How to Send Mass Personalized Emails: A Comprehensive Guide

There are many guides written on email marketing. You really want to enter the world of high ROI, but you keep finding different and often opposing information on mass email methods; personalization is one of them. How can I send mass personalized emails? You may wonder if it is even possible. 

The answer is — yes! With the right approach and tools, you can send mass personalized emails tailored to each of your audiences.

Together, let’s go through the different ways to personalize your mass emails, how to personalize them for various email clients, and email personalization best practices.

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What Does Personalizing Mass Emails Mean?

Personalizing mass emails is the process of customizing information for each audience, such as including their names and tailoring email content based on past actions and user preferences. Sending specific and customized information in your mass emails encourages customer engagement and results in more conversions. 

Most mass emails may sound generic and irrelevant to a large part of your audience. But you can personalize those emails to make them relevant for each of your audience, and we will show you how.

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2 Best Ways to Personalize Mass Emails

While the above methods are the safest to send mass emails, there are other ways to send them too. However, these methods are generic and not as private as the above. 

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Generic Ways to Send Mass Emails

The options below are generally not recommended because they can make you look unprofessional, which can decrease trust in your brand. So, use them only when necessary.

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Using BCC to Send Mass Emails 

BCC is a built-in feature that allows you to send mass emails by hiding the email addresses of all your recipients. This means you can send one email to all your recipients by adding them to BCC.

This feature is usually available on all email platforms, with limited capabilities — you can only add a certain number of contacts to an email.

BCC is not entirely a private method of sending emails. If your subscribers find out about this, they may lose trust in your business and opt out of your mailing list.

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Choosing a Random Email Service Provider

While ESPs assist you with sending mass emails, pay attention to the type of ESP you choose. A wrong choice can make your emails look impersonal and unprofessional. If an ESP isn’t reliable, emails might not land in your subscribers’ inboxes and end up in the dreaded spam folder. 

Such emails are mostly generic and have low open rates. If the ISPs sense that 

your emails are not important; they can send them to the spam or promotions tab, and your chance to reach your intended audience will grow slimmer. 

To escape this issue, send personalized mass emails from reputable email service providers with a proven track record. 

Besides the ESP, you will need another integrated solution to send personalized mass emails successfully. You will need Mail Merge.

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What is Mail Merge and How Does it Work?

Mail Merge is an automated method of adding names and addresses from a database designed to help you build personalized emails. In simple terms, you create an email template, and Mail Merge inserts the required personalized information from the data source. The generic information is put in braces and the placeholder names should match columns or groups in your database.

Mail Merge then uses the predefined variables you set for all the emails you send out. Also, this option is usually available on all email platforms as well.

Let’s look at how to use the Mail Merge feature on different email clients and platforms.

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Mass Email Merge on Outlook

You will need Outlook, Word, and Excel installed on your computer since they work simultaneously to use Mail Merge. 

Mail Merging on Outlook can be tedious and confusing. Whereas, the similar process in Gmail is a lot simpler. Let’s see how to send mass emails with Gmail.       

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Send Mass Emails With Gmail

You can also link contacts from Google spreadsheets using the MailMerge option. Note that any email address that contains special characters will be considered invalid. 

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Send Mass Emails Using Gmail Extensions 

If you are looking for more flexibility with your mass emails, a Gmail extension like GMass or Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM) work best. With these extensions, you can track results in real-time from your Google Sheets. 

While Outlook and Gmail are big names in the email marketing avenue, you can also send bulk messages from other email clients such as Thunderbird.

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Personalized Mass Email in Thunderbird

Enclose each variable with the double curly braces, for example, {{lastname}}. And make sure you enter the variables as they are in your CSV file. 

If you own accounts with a lesser-known email client, you can still send personal emails from them.

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Mass Personal Emails with eMClient  

eM Client allows you to create distribution lists in place of manually entering email addresses. You can then add variables from the pre-defined general or contact variables list. 

No matter which email client you choose to send mass emails from, knowing these common mistakes comes in handy.

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Common Personalization Mistakes

Personalization can be tricky if you are doing it without the help of email marketing software. Here are the common personalization mistakes and how to rectify them.

Mistake	Solution
Over-personalization	Avoid intrusive personalization and prioritize relevance.
Lack of viable data	Regularly clean and update your email lists.
Inconsistent brand messaging	Develop and stick to a brand style guide.
Ignoring cultural sensitivities	Research and consider cultural nuances in your messages.
Not knowing subscriber preferences	Provide a way for subscribers to customize their preferences.

