addresses. Gmail will use the first email address listed for the contact. You can see the order if you open the contact’s record.
You may also email the group from within Google contacts. You can either select contacts or use a label. Once selected, you should see an email icon on the top toolbar. When you click this, it will open a new email message window.
How to Create a Mailing List in Gmail (Video)
Click the image below to see a 2-minute video showing how to use your contacts to make an email list. These email groups make it much easier when sending correspondence to groups such as family, clubs, schools, etc. Instead of entering the actual email addresses, you use the label name.