Sending Batch Emails in Gmail

By Morgan Lucas

This is a post intended for this site, as a way to get a feel of using it consistently.

I touch base with people once a month, and it's about 20 people, and I need to automate sending the messages. I write the messages myself, don't worry, this entire thing isn't automated, what am I?

If that is you, and you are reading this - Hello! You were part of a successful experiment!

You could use this to, well, send messages en masse. I only added people who have opened a dialogue with me, not random people I find on the internet. Use discretion.

I wanted to create an automated script to mass send it, so I used both Bing CoPilot and ChatGPT and started with the same prompt to see if it could create it;

The image with my prompt follows:

[alt: Write a Gmail script that inserts formatted text to each selected email in my inbox.

It should be able to accept hyperlinks

You should prompt me for the text once each time I run it.

It should not send the email. ]

Using Google Developers Account

Copilot gave me a script, and then followed up with apparently creating a Google Developers Account to make apps that work in the Google ecosystem, and getting the Gmail API to use it.

Now, you can use scripts in Docs without doing all of that.

ChatGPT 3.5 told me how to use it, involving POP/IMAP settings in Gmail, which sounds weird. I know what those options are, basically point your email in the direction you want to receive it but that's not my first expectation to run a script, with one step that isn't visible on my Gmail screen.

I ask ChatGPT For Clarification

Me:

I do not see "Enable "IMAP access" and "Less secure apps" (if not already enabled)."

ChatGPT:

My apologies for the confusion. You're correct. Enabling "IMAP access" and "Less secure apps" is not necessary for this specific script. Let's focus on the script itself.

Remember - ChatGPT