If you manage a team, you’ll probably want to send emails to the whole group because mentioning each team member in the To section of the email is tedious. You can simplify this process by creating a group email that all the members of the group can receive. 

A group email is creating a contact list to which you want to send emails. When you send a message through an email group, all the group contacts with that email label will receive the same email. 

Most businesses prefer to use Gmail, and hence, let's understand how one can create a group email on that platform. Creating a Gmail group email is one of the easiest and quickest ways to send emails in bulk. For this, you only need to set up your email account on Gmail and add your contact list to it. In this article, we will guide you through the step-by-step process of how to create a group email in Gmail, its importance, challenges, and reliable alternatives. Keep reading to learn more about this time-saving feature.

What is a Gmail Group Email?

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A Gmail group email is a way to streamline communication with a specific group of people. It works by creating a label or email address that represents the entire group. Instead of adding individual contacts every time, you send an email to the group address, and everyone on the list receives it. 

Think of it like a digital mailing list. You create a label (e.g., “Marketing Team”) and add all your marketing team members’ email addresses to it. Now, whenever you need to send a message to the entire team, you type “Marketing Team” in the “To” field and hit Send.

Let’s understand it better with an example: Picture this: You’re managing a project team across different departments. You can create a group with a collective name like projectalpha@company.com. Add all team members from engineering, design, and marketing to the group. When you need to share project updates, compose a new message, add this collective name to the recipient box, and hit send. Every team member, regardless of their department, will receive the message simultaneously.

How to Create a Group Email in Gmail: Step-by-Step Process

There are two ways to create an email group in Gmail: Using Google Contacts and Using Google Groups. Although both of them are effective, you can choose any of them as per your preference. Below, we have mentioned the step-by-step process for both ways:

Way 1: How to Create Gmail Group Email Using Google Contacts

Step 1: Select Google Contacts

First, you will have to create a Gmail account if you don't have one. You can create a custom email address with your desired domain name from Google Workspace; otherwise, you can proceed with Gmail to create an account with a generic email address. 

Once your Gmail account is created, tap on the Google Apps icon (on the left side of the profile icon), then scroll down to select Contacts.

Step 2: Check Out the Contacts

Look through your contact list and tick the contacts you want to add to your Gmail group email.

Step 3: Create a New Label for Your Gmail Group

After selecting people, hit the label icon and then click on “Create Label.” A new window will pop up with a New Label text entry field where you can enter a relevant Gmail group name, like “Marketing Team.”

Step 4: Your Chosen Contacts Will be added to the New Label

In this step, your selected contacts will be added to your newly created label. Here, your email group is effectively created.

Step 5: Send an Email to the Newly Created Gmail Group

Compose an email in Gmail, and enter your label name (e.g., “Marketing Team”) in the “To” field. Gmail will auto-populate the field with all email addresses in the label group. Click “Send” to send the message to everyone in the group. 

Alternate Method: 

There is also an alternate method, and this method can be used if you do not have the exact list of how many or which contacts to add. 

Step 1. Go to Contacts and click on the Main Menu option. 

Step 2. Scroll down to find the Label section, and click on the + option. 

Step 3. A new window will pop up where you can enter the group's name, such as Ops Team. 

Step 4. Your newly created label will be visible under the label section. 

Step 5. Go to the Contacts, and select the contacts you want to add to the group. 

Step 6. Click on the Manage Label icon and select the newly created label to add the selected contacts 

Now, you can go back to Gmail and compose an email. In the To section, find the label you want to send your email to and select it. You can even keep this label in the CC and BCC sections. You can continue with writing your professional email and click on the send button. 

If you desire to give your email a more professional look, you can add a signature to it. Compose your signature with your name, title, company, and contact using any email signature generators. Choose where you want your signature to appear (all messages, new messages, or specific labels).

Way 2: How to Create Gmail Group Email Using Google Groups

Step 1: Go to the Google Groups

Open Gmail and access the Google Group from the Google Apps icon. If you cannot find Google Groups in your Google Apps list, then you can directly open Google Groups.

Step 2: Hit the “Create Group” Button

Click on the main menu option, and click on the “Create Group” option. 

