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How to Use Email Drafts in Gmail as Merge Templates

The easiest way to create an email template for Mail Merge is Gmail itself. Go to the Gmail website and compose a new email message.

Gmail Draft Template

You may leave the recipients field empty (we will specify the email recipients in the Google Sheet) but do add the subject line and the message body in the template.

Basic Formatting​

The draft template in Gmail can be formatted with different colors, choose any font family, change the text size, add hyperlinks, emojis, inline images and even animated GIFs in the message body.

Emojis​

You can add 💕 emojis and symbols in the email subject line. Relevant emojis can grab attention and increase open rates but some email clients may render them as blank boxes ▢

Merge fields​

The email body and the subject line can include one or more variable merge fields enclosed in double curly braces. When you perform the merge, these merge fields will be filled with information from the corresponding columns in the Google Sheet.

File Attachments​

You can also add file attachments in the draft message, like a PDF copy of your company's sales brochure uploaded from Google Drive, and the file(s) will be attached to every email message that is sent via mail merge.

If you wish to send unique file attachments to each email recipient, do not include any attachment in the draft message.

HTML Content​

Gmail doesn't offer an easy option to add tables and buttons in email message but there are simple workarounds.