Business Tools Blog

This is the first “how to” that I shared with Fritz Hendricks, President of Onvoy Voice Services.  He remided me that this tool would be good to share with others.

WARNING LABEL - I am a big fan of Permission Marketing, not SPAM. Email merge should only be used when the person you are sending it to has volunteered to learn more about your company.

I often use mail merge when communicating information that is different for each individual, group or department.  Microsoft has a wizard that guides you through the simple process.  The following will walk through  step by step instructions for email merge using Excel, Word and Outlook.

Create your contact list in Excel

• In this example, I included First Name, Last Name, Company, Last time we spoke, and email address.
• Save the excel file to your computer or network

Next, In Microsoft Word select Mail Merge

1. Select Tools on the Menu bar
2. Select Letters and Mailings
3. Select Mail Merge

Step 1 of 6 - Select document type

• Choose - E-mail messages

Step 2 of 6 - Select starting document

• Choose - Use the current document

Step 3 of 6 - Select recipients

• Choose - Use an existing list

Select the excel file that you created in the first step.

Select the table

1. Sheet 1
2. First row of data contains column headers

Choose Mail Merge Recipients

• You can choose all recipients in your table, or
• You can select certain recipients by clicking the checkbox next to each name

After you select your list, click next.

Step 4 of 6 - Write your email message

• Choose “More items.”  This will bring up the “Insert Merge Field” menu

Start by inserting the First Name

Write the rest of your message and insert the custom fields where appropriate.

Step 5 of 6 - Preview your e-mail messages

• You can click through the recipients using the “>>” keys
• Then click Next

Step 6 of 6 - Complete the merge

• Click Electronic Mail

Merge to E-mail

• Add the Subject Line
• Click “OK”

Your emails can now be found in your Sent Items in Microsoft Outlook.

If you need more information CRM reports and The UsefulTechnology Blog also provide step by step instructions.