How to Create an Excel Email List and Send Mass Emails

Source: Pixabay

Every email marketing campaign starts with a contact list. You need to collect crucial lead information and manage it properly. Microsoft Excel is one of the most effective solutions for creating extensive databases of lead data that can be interpreted by a wide range of marketing software easily.

You need to grow your Excel email list regularly. It can be converted into different file formats and used for sending mass emails via a vast assortment of email marketing clients and platforms. You can enrich it with plenty of valuable prospect information that you can use for segmentation and personalization purposes. This way, you can create highly targeted contact groups for your email marketing campaigns.

The question that many marketers are asking is — What is the best solution for sending mass emails to my contacts?

In this article, we’re going to help you learn how to format an email list in Excel properly and use it to create high-quality email campaigns. We’ll start with the most common solutions — Gmail and Outlook — and assess whether they are good enough for sending effective email blasts to your prospects.

Formatting Your Excel Email List

Before using an Excel list to send emails to your prospects, you need to format it properly. If you’re using an email lookup tool to collect the addresses, your lists will already be divided into specific columns. If you’re creating an Excel list manually, you need to paste the information into columns and set up the appropriate headlines recognized by different email tools. Sort your data according to:

• First name

• Last name

• Email address

You can include columns with other essential details that you can use to personalize your emails, such as industry, revenue, job title, company name, geographical location, etc.

When you’ve got an Excel spreadsheet of email contacts ready, you need to convert it into a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file. First, back up your Excel file for later use. Then, all you need to do is:

1. Go to File

2. Click on Save as

3. Choose CSV as the file type

4. Ignore the prompt warning you that some file features will be lost

Once you’ve exported your contact list into a CSV file, you can upload it to an email service client or email software solution of your choosing.

Importing Excel Email List to Outlook

Importing contacts into Outlook is a process that has slightly different steps depending on which version of the email client you’re using. Here’s how you can import contacts from a CSV file into the newest version of Outlook. You need to:

1. Click on File in the top-left corner

2. Go to Open & Export

3. Click on Import/Export to start the wizard

4. Pick Import from another program or file and click on Next

5. Choose the Comma Separated Values option and click on Next 

6. Use the Import a File screen to browse to your CSV file

7. Choose one of the options on how you want Outlook to treat duplicate contacts

8. Select the destination folder for your contacts on the following screen

9. Wait for Outlook to upload all your contacts

10. Click on the People section to see your contacts now that they’re in Outlook’s database

As far as duplicate contacts are concerned, you can allow them to be created, disallow any duplicate entries to be imported, or replace existing Outlook contacts with new ones.

Sending Mass Emails by Using the Outlook Mail Merge Feature

You can personalize and send mass emails with Outlook’s Mail Merge feature. Start by going to the People section and selecting the contacts you want to email. Once you’ve chosen your contact group, click on Mail Merge.

You’ll be presented with the Mail Merge Contacts screen, where you need to:

1. Pick the Only selected contacts option

2. Set the document type to Form Letters

3. Choose Email in the Merge to menu

4. Type in the appropriate subject line

5. Click on OK 

Keep in mind that Outlook will use the subject line for all the contacts you’ve previously selected.

Once you’re done with the Mail Merge Contacts screen, Microsoft Word will open automatically. This is where you need to compose the message for your email. You can insert personalization elements, such as:

• Greeting line — Customize the greeting line format and the line that’s going to be used for invalid name recipients

• Additional merge fields — Add any of the personal items you’ve included in your CSV file, such as job title, location, company, etc.

The greeting line will appear on top of the email body. Once you’ve composed the rest of the email, you need to:

1. Click on the Finish & Merge tab

2. Select Send Email Messages

This will open the Merge to Email screen. Click on OK to confirm, and you’re ready to send mass emails to all your selected contacts.

Importing Excel Email List to Gmail

Importing your contact list into Gmail is similar to how you do it in Outlook. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to Google Contacts

2. Click on Import in the left menu

3. Select a label you want the contacts to be added to or create a new one

4. Click on Select File

5. Browse to where your CSV file is located and select it

6. Click on Import

Google Contacts lets you take care of duplicate entries after you’ve imported them. Go to the Merge & fix menu on the left. Here you can choose to merge duplicates. You can also update your contact list with any additional information that Gmail finds by going to the Keep contacts up to date menu.

Sending Mass Emails Using Gmail

To send mass emails with your Gmail account, you need to:

1. Click on the Compose button

2. Click on the word To instead of inserting any email addresses

3. Choose whether you want to look through My Contacts, All Contacts, or specific Labels

4. Click on Select All to send your email to everyone in a particular category and uncheck any contacts you want to exclude

5. Click on Insert in the bottom-right corner of the menu

6. Compose your email and subject line

7. Click on Send

The Downside of Using Outlook and Gmail to Send Mass Emails

Even though Outlook and Gmail can be used to send emails in bulk, it doesn’t mean that they’re effective solutions for email marketing. One of the primary issues is the sending limit. Here’s an overview of how many emails you can send with the two email service providers:

These limits restrict your outreach significantly. You can’t send many emails to your contacts daily, and there are no analytics to help you assess the results. To top it off, the customization and personalization features are limited or non-existent. 

