If you work with email all day, you know how difficult it is to send an email to multiple recipients.
sending each email one by one is time consuming and marking them all in the same email (where the recipient can see others in the list) looks unprofessional. And if you’re not careful with your approach, your email could end up in spam.
If you’re looking for the best way to send an email to multiple recipients without going through the difficulties I just mentioned, this blog is for you.
In this blog, I have covered two methods that give you a quick step-by-step guide on how to send emails to multiple recipients.
These are the two popular ways to send an email to multiple recipients.
- mail merge method – custom method
- bcc method – native method
1. mail merge method
mail merge in simple words means adding personalization. for example, {{first name}}, {{last name}}, {{company name}} and more. With the mail merge feature, you can customize the email you want to send to multiple recipients.
The biggest advantage of using the mail merge method is that it offers a good open and click rate. According to one study, personalized emails had a 29% higher unique open rate and a 41% higher unique click rate.
It’s easy to say that the mail merge method makes your email outreach effective and results-oriented.
This was the theoretical part of the mail merge. Now let’s move on to the practical part of how to send an email to send it to multiple recipients using mail merge.
We will use saleshandy to create a custom mail merge campaign (sequence).
saleshandy is a cold email outreach tool that allows you to send personalized emails with follow-ups (steps). Using saleshandy, you can set up 49 follow-ups (steps) in your email campaign (sequence).
Without further ado, we’ll show you how to send emails to multiple recipients in gmail using mail merge.
how to use saleshandy’s mail merge feature
Below are the 4 easy steps to use mail merge with saleshandy.
Step 1 – Sign up for saleshandyStep 2 – Create a new sequenceStep 3 – Send a test emailStep 4 – Send or schedule your email
step 1: sign up for saleshandy
sign up for saleshandy and create an account using your gmail account. you can register for free here.
Step 2: Create a new sequence
Once you have registered, you will land on the saleshandy control panel. click on “sequences” and go to “create sequence” to get started.
- Compose your email- Start composing the message you want to deliver to your recipients. Don’t forget to personalize your subject line and email body with mail merges tags. After you’re done, hit save.Saleshandy offers an auto content guide that checks and provides suggestions that might be missing in your email body copy.
- Upload a CSV- Create a CSV file and upload CSV in the “Add Prospect”. If you want you can add manually as well. Saleshandy verifies and cleans the email list to ensure a lower bounce rate.
Step 3: Send a test email
After writing the perfect email and setting up the sequence in the sales playbook, it’s time to send a quick test email to check for fixes.
The email id you mention in the test email must be on the email list you uploaded.
Step 4: Send or schedule the email
It’s time to send your email. all you need to do is activate your sequence and saleshandy will start sending your emails according to the schedule you have set. click the pause button of your sequence to activate.
For maintaining a good sender reputation score and better email deliverability, we keep a time interval between two consecutive emails of a few seconds/minutes. It will make your ESP believe it is a human-like sending.
by following the steps mentioned above, you can successfully send an email to multiple email addresses in gmail.
video guide to email multiple people at once
We’re done with the “how to” part. let’s move on to learn how the mail merge function helps overcome the flaws of the bcc method.
benefits of using saleshandy to send emails to multiple recipients
- personalized emails: With the mail merge feature, you can personalize each and every email. sending a personalized email increases the rate of opening, reading and response of the email. It will definitely improve the performance of your email broadcast.
- automated follow-ups (steps): When you send emails, there are some goals; it’s not just: send it and forget it. Being consistent with communication has always closed more deals. sending a custom follow up (step) will increase the response rate and also help you pursue interested prospects.
- Sequence Analysis: Saleshandy offers a perspective you don’t want to miss. a report on the performance of your email. the report shows the number of emails opened, the number of emails bounced, the number of emails canceled, & plus. this allows you to closely examine the performance of each stream.
- privacy: this tool covers the loopholes of the bcc function. protects information from multiple recipients and sends your message strong.
2. the bcc method
The bcc (blind copy) method is the most common method of sending emails to multiple recipients at the same time. Sending emails to multiple bcc recipients hides other recipients from the recipient, making it appear that he or she is the only recipient of the email.
The only plus point of the method is that it is easy to understand and simple to operate.
we are going to show you how to send emails to multiple recipients in gmail and outlook using their bcc function.
how to use bcc method for gmail
Below are the 5 easy steps to use the bcc method in gmail.
step 1: open your gmail accountstep 2: click the compose boxstep 3: click bccstep 4: fill in the bcc fieldstep 5: press submit
step 1: open your gmail account.
Step 2: Click the compose box to type the email you’d like to send to multiple recipients from your gmail.
Step 3: After writing the email, click the bcc option in addition to the cc option.
Step 4: Now fill the BCC fields, type in the email addresses of the people you want to email, or select one of the Gmail groups.
Pro tip- Keep at least one person in the “To” field. And it is advisable not to use this method for over 10 recipients.
Step 5: After adding the recipients, press the send button.
As we mentioned in the introduction part, this is not the most efficient way to send emails to multiple recipients in gmail. so let’s talk about the limitations of using bcc (blind copy) in gmail to send to multiple recipients.
For example, sending an email to multiple recipients using the bcc method makes the bulk email behavior obvious to the recipient, since the “to” field and the body of the email are not personalized, which makes it look unprofessional.
how to use bcc method for outlook
We have covered almost everything about how to send emails to multiple recipients from gmail, but we know that the same question about outlook is just around the corner. this is how you can use bcc method for outlook.
Below are the 3 easy steps to use bcc method in outlook.
step 1: login to outlook & open a new messagestep 2: add recipients in ccostep 3: press send
step 1: open your outlook account and click new message
step 2: click cc and cc to add recipients
Step 3: Add the main email in the To selection and the rest in the Bcc. You can leave the Cc empty. And hit send when you’re done.
Limitations of the BCC method
- recipients in the bcc field will see that they were added to the bcc field, which makes it unprofessional. this bcc function only works for informal emails.
- if a recipient, instead of selecting “reply”, selects “reply all”, then all recipients will receive the reply.
- one of the main limitations of the bcc function is the lack of customization. the bcc method is a great no-go for sending pitches and marketing emails. Why Personalization Is A Must When Presenting Your Future Prospect? find out here!
- adding too many recipients in the bcc field can alert gmail to spam activity and your gmail account could end up locked.
conclusion
While sending your email to multiple recipients, you want to make sure your email is personalized, reaches the main inbox, and hides other email addresses.
If you go the traditional way (bogeyman and cc), you won’t get the most out of your email efforts. so choose the smartest way to send an email to multiple recipients.
frequently asked questions
1. how do i send an email to multiple recipients in gmail?
step 1: open your gmail accountstep 2: click the compose boxstep 3: click bccstep 4: fill in the bcc fieldstep 5: press submit
2. How do I send an email to a group without displaying all email addresses?
The bcc (blind copy) method is the most common approach to send emails to multiple recipients without displaying all email addresses. sending emails to multiple recipients with bcc hides other recipients from the recipient, making it appear that he or she is the only recipient of the email.
3. Is there a way to send a mass email individually in gmail?
You can send a mass email to more than one recipient using the bcc function. click the compose box, after composing your message click bcc and add all your recipients. this will send the emails to the recipients keeping the email addresses hidden from each other.