Sections
Every now and then you are required to send out bulk mail for advertising purposes or urgent notices to your clients.
We offer bulk mail accounts that you can use in conjunction with Thunderbird and its Mail Merge add-on.
Below is a comprehensive, step-by-step tutorial on how to send out bulk Emails that are individually addressed to the recipient.
DOWNLOAD THUNDERBIRD
1. Download Thunderbird from http://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ and install on your PC
View a video of the Thunderbird installation here
DOWNLOAD MAIL MERGE ADD-ON
2. Download the Mail Merge add-on for Thunderbird from http://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/mail-merge/
View the install of the add-on under INSTALL ADD-ON
Now that you have installed Thunderbird and downloaded the Mail Merge add-on, you are required to install the add-on, after setting up a new mail account
ADD NEW MAIL ACCOUNT
1. Click on ACCOUNT SETTINGS in the top right-hand corner
2. Select ADD MAIL ACCOUNT from the ACCOUNT ACTIONS menu
3. Complete the required fields for your POP account in the settings screen and click on ADVANCED CONFIG, then click OK
INSTALL ADD-ON
1. In the top right-hand corner select ADD-ONS
2. Click the GEAR ICON and select INSTALL ADD-ON FROM FILE… Once the file explorer box opens up, select the MAIL MERGE .xpi file and click OPEN
3. When presented with the pop-up screen, click ADD to install the MAIL MERGE add-on
4. You will receive a confirmation message that the Mail Merge has been added to Thunderbird. Click OK and ensure that the Mail Merge add-on is toggled to ON
Now that you have installed Thunderbird and added the Mail Merge add-on, you should create the .csv file containing all the contacts you would like to communicate with
CREATE CSV FILE
1. Open a new Excel spreadsheet
2. Enter the details, i.e. First name, Last name and Email address of the recipients starting in ROW 2
3. Once you have compiled your list, you are required to save the spreadsheet as a CSV file
4. Say YES to the pop-up notification
Now that you have created the Email list, it is time to upload this list in the Mail Merge add-on
ADJUST MAIL MERGE ADD-ON
1. Select WRITE to open a new Email and change the From field to the address you would like to send FROM
2. Complete the following fields using the columns from the CSV file in curly brackets for Email, First name and Last name as required and then select MAIL MERGE
To: Simply enter {{Email}} and then PRESS THE TAB BUTTON. The text will be displayed in red
Subject: Enter a relevant subject line that is related to the content of this Email
Body: Complete the content for the body and use {{Firstname}} to address the recipient
Alternatively you can add an attachment by clicking ATTACH
Please note:
If you have not pressed TAB after entering {{Email}} in the To field, the following error will display
3. Complete the Mail Merge settings as per below:
GENERAL
Source: CSV
Deliver mode: Preferably SEND LATER
Attachments: Optional
CSV
File: To be selected
Character set: UTF-8
Field delimiter: ,
Text delimiter: ”
BATCH
Pause: When selecting DELIVER MODE as SEND NOW, the recommend value should be 2 – 5 seconds, representing the time between sending each Email message
Start: The first row of the CSV file containing client data
Stop: Th last row of the CSV file containing client data
You can also PREVIEW the messages queued for sending to ensure that the details are correct
4. Open the CSV file by click BROWSE and selecting this file from your windows explorer
5. You are also able to PREVIEW the CSV file that you have just attached
6. Once you click OK, the Mail Merge add-on will run and merge the Emails to be sent in the OUTBOX under LOCAL FOLDERS
7. Once you click on the OUTBOX the messages will be listed. You can view any message by clicking on the message
When you are ready to send the messages, simply click SEND UNSENT MESSAGES
Tip: Always add a couple of your own Email addresses to the list to ensure that you are able to view the message and/or attachment once received
Congratulations! You have successfully sent a bulk mail using Thunderbird’s Mail Merge add-on.
Keywords:
Thunderbird and Mail Merge for bulk mail, bulk mail, bulk mail options, mail merge, sending bulk mail