How To Send A Newsletter With Gmail Effectively

Marketers send email newsletters to build relationships with their subscribers. They share the latest business trends and updates of products and services for continuous nurturing. 31% of B2B marketers find email newsletters to be their best lead nurturing strategy.

There are tons of tools available for sending email newsletters, but it’s either costly or inefficient. Small and medium scale businesses cannot afford these tools, thus they prefer Gmail. 

So do you want to learn how to send a newsletter with Gmail?

If yes, look no further. In this article, we will share two different ways of sending a newsletter with Gmail. One is the traditional method, and the other is the professional method.  Let’s get started!

Index

1. Send a newsletter with Gmail in the traditional method
2. Drawbacks of the traditional method
3. Send a newsletter with Gmail in the professional method
4. Benefits of using a professional method

How to send a newsletter with Gmail in the traditional method?

The traditional method for sending newsletters in Gmail doesn’t require any software or addons. We can start it in a few simple steps.

1. Add your subscribers’ email addresses to the BCC section of your compose box. Adding it in TO or CC will add an adverse impact to your subscribers’ privacy. 
2. Write down a catchy and impactful subject line.
3. In the email body section, draft your newsletter content and add relevant links. You cannot make a newsletter beautiful in Gmail as it doesn’t support HTML graphics. But you can add images and apply simple formatting to make it look good. You can also draft your newsletter content in an editor like Google Doc or Microsoft Word and add it in the compose box to give a beautified look.

4. Click on the Send button to send your newsletters instantly or choose the Schedule send button to schedule it according to your convenience.

Your newsletters from Gmail will be sent as scheduled. The steps are simple and easy to send, but many drawbacks in it. Its demerits are serious enough to damage your brand reputation and authority. 

Let’s have a quick look at all the problems related to sending newsletters with Gmail. 

Drawbacks of the traditional method

The drawbacks of the traditional method add negative impacts on your email account, brand reputation, and subscriber’s trust directly. Let’s check them one by one.

1. Newsletters are not personalized

While sending your newsletters in the traditional method, those are sent to all your subscribers at once. It is not personalized for an individual.

Lack of personalization makes your subscriber feel like another promotional email, and they do not show any interest in it. Ultimately, this impacts your nurturing process and keeps you away from your goal.

Alternatively, if you can add some personalization like the subscriber’s name with the greeting, it adds considerable value to your newsletter and improves your nurturing process.

2. Unable to add HTML elements

With a focus on creating a better user experience across the brand, an HTML newsletter is preferred by marketers as well as readers. Adding HTML elements in your emails makes it glorified. It also maintains your formatting on different devices and provides a fantastic user experience.

If you are opting to send your newsletter in Gmail’s traditional method, you won’t get a feature to add HTML elements to it. This makes your newsletters less attractive and decreases its value. Hence, the conversion rate decreases and affects performance.

3. Adding too many CCs and BCCs

In the traditional method of sending your newsletter with Gmail, you need to add your subscribers’ email addresses in the BCC field. You also add some shareable email addresses in the CC field. This practice adds a lot of drawbacks to your email account.

Adding multiple addresses in one email triggers the email service provider (ESP), alerting it with a SPAMMY or Promotional activity. This makes your email land in the SPAM or Promotional folder of the subscriber’s mailbox.

Along with it, your subscriber won’t welcome the email if he finds himself added to the BCC of the email. He might SPAM the email or take less interest.

4. Will land in Promotion or SPAM box

As described above, your newsletter has maximum chances of landing in the SPAM and Promotional folder of your subscriber mailbox. The subscribers usually ignore newsletters landing in these folders. Recent research shows that the read rate of promotional emails is only 19.2%.

If your newsletters are landing other than the mailbox’s primary folder, you cannot nurture them well for effective conversions. All your hard work goes in vain. If your emails or newsletters frequently land in SPAM folders, your email account can get suspended, which is the biggest drawback.

5. Affects sender reputation score

Every email user has a sender reputation score that shows the domain and email user’s authority. If you are following the bad emailing practices and your emails are not landing in the primary folder,  your sender reputation decreases.

A low sender reputation score affects your emailing activities negatively. Your emails will get more failed deliveries and higher bounce rates. In the future, you won’t be able to send mass emails from your email account, and in the worst case, your account can get suspended permanently.

6. No option to unsubscribe

According to the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM Act, the subscriber should get an option for opting-out from any email list. If you schedule your newsletters from Gmail, you can not add an unsubscribe link. Sending a newsletter without an unsubscribe link is prohibited in many countries, it can lead to legal consequences.

Fair to say, it is quite usual for subscribers to mark the newsletter as SPAM when they don’t see an unsubscribe link. Too many emails getting marked as SPAM can lead to multiple problems as explained above.

Now you must be wondering how to send a newsletter with Gmail effectively without affecting your email reputation and email account’s health. 

In the next section, we will share the professional approach to send your newsletters using Gmail and effectively achieve the maximum outcomes.

How to send a newsletter with Gmail in the professional method?

For sending your email newsletter with Gmail in the professional method, you need to use an email automation tool like SalesHandy with your Gmail account. 

Follow the steps to send your first email newsletter with Gmail professionally.