Step 3: Set Up Your Gmail Group Details

Once you hit the “Create Group” option, a pop-up screen will appear. There you need to fill in your group’s name, email address, and a short description. Click on the Next button in the upper right corner. 

Step 4: Configure Privacy Settings

Confirm who can access, join, or post in your Gmail group email. You can keep it open for all or allow limited access, it’s up to you.

Step 5: Add Members to Your Gamil Group

Enter the email addresses you want to add to your Gamil group and send invites. You will manually type their names or email addresses. A list of people will come up and click on the desired contact that you want to invite to the Gmail group. 

You can even write an invitation message to make it feel more personalized. 

Step 6: Use Gmail Group Email for Efficient Communication

Once you set up your group email in Gmail, you can send and receive emails to group members. It’s like a collaborative inbox, where every member gets messages in their Gmail.

If you are interested in adding a group as an email, then this Google guide will help you. 

How to Send Group Email in Gmail? 

Follow these easy steps to send emails to a newly created group:

Step 1: Open Gmail

Log in to your Gmail account from any device.

Step 2: Tap on the “Compose” option

Click on the “Compose” option at the top left of your screen to create a new email.

Step 3: Enter the Gamil Group Name

Start typing the group name you want to add in the “To,” “CC,” or “BCC” field. Gmail will suggest matching group names as you type. Select the desired group name you want to send messages.

Step 4: Send Email

Once you’ve added your groups, compose your message and now send it to all recipients by hitting the “Send” button. And that’s it. You’re done. Your entire team will get the same email. {Tip:  If you want, you can add more groups by repeating steps (1-3).}

Major Concerns While Using Gmail Group Email

Here are the most notable concerns that cause trouble while using group email in Gmail:

1. Manual Process

While you can send group emails in Gmail in just a few clicks, setting up a bulk email group is still overwhelming and time-consuming. You need to manually identify and select group people in your Gmail contact list. This manual approach may result in overlooking an important email ID or mistakenly adding an irrelevant email address as a group member.

2. Follow-Ups Are Difficult

Let’s say you’re organizing a tech conference, and you have sent an RSVP email to 50 potential speakers. After a week, several speakers haven’t responded to your invitation. What do you do now? Naturally, you’d want to send a follow-up email to those who haven’t replied. However, since you initially send it to a group, you can’t simply hit the “Reply” button to remind specific speakers. Doing so would send the follow-up to everyone – including those who’ve already confirmed their participation.

This means you’ll need to craft individual follow-up emails for each unresponsive speaker manually. This approach might not be appropriate when you need to send dozens of follow-ups.

3. Lack of Personalization

Gmail doesn’t allow you to automatically include personalization variables like contact information and the name of the person or their company in your group emails. You’re restricted to sending a one-size-fits-all message to all group members.

This means you can’t tailor your group communication a person-by-person expertise and requirements. Every recipient receives the same generic messages that might not address their specific presentation needs or scheduling preferences. This may ruin your chances to make a connection or your email might end up in their spam folder.

4. Professional Image and Brand Identity

Using a generic @gmail.com email address for business communication can undermine a company’s professional image. However, a custom domain email address strengthens your brand recognition and enhances email credibility with recipients. While Gmail does offer custom domain options through its business plans through Google Workspace, these features require additional charges. 

Neo: A Suitable Gmail Alternative For Small Businesses

You might be interested in creating an email address with a custom email domain name for your company, like yourname@projectalpha.com. Registering an email domain name with Gmail/Google Workspace can be expensive, especially for small businesses and professionals. 

Choosing the right email service provider requires considering a range of services and prices. It is a common misconception that the most widely used option is necessarily the optimal choice. However, popular group email services on Gmail don't mean they're the best for every business. 

When it comes to getting the necessary features for email marketing within your budget, Neo is a specialized email marketing platform that offers a robust alternative to Gmail’s group email functionality. 

It flaunts scalable infrastructure dealing from small groups to large-scale email campaigns. The platform has an intuitive interface with powerful tools such as read receipts, support for custom domains, and comprehensive analytics about recipient engagement. Neo excels with advanced automation capabilities (Smart Write and AI-powered one-page website builder), email campaigns, and improved deliverability rates with insights (Read Receipts), all while maintaining GDPR compliance standards. 

