If you still perform mail merges for letters sent by mail, we recommend sending mass email instead! That’s right! You can use mail merge in Microsoft Word to create a mass email using an MS Excel spreadsheet with mail merge fields and email addresses! This allows you to send mass emails without using a mail manager like Constant Contact.
Examples:
- Account Credit Reminders: Do you have customers enrolled in your points program that aren't aware they have a credit balance? You could use the Account Credit Liability Report exported to excel with a mail merge!
- Order Queues: Do you have an order queue setup for orders completed by mobile? Do you want to mass email your maintenance clients once a day for jobs completed? You could use a mail merge to send out emails to any customers listed in an order queue.
Mail Merge:
- Create and Save the Excel File
a. Run the Customer Account Credit Liability report under Administration > Reports > Accounting > Accounts Receivable
b. Filter the report on the Points Reward Credit Memo Reason
c. Choose the Excel Output Option
d. Save the MS Excel File
The MS Excel file should include the customer’s email address and any mail merge fields. In this example, we used Points Reward Account Credit, and our Points Program is set up to use a specific credit memo reason that is only used for Points Awards. Perform the following step at regular intervals. For example, weekly, or monthly.
- Use Microsoft Word to Create a Mail Merge Mass Email
Here is a link to the Microsoft instructions, or you can refer to the summary of the steps below.
a. Open a Word document on the same machine that you have Outlook installed.
b. On the Mailings tab, click Start Mail Merge > Email Messages.
c. Type the email you wish to send not including any mail merge fields.
d. Choose Select Recipients > Use Existing List.
e. Browse to the Account Credit Liability Excel File you created.
f. Select the Customer Credit Liability worksheet when prompted.
g. Go through your email and insert any mail merge fields. Simply place your cursor where the mail merge field should go > Choose Insert Merge Field > Then select the correct field. For example, if you want to drop in the credit balance, credit id, etc.
h. Once your email is all set up, click Preview Results to make sure it's correct.
i. To send, click Finish & Merge > Send Emails
j. It should automatically find the email column from the spreadsheet, so just enter the appropriate "Subject" and send.