1. Signup with SalesHandy

To start your professional method, you need to create an account with SalesHandy.

1. Click on Signup with SalesHandy to start the process
2. On the signup page, Click on Signup with Google to link your Gmail account with SalesHandy.

3. Provide necessary permissions and your SalesHandy account is ready to send newsletters using Gmail account.
4. You will reach the SalesHandy dashboard page. Click on Email Campaign >> New Email Campaign to start processing your newsletter.

2. Add recipient’s list

1. You must have created a list of subscribers ready to send your newsletters. Add it into a CSV file to upload into the SalesHandy campaign editor.
2. If you have the subscribers list in the Google contacts, export it in CSV and upload it directly in SalesHandy.
3. You will get a pop-up to verify your email list (optional). If you had done the double opt-in process before collecting the subscriber’s list, you could skip it. Else, we recommend you to verify your email list.

3. Draft your personalized HTML newsletter

1. Scroll down to draft your personalized newsletter. Enter a catchy email subject line. You can use the Mail Merge tags present on your email editor’s right side to add personalization in the subject line. It is also suggested that you use emojis in your subject line to increase the open rate
2. If you are planning to draft a simple personalized newsletter, draft your copy using the Mail Merge tags. If you wish to add HTML elements to your newsletter, click on the <> button
3. Write down your HTML code in the HTML editor. Once you are done, close the HTML editor by clicking on the <> button again
4. Add personalization to your HTML newsletter by using the Mail Merge tags in the simple editor
5. Finally, check your unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page. 
6. Send a test email to your account to check how your HTML email looks in the mailbox

4. Schedule according to your convenience

1. Scroll down and choose the respective time zone in which you want to schedule your newsletters. Adjust the time accordingly
2. Add a time gap between two emails. This will make your emails look like human-like sending and keep it away from SPAM filters. We recommend you to keep a time gap between 60 – 90 seconds between two emails
3. Accept the terms and conditions and click on Schedule Campaign. Your newsletters will be sent to the subscribers accordingly

That’s it. The professional method takes equal time and effort as the traditional method but is recommended for efficiency and higher conversion rates. Also, the professional method is power-packed with many other benefits that can help you to scale. Below we are listing all the benefits of the professional techniques that you will love.

Benefits of sending newsletters from Gmail using SalesHandy

1. Beautified HTML emails

SalesHandy allows you to design beautiful HTML emails and send them to your subscribers. In the traditional method, you are not allowed to add HTML emails from your Gmail account. But with SalesHandy, you can send beautiful HTML emails from your Gmail account seamlessly. Your HTML emails will look equally ravishing like one designed in a high-end newsletter tool.

HTML emails make your emails look beautiful and are device responsive. They automatically fit into every screen size. Your subscribers will engage with your newsletter to drive better conversions.

2. Better email deliverability

SalesHandy provides you with a personalized email campaign feature that makes every email identical. This approach is considered a good emailing practice by all the ESPs. These emails stay away from the SPAM filters and provide great email deliverability.

You can maintain a time gap between successive emails, which will make the ESPs algorithm believe to be a human activity. SalesHandy helps you with various other email deliverability tips that ensure your newsletter to land in the primary mailbox of your subscribers.

3. Email open and link tracking notifications

You send your email newsletters but you don’t know how it performed. With SalesHandy, you get unlimited email tracking and link tracking to understand individual subscriber’s engagement on your email.

You can easily know if any subscriber checked your shared resources or just read the newsletter casually. This will help you understand your subscribers in a better manner and nurturing them more effectively.

4. Analyze your subscribers’ behavior

You can get a complete report of your newsletter’s analytics, which will help you evaluate your newsletter’s performance. In the detailed report, you can analyze what percentage of subscribers engaged with the newsletter and take action accordingly. 

If you have added your newsletter as a template in SalesHandy, you can find the performance of each newsletter template and analyze it accordingly. The whole analytics feature of SalesHandy assists you in building a robust nurturing strategy for your team.

5. Schedule your email according to your convenience

Although you get a send later function in the traditional method, the professional method’s email scheduling process is advanced and more productive. You can choose from 40 timezones worldwide and schedule the newsletter according to the best suitable time.

If you are based in Europe and your subscriber is located in Chicago, you won’t need to count the hours. Instead, just choose the timezone and schedule it. This will make your newsletter process fast and effective.

6. Manage your subscriber’s list at an ease

With SalesHandy, you can allow your subscribers to opt-out from your newsletters by clicking on the Unsubscribe button. It also makes your newsletter CAN-SPAM compliant and builds authority for your brand.

Sometimes subscribers mark the newsletter as SPAM if they do not find an unsubscribe button. Adding an unsubscribe button helps you in staying away from SPAM counts and improves your sender reputation score.

Conclusion

Now you know two different ways of how to send a newsletter with Gmail. You can decide the best way according to your usage and proceed towards sending your newsletter. It is recommended for all types of businesses to send their newsletter frequently. It will help you keep your subscribers engaged and updated with your brand. This will help you in the lead nurturing, branding, and relationship building.

If you have any queries related to sending newsletters with Gmail, comment down below, and we will help you out. You can also share this article among your connections to get mutually benefited.