This makes it highly suitable for businesses that want to take their email marketing beyond Gmail’s basic group email features.

Key Features

The following are the key features that stand out Neo over Gmail for mass emailing:

• Neo offers a custom domain for your email address that will help boost your brand’s professionalism and recognition. It provides a .co.site email extension complimentary on all email plans, and you can register your email domain, like projectalpha.co.site, for free. 
• Unlike Gmail, which is optimized only for plain-text emails, Neo offers several email templates, which makes it easier for employees to craft emails and email copy for marketing campaigns.
• Neo offers AI email writing to create engaging and professional emails that help your brand grab more attention from your intended audience. Moreover, it also encompasses an advanced tracking system to ensure email deliverability, whether your messages reach the right inbox or end up in the spam folder.
• Neo offers the deployment of a one-page website using the newly created Neo email address. It supports an AI-powered website builder with a drag-and-drop interface to simplify the development process. 

How to Create a New Contact Group in Neo?

Here’s how you can create a new contact group for your employees or team: 

Step 1. Create your email account with Neo by choosing a suitable plan, and click on the Compose icon after you open the webmail. 

Step 2. On the Compose screen, you will find several options below Subject. Click on Contact Groups. 

Step 3. Click on the Create a New Contact Group option. 

Step 4. A new screen will pop up where you can enter your desired name for the group and add contacts as well. This will done manually, just like in the Gmail Group creation process. Click on the Create option once you are done adding the recipients. 

Step 5. Your group will be created. Then, click on the tickbox (on the left-hand side of the group name) to proceed with email composition. 

How to Send Bulk Emails Using Neo? 

Here’s how you can send bulk email using Neo for your email campaigns: 

Step 1: Getting Started with Neo

Begin by accessing your Neo account through the login portal. For first-time users, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the intuitive dashboard layout, which has been thoughtfully designed for maximum efficiency.

Step 2: Email Creation Process

• Navigate to the “Compose” button visible on your dashboard. (Pro tip: Use the keyboard shortcut ‘C’ for quick access).
• To enable bulk sending capabilities, locate and click the “Campaigns” button next to the “Send” option within the Compose window. This activation transforms your registered email interface into campaign mode and configures your email for bulk sending.
• Next, proceed to add your recipient list or contact groups and craft a catchy subject line. Either use HTML templates or select from their professionally pre-designed Neo’s template library for your content.

Step 3: Final Configuration and Sending

Once you’re satisfied with your email campaign, click the “Send” button. To save the campaign as a template for future use, select “Save this campaign in templates for future use”—these can be accessed later in the “My Templates” section. 

For campaign tracking, check the “Sent Folder”, where your bulk email will be marked with “This thread was sent through the Email Campaigns.” You can also monitor your emails using Neo’s “Read Receipts” to gather valuable insights on engagement.

Wrapping Up

Knowing how to create a Gmail group email can save you time and effort. If you want to send email to a large group, group email in Gmail can be your lifesaver, as you don’t need to enter email IDs manually. Two main approaches to creating a group email in Gmail are using ‘Google Contacts and Google Groups.’ With a label group on Gmail, you can ensure prompt and efficient communication.

Besides that, in case you missed a few people from your email contact list when sending in bulk, you can easily edit it by removing or adding a particular mail before sending it. However, if you are looking for a Gmail group email alternative, consider Neo’s email bulk service. With this, you can effortlessly send emails to multiple accounts, track them with an advanced system, and receive read recipients to check whether your mail is yet open or not.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is there a limit to how many members I can add to a Gmail group?

Gmail’s group size limits depend on your account type. Free accounts have lower limits compared to Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) accounts, which can accommodate larger groups for business needs. 

2. How can one ensure that everyone has read the email?

Basic Gmail doesn’t provide comprehensive tracking, but you can request read receipts. However, for detailed analytics like open rates and click-through rates, you might need to consider alternative email marketing platforms like Neo.

3. Can I add or remove members from an existing Gmail group?

Yes, you can modify group membership at any time. Access your Google Contacts or Google Groups, select the relevant group, and add or remove members as needed.