Google has all kinds of free tools for publishers to use to speed up processes without buying additional subscriptions.

One is a simple gmail merge with Google sheets.

If you use a Google for a business account, you may also use Google Sheets for a variety of purposes:

-Track attendees of webinars or other events. We track everyone “interested in AI” from their Zoom sign-up reports.

-Track people you met at a conference and what you discussed. I keep notes on their business card and then enter them into a spreadsheet.

-Track people who filled out a quiz or survey.

So here’s the catch: sometimes you may want to send, say, 100 emails and personalize some to reference their interest or your relationship.

Or, say, you want to update a survey in 2025, but keep the information they entered before to make it easier for them. A piece of code in Google will generate unique URLs, but how do you personalize each email with a unique URL?

Here’s how: First go to the Google sheet you want to use.  If you want to personalize, say, the first line, just write a short personal reference in the column by their name, and title it “First Line.”

Then click on  Extensions in the Sheet’s navigation bar. Click on Add Ons. It will ask you to “Get add-ons” or “Manage add-ons.”

Select “Get Add-ons” and type YAMM into the search bar.

You’ll see something like this:

Select the read  “Mail merge”  with YAMM on it, and install the application.

To merge a letter with your data, first prepare Google sheets:

•Make sure the columns you want to use have titles.

•Email needs to be the first column.

Then create a draft of the email that you want to send. Use {{First Name}} where you want the first name to go. YAMM is case sensitive and the titles have to be EXACTLY the same as the column titles you are using.

You can put the {{First name}} in the subject line, too, as in {{First Name}}, Thanks for participating in the round table!

Any other information, such as a unique personalized first line,  Nice to see you last week. Sounds like things are going really well. can also be merged For example, if the header is First Line :

Hey {{First Name}}, 

{{First Line}}

I would like to invite you to take a survey, three minutes tops, so we can compare notes on pricing.

Just click {{Personalized URL}} to start. 

Thanks in advance! 

Alisa

Then click on extensions again and select YAMM. It should be at the bottom. Send a test email to see if you did everything right, then you can send the merged list.

Happy testing!