How to mail merge from excel to Outlook?

Email is the most popular and preferred way of communication. whether an individual or a company whatever you are, you may need to send the same email to different many people. Mail merge is the quickest solution for this. You will be surprised to know that mail merge from excel to Outlook is at your fingertips. You can perform this task with a single click. In this article, I will guide you step by step on how to mail merge from Excel to Outlook.

What do you mean by mail merge?

A mail merge is an automatic process of adding names and addresses to letters and envelopes to facilitate sending email messages, especially advertising, to many addresses. In the case of sending emails to a large number of recipients, mail marge can be a powerful tool that saves time a lot.

For instance, if you are a digital marketer and want to perform a digital product promotion, mail merge can be a fantastic solution for your business. Use mail merge to send bulk email messages. It will save you time a lot and who does not know time is money nowadays.

Mail merge from excel to Outlook in easy three steps

To complete a mail merge, we need to follow steps like creating a document, an email database, linking your document, and sending an email.  The total work procedure is mainly three parts.

• The primary document will be prepared in Microsoft Office.
• The email database will be prepared in Microsoft Excel.
• Microsoft Word will send the email using Microsoft Outlook.

I have divided the total procedure into five steps for your better understanding. Please go through the instructions below.

Step One: Email Body Preparation

• Open Microsoft Word, Click Blank Document.

• Go to the Mailings tab, click and select Start Mail Merge.

• A drop-down menu will appear. Select E-mail Messages.

• Type the body of your email message in plain text format. Keep a placeholder for your personalized text, as I have made an example here below screenshot.

Step two: Prepare Mail Marge data in Microsoft Excel

Please open Microsoft Excel and open a blank workbook. Follow the below instructions as per your requirement.

• Add header data to personalized as per your requirement. I made my header below like Last Name, Last date of payment, email address, etc.

• Go to the File tab and select Save As to save this file in Excel Workbook format. Do not forget where you are saving this file.

Step three: Link the mailing list to the emails

I hope you already understand what is going on. You have created the email body in a Microsoft word file and consolidated your personalization data in Microsoft Excel worksheet. What now?

It’s time to link your email body and the Excel file to complete the mail merge. Keep following the instruction below.

• Open the Microsoft Word file that you prepared with the email body again.
• Go to the Mailings tab and select the Recipients button. A drop-down menu will appear; select Use an Existing List.

• Select your mail merge Excel file as the recipient’s list. Click OK to open the file.

• Another window will open with an excel file with the sheet name; click OK.

It is time to link the variables with the Excel column.

• Select Last Name and the Insert Merge Field option; From the drop-down menu, select Last_Name.

• Follow the same procedure Last Date Variable. Your email body in Microsoft Work will look like the below image.

Step Four: Preview and finish your mail merge

You will check the preview and complete your mail merge process during this step.

• Go to the Mailings tab, Select the Preview Results option. You will see like below screenshot.

Now check your email body. You will see the differences. “Last name” and “Last Date” variable data are changed with the first row of data in the excel file. You can check all 5 data by clicking the Next button. For detail, please see the screenshot below. Check all your data one by one.

• It is time to finish your mail merge. Click Finish & Merge option and select Send Email Message.

• A new pop-up box window will appear. Select Email_Address in the To field. Write your email subject in the Subject line. Click OK to send your email.

• Once you click OK, all your email has been sent through Microsoft Outlook. You will find them in the Outbox folder. Now we will check Outlook to confirm delivery.

Step Five: Check mail merge from Outlook

Open Microsoft Outlook installed on your computer. Go to Send / Receive tab and click Send All.

Now go to Sent Items. You will find all your emails there. Mail merge from excel to Outlook is all done here.

Mail merge using Outlook Contacts

Instead of an Excel sheet, you can mail merge from Outlook contacts. You do not need an excel database in this procedure. Follow the instruction below if you are interested to learn.

• Open Microsoft Word. open a blank document like before. Go to the Mailings tab, then click Start mail merge.
• Choose document types like Letters, E-mail Messages, Envelopes, Labels, and directories. You choose E-mail Messages from the options.
• Now go to Select Recipients and select Choose from Outlook Contacts.
• Select your Outlook contacts folder. Click Mail merge from excel to Outlook.
• From Mail Merge Recipients, select your desired contacts. Click OK.
• Select Variable and click Insert Merge Field to synch.
• Check with the Preview result.
• Write your subject line. Select Email address in the To field.
• Click Finish & Merge; your email will be sent.

Who needs the mail merge feature to use

Mail merge is a fantastic feature of the Microsoft Office package for those people, especially those who are doing email promotions. Other people who can use the mail merge feature of Microsoft are

• The employee is responsible for sending a notice to all employees.
• The person who is working with the CPA.
• The person who is a digital promoter.

Advantages of mail merge from excel to Outlook

The advantages of Mail Merge are already understood. Still, I want to point out those for your better understanding.

• Same letter to many people: The Mail Merge feature of Microsoft makes it simple to send the same letter to many people.
• No chance to type wrong info: If you use mail merge, you do not need to write your email address, name, and other info repeatedly.
• Time & money saving: It is time-saving, and who does not know “Time is Money”?
• Fastest Personalized email: All emails can be personalized very fast.
• Make you professional: Your email message will be more professional looking.
• Simplified mass communication: Mail merge is the simplest method of mass communication.
• Human Touch Feelings: The recipient can feel human touch as a salutation is on his name.

I hope everyone who reads this tutorial can understand, as I have explained mail merge from excel to Outlook with screenshots. Anyone who used to work with Microsoft Office package can understand. If you want to learn Microsoft Outlook, please keep an eye on our website www.outlookschool.com. Thank you.