Gmail and Outlook aren’t designed for emailing thousands of contacts. They have a severely hindered outreach and don’t provide you with information on how to improve your email campaigns. You need to look for more comprehensive email marketing software solutions to make the most of your excel email lists.

We’ve reviewed a wide range of email marketing tools and selected the best solutions on the market to help you find the one that suits your marketing efforts.

Sell SaaS

Sell SaaS Homepage

Our Sell SaaS software bundle consists of a wide range of solutions. 

You can use our email campaign creator to craft personalized email campaigns in a simple online editor and send them to your contacts with no restrictions. Upload your Excel email lists in the form of CSV files to create targeted contact groups. 

The tool has an autoresponder feature, enabling you to set up drip and trigger campaigns. As opposed to common email service providers, our campaign creator also provides analytics, helping you determine the deliverability rate of every email that you send.

Sell SaaS Email Lookup Tools

Our autoresponder solution goes hand in hand with our collection of email lookup tools. You should check out:

Subscribe to any of our marketing tools’ monthly plans, and you’ll get unlimited access to all of their features.

Moosend

Moosend Homepage

Moosend is an email marketing platform that enables you to build contact lists, craft email campaigns, and automate a wide range of tasks. You can upload your Excel email lists as CSV files.

You can create top-notch emails in a simple drag-and-drop editor. Choose from one of the many templates and add elements such as:

• Text

• Images

• CTAs

• Social icons

You can also create landing pages and custom subscription forms to create a steady stream of new leads. 

Once you’ve designed your email campaign, you can use Moosend’s email marketing automation features to set up actions, triggers, and conditions. The platform enables you to set up sequences for different purposes, such as lead scoring, special offers, and onboarding sequences.

The analytics feature provides many valuable metrics, allowing you to track your lists, emails, and overall marketing efforts. 

If you sign up for the free plan, you can use most of Moosend’s crucial features. You can send an unlimited number of emails, but only to 1,000 monthly subscribers. Signing up for a paid plan enables you to expand your contact list. The pricing starts at $10 and goes up to $760 per month for 200,000 recipients. There is an option to contact the company and negotiate a custom plan that suits your business needs.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact Homepage

Constant Contact is a service for creating email marketing campaigns. It has over 100 responsive templates to choose from.

You can use Constant Contact’s simple and intuitive editor to craft high-quality emails and automate them as drip and event-based campaigns. Result tracking happens in real-time, providing you with crucial metrics such as:

• Open rate

• Share rate

• Click-through rate

You can upload contact lists in the form of Excel spreadsheets or by using any of the integrated platforms, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Salesforce. You can send an unlimited number of emails. For improved personalization, you can segment your lists into specific contact groups. The service’s email deliverability is over 90%.

Constant Contact also provides an event management feature. You have full control over event ticketing and registrations. You can set up registration forms to collect all the necessary attendee information.

The company offers a one-month free trial. If you want to keep using the service once the trial is over, you need to choose one of two paid plans. These are Email and Email Plus, costing $20 and $45 per month.

Sendinblue

Sendinblue Homepage

Sendinblue is an email marketing tool that enables you to create advanced workflows and provide your audience with a fantastic customer journey. You can set up both SMS and email messages as automatic responses to a wide range of user actions. 

Pick one of the many professionally designed templates and use the tool’s user-friendly editor to optimize them for your target audience. You can use the A/B testing feature to improve every email’s performance. Sendinblue also provides analytics for every campaign, including metrics such as:

• Open rate

• Click-through rate

• Deliverability rate

You can import contact lists from different sources — including Excel spreadsheets — segment them into highly targeted groups, and include plenty of personalization elements. 

The free version contains most of the essential features and enables you to send 300 emails per day. If you want to remove the daily sending limit and get additional features, you need to subscribe to one of the paid plans, ranging from $25 to $65.

SendX

SendX Homepage

SendX is an efficient and cost-effective email marketing tool. One of the primary reasons it stands out is that all of its paid plans are based on the number of subscribers you’ve got. There is no limit to how many emails you can send, no matter which plan you sign up for. 

You can use a pre-built template for your email campaign or create a unique design via the tool’s simple drag-and-drop editor. The heat map report feature enables you to assess the performance of different email elements.

The tool enables you to import contact lists and segment them based on more than 30 parameters, such as specific actions, demographics, and behavioral characteristics. You can also grow your list by creating pop-ups and subscription forms. 

SendX has an email marketing automation feature, allowing you to set up rule-based sequences. 

The pricing starts at $9.99 for up to 1,000 subscribers per month. You can get up to 15,000 subscribers for the monthly price of $79.99.

Why You Should Choose Our Software

Our Sell SaaS solution takes the first place not only because we provide a wide range of tools that can improve your email marketing efforts, but also because we offer white-label digital products. This means that you can both use and resell our software at a price of your choosing.

You can add your logo, colors, and company name, and use our products to create an additional stream of revenue. We don’t charge any additional fees. You only need to partner up with us and share a percentage of your profits. You get to earn between 60% and 80%, depending on how lucrative your business venture is.