How To Send Bulk Emails by Mail Merge

The mail merging process provides the email sender the opportunity of addressing customized messages to a huge group of recipients at the same time and eventually without any hint about the rest of the receivers. A well-designed email merge is a kind of miracle for the email marketing process. 

One of our previous blog posts, namely “What is Mail Merging?” we comprehensively mentioned the definition and benefits of using mail merging systems for better communication throughout the  email marketing strategies. As it is summarized, using mail merging saves great time and energy, enables sending unique messages to the masses, and at last but not least simplifies the proofreading process. Moreover, via Mailsoftly email merging process grants useful statistics for organizing the next step of email marketing plan. 

However, most of the email marketers or just simple newsletters senders may not know the details of that process, because mail merging techniques vary from medium to medium, such as Gmail, Outlook, Word or Excel. In this article, we aim to clarify the details of word mailing labels and creating labels from Excel issues which are fulfilling each other. 

Plus, a further option, Mailsoftly is also explained at the conclusion! 

In order to understand ‘how to mail merge’, let’s dive deeper! 

How To Do a Mail Merge via Word & Excel 

According to the legal articles published by microsoft.com, the mail merge feature in Microsoft Word software enables creating form letters by using data from a Microsoft Excel worksheet. In line with the statistics, this is the mostly searched methodology among email merge systems. A successful mail merge for word creates a “primary document with a list of receivers in order to generate a set of output documents”. The sender may either use the address list within the Excel document or Access database file. These are the steps for mail merge in Word: 

Before creating microsoft word mail merge you should ensure that mail merge labels at Excel worksheet are well-organized for a successful merge process. The defined rules are simple to implement actually: 

• Rows and columns should be organized neatly with the necessary data; the fields should be arranged according to the regarding information. For instance, the columns may contain  Title of the Person, Greetings, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Email Address1, Email Address 2 etc. 
• Every box in the worksheet should contain unique info. 
• Each row should give material for a precise item. For example, in a mailing list, each row may deal with a particular recipient.
• Finally there should not be any blank rows at the Excel table. 

Once you arrange the document with the proper instructions, the first step for mail merge labels from excel procedure is completed. 

As the second step, open the Word software for creating the body of the main email body and the rest of the merge in word process. 

For Office Word 2003 you should go ‘Tools’ section at Word and then choose “Mail Merge Wizard”. Besides, for Office Word 2007  click ‘Mailings’ section on “Start Mail Merge” and then click on “Step by Step by Mail Merge Wizard”. 

Then click on the “Select document type”, from the right menu columns and then click ‘Letters’ section. 

Now, the active document turns out to be the main document that will be used for mail merge. Then, click “Starting document” link as the next step. 

Word software serves more than one option for choosing a main document. You can either begin with the active document, or you can choose within templates or an existing document. If you are unsure about how to create a proper email body, you can start with a smart template of Word. 

For the templates please follow these steps:

• Click on Start from a template section; then choose “Select template.”
• On the Mail Merge tab, choose the template that you will use in the Select Template dialog box, and finally click OK.

Providing that  you have a ready mail body, you should apply the following steps:

Choose Start from existing document. Than from the Start from existing box, select the document which you will use, and then click Open. If you are unable to monitor the document, click More files, and then find the document and then click Open button. 

Congrats! Now you’re at the third for mailing labels from Excel : Select recipients. 

At this stage, you should identify Excel Data Source for mail merge Excel. Below you can check the process step by step: 

At Select recipients part, you should click “Use an existing list” After clicking browse button,  the Select Data Source dialog box will appear. You should locate the regarding document and then click the Excel worksheet which will be implemented. 

By default, MS Word opens the "My Data Sources" folder for the users. Just click open.

On the condition that the Excel worksheet provides information for multiple tabs, select the tab that contains the necessary info and finally click OK.

All existing and proper entries in the data source are going to appear in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog monitor. At that part, you can eliminate the recipients’ list that will be used in the merge process. Now you can proceed to the next step: Choose the list of receivers. 

The fourth step: Choosing the Recipients

You should choose the receivers of the mailing from the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box. 

MS Word software again provides several options for Merging the recipients. 

• First option: Utilize the check boxes to define recipients.

According to the MS sources, this technique is beneficial if the list of receivers is short. You can select and check boxes next to the receivers in line with the inputs and outputs. As a hint you can click the “Select All '' option then include or exclude the particular records according to the recipient list. 

• Second option: Sort items in the list.
  
