If you are frequently required to send Email Messages to multiple recipients, you can make this task a lot more efficient and easy to accomplish by adding the recipients to a Contact Group (Also known as Mailing List or Label) in your Gmail Account.
Once a Contact Group is created in Gmail Account; it can be used to send email messages to all the Contacts at once by addressing the email messages to the Contact Group, instead of going through the time-consuming drill of manually searching and adding Contacts to Email messages.
Advantages of Creating Contact Groups in Gmail
In addition to simplifying the task of sending email messages to multiple recipients, creating Contact Groups or Mailing Lists in Gmail provides the following advantages.
- Improves Efficiency: Eliminates the tedious task of manually adding individual email addresses; every time you are required to send an email message.
- Reduces Errors: The task of manually searching and adding recipients is prone to human errors; induced by tiredness and the repetitive nature of the task.
- Integrates With Google Apps: Contact Groups created in a Gmail Account seamlessly integrate with Google Drive, Google Calendar & the Contacts App on Android phones.
- Customized Messaging: Contacts can be grouped by department, location, projects, client/customer type and other groups; which allows you to customize email messages to suit each of these individual groups.
Now that we have understood some of the advantages or benefits of creating Contact Groups; let us go ahead and take at the steps to create Contact Groups in Gmail, Add Contacts to Group and send Group Messages by addressing the Email Message to the Contact Group.
Related: How to Use Gmail With Microsoft Outlook.
1. Steps to Create Contact Group in Gmail
Follow the steps below to create a Contact Group in Gmail. This will be an empty Contact Group or Label to which you will be adding Contacts in the next step.
1. Login to your Gmail Account on a Windows computer or MacBook.
2. Once you are logged-in, click on the Apps icon (top-right corner) and select Contacts in the Apps menu.
3. On the Contacts screen, click on + Create Label option in the side-menu.
4. On the pop-up that appears, type a Name for the Contact Group and click on Save.
The above steps will create an Empty Contact Group or Label to which Contacts can added at any time.
2. Add Recipients to Contact Group
Once a Contact Group or Label is available in Gmail, you can Add Contacts to the Group by using these steps.
1. Login to your Gmail Account > click on Apps icon and select Contacts in the Apps menu.
2. On the Contacts screen, select the Contacts Tab in the left-pane. In the right-pane, select the Contacts that you want to Add to the Contact Group.
3. After selecting the Contacts, click on Labels icon (3), select your Contact Group (4) in the menu that appears and click on Apply (5).
The selected Contacts will be immediately added to the Contact Group.
3. Send Email Message to Contact Group
Now that you have a Contact Group with members in it, you can follow the steps below to send a Group Email to all the people in your Contact Group.
1. Login to your Gmail Account and click on Compose.
2. On the New Message screen, start typing the Name of your Contact Group in the “To” field and select it in the drop-down.
3. Write your Group Email Message and click on the Send button.
As you can see in above image, all the Group Members will be automatically added to the ‘T0’ field.
4. Add New Recipients to Contact Group
If the Contacts that you want to add to the Contact Group are not available in your Gmail Account, you can add them by using the follow the steps.
1. Login to your Gmail Account > click on Apps icon and select Contacts in the Apps menu.
2. On Contacts screen, select the Contact Group to which you want to add New Contacts and click on + Create Contact option.
3. In the menu that appears, select Create a Contact (If you want to add a single Contact) or select Create Multiple Contacts (if you want to add Multiple Contacts).
4. On the pop-up, enter Contact Name, Email Address and click on Create.
Note: Make sure you enter multiple Contacts in the same format as shown in above example.
All the New Contacts will be added to the Contact Group and they will also be added your Gmail Contacts. Later on you can access the Contacts individually and fill in other details as required.
5. Remove Recipients From Contact Group
At any time, you can remove any Contact or Contacts from the Contact Group by using these steps.
1. Login to your Gmail Account > click on Apps icon and select Contacts in the Apps menu.
2. On the Contacts screen, select your Contact Group in the left-pane. In the right-pane, select the Contacts that you want to remove > Click on 3-dots icon and select Remove from Label option in the drop-down menu.
This will remove the selected Contacts from the Contact Group, without removing them from the List of Contacts in your Gmail Account.
Note: You can select the Delete option, if you want to remove the Contacts; both from the Contact Group and also from the List of Contacts in your Gmail Account.
6. Delete Contact Groups in Gmail
In case you are no longer using a Contact Group, you can delete the Contact Group; without losing any of the Contacts.
1. Login to your Gmail Account > click on Apps icon and select Contacts in the Apps menu.
2. On the Contacts screen, select the Contact Group that you want to delete and click on the Trash Can icon.
3. On the pop-up, select Keep all contacts and delete this label option and click on Delete.
This will delete the Contact Group or Label from Gmail, without removing any of the Contacts from the Contacts List in your Gmail Account.
7. Rename Contact Group in Gmail
If required, you can rename the Contact Groups in Gmail by using these steps.
1. Login to your Gmail Account > click on Apps icon and select Contacts in the Apps menu.
2. On the Contacts Page, select the Contact Group that you want to rename and click on the Pencil icon.
3. On the pop-up, type the New Name for your Contact Group and click on Save.