These mistakes can occur frequently, and that’s why using email marketing software is a more practical approach. 

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Sending Mass Personalized Emails Using an Email Service Provider

If you tackle thousands of emails per day, an ESP is a better choice to handle your mass personalized emails. Choosing an ESP is challenging, and to help you narrow your options, we have a curated list for you.

ESP	Dynamic Content	Automatic list cleaning	Easy Automation	Unlimited contacts	Tag-based system
Brevo	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Mailgun	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Campaign Monitor	✅	❌	✅	❌	✅
MailChimp	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌
Campaign Refinery	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

Note that each ESP has different features and capabilities for each pricing tier. Look for relevant information and weigh the technicalities before making a decision. 

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More Reasons Why You Must Opt For a Dedicated Email Software Solution

Although email clients support mass personalized emails, they usually have a cap on the number of emails you can send per day. For example, with Gmail, you can only send mass emails to 500 contacts in 24 hours. Whereas, ESPs have no limitations on the number of contacts you can add to your emails.

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Why is Campaign Refinery the Best Choice for Personalized Mass Emails?

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Mass Personalized Emails Best Practices

Sending mass emails requires consistency and thoughtfulness with every subscriber you reach. Here are best practices to help you send highly targeted content to each of them:

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Know the Legal Side 

The CAN-SPAM Act establishes what you can send in your email marketing. If you are sending advertisements, you must state the purpose and provide an unsubscribe link. Ensure you obtain permission before you send out mass emails. 

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Segment Your Email List

Divide your email list into groups based on demographics, interests, and customer behavior. This segmentation strategy will help you create more targeted and personalized mass email messages. 

However, ensure to position your customers based on their place in the email sales funnel. This will help you create tailored content for each audience segment. For example, TOFU (Top of the funnel) customers require detailed product explanations compared to BOFU (Bottom of the funnel) customers.

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Utilize Merge Tags

Most email clients allow you to insert merge tags in your emails. Merge tags act as placeholders until the recipient’s information is filled in. Common tags include the recipient’s name, company, or location. 

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Have a Compelling Design 

Use visuals and unique color schemes to elevate your customers’ interest. You can also create specific email templates for mass email campaigns. 

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Optimize Email Content 

Mass emails are a great opportunity to utilize email headers, persuasive subject lines, and preview text. Optimizing your content increases the chances of people opening and interacting with your emails.

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Understand the Goal of Your Email Campaign

Develop a reason to engage with customers — it can be to increase your brand revenue, get more subscribers, or drive more conversions on your website. Knowing your campaign goals makes it easier to craft relevant and personalized content for your audience.

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Provide Value 

A big part of mass emailing is having a purpose and providing value to your recipients. There is a reason why your subscribers opted-in to receive your emails. Send them useful content with a take-away message.

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Have a Clear and Compelling Call-to-action Button

Your CTA is the final step to persuade your subscriber to take action. For example, if you say ‘sign-up to learn more,’ your email body copy and visuals must play together to convince your customers to click on the button and sign up. 

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Check Data Accuracy

Incorrect or outdated data results in lesser personalization and ultimately a negative user experience.

Regularly clean and update your contact list to stay safe from spam complaints, especially with mass emailing. 

You can manually maintain your lists or use Campaign Refinery’s automatic email list-cleaning feature. The tool removes harmful and inactive email addresses from your list before you send the emails. 

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Send Your Mass Emails at the Right Time

The time you send your emails determines the effectiveness of your mass email campaigns. Experts believe the best time to send bulk emails is between 10 am and 4 pm. This is because employees are actively checking emails in the mornings and before they leave their offices.

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Monitor and Analyze Performance

Tracking email metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions will help you improve your personalization strategy over time.

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Ensure Your ESP Can Handle Your Email Volume 

If you work with an ESP and have a large email list, ensure your ESP can handle a high volume of emails.

Most ESPs require account upgrading to add extra contacts or send more emails. 

That’s why it’s critical to choose an ESP that can handle mass emails for a single monthly price.

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Send Personal Mass Emails With Campaign Refinery 

While mass email personalization can enhance engagement and conversion rates, it comes with a set of challenges — segmentation difficulties and low deliverability rates. Even a well-known ESP can backslide on good sending practices from time to time.