  This technique can be used to list the items in alphabetical or numeric order. Check the column heading of the element in order to sort it. For instance, for displaying the list alphabetically by last name, click the Last Name column heading.
• Third option: Filter items in the list. This technique is beneficial if the list of receivers is clear enough to the mail sender. In other words, the filter option can be used if you are pretty sure to include or exclude the names in the merge. 

At filter stage, take the advantage of the boxes to include and exclude records, as we mentioned before. Check the following steps in order to filter the list:

• Tick the arrow next to the column heading of the element that you desire to filter by.
• Then, tick any of the subsequent options:
• (Blanks): This preference monitors all the records in which the similar blank fields.
• (Nonblanks): This preference monitors all the records in that the matching field consists of information. You can also filter the data source in line with the specific information the fields contain. 

For instance, if there are several addresses listing the USA as the country, these can be filtered by the USA as required.  On The Mail Merge Recipients dialog box you can monitor only the defined records. To monitor all the records again, click the ‘All’ option.  After choosing the proper option, Click the OK button to return to the Mail Merge Wizard. MS Word software is going to use the list of receivers that you specified for the mail merge procedure.  Lastly, click Next for writing your letter.

The fifth step: Finalize the Letter & Add Merge Fields

Complete main body text that will appear in the chief document.

Insert Merge Fields: Insert merge fields of names, addresses, and other information from the data source to the exact location. You can adopt the following steps with the aim of inserting the merge fields: 

Within the chief document, choose where you plan to insert the field.

Insert any of the regarding info: Address block with name, address, and other information:

Check Address block. Choose the address elements that will be included and the format, then click OK within the Insert Address Block dialog box.  MS Word software may be unable to find out a part of the required info for the address block providing that the Match Fields dialog box may appear.   

If such a situation happens, you should just  check out the arrow next to (not available), and then click the field from your data source which equals the area required for the mail merge process.

Greeting line:

• Click on the ‘Greeting line.’
• Choose the greeting line format including the salutation, name option and following punctuation.
• Click on the OK button. 

MS Word software may be unable to find out a part of the required info for the greeting line providing that the Match Fields dialog box may appear.   

For Other fields of information, just ‘Click More’ items button and choose one of the following techniques:

• Click Address Fields to select from address fields that will automatically map to matching fields in your data source. Or ‘Click Database Fields’ to select from fields that always take data directly from a column in a database. Then in the fields box, click the field you aim then Click Insert, and Close button..
• Providing that the ‘Match Fields’ dialog box appears, MS Word software may not be able to find some of the requiring info to insert into the field. Click the arrow next to (not available) expression, and select the field from your data source that matching to the field required for the mail merge.
  
  For instance, as a sample the first page should appear similar to the following:

February 26, 2002

Address Block

GreetingLine

Type your letter here.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Please note that MS Word also provides a Mail Merge toolbar to handle all of these processes such as inserting merge fields, working with mail-merge main documents, etc. You can find the regarding toolbar from Letters and Mailings on the Tools menu, and then just click on Show Mail Merge Toolbar.

Last Step : Save the Document

After completing the main document part and inserting all the merge fields, please make sure that the document is properly saved before proceeding. In order achieve this you can follow these steps: 

Preview the Letters and Fine-Tune the Recipient List

When you reach the "Step 5 Mail Merge '' task pane, the MS Word wizard replaces each of the merge fields in the main document that has the actual text from the first entry of the receivers list. By means of that, you can check how your first output document is going to seem. 

Finalizing the Merge Process :

In order to complete the merge process at Word program, you can use any of the related ways:

Personalize Individual Letters

In order to personalize individual items, you actually finalize the merge, and then edit the regarding info in the resulting merged document. To achieve this, you can follow these steps:

Click on the button Edit individual letters. Select the records that you plan to merge within the Merge to New Document dialog box, and finally Click OK. for the end.

By means of that MS Word software creates and opens a brand new merged document. Your essential document also remains open, and you can turn back to it providing that you want to change all the documents. Just scroll down to the information that you want to edit, and then create the necessary  changes. Just save the document or print it as a regular document.

Moreover, Word software enables the users to edit the merged letters or to save them for later use by means of collecting them into a single document as well. 

Conclusion 

The process of mail merge from MS Excel is a frequently preferred method for simplified email creation via word software. After completing all of these steps you can send your mail merged letters to the related recipients. Besides, you can easily merge via Mailsoftly as well. Mailsoftly provides effortless email marketing solutions including data merge, labeling, email lists and personalization of emails. For sending neat and clear personalized mails, create mailing labels from Excel and try Mailsoftly for tailored made email marketing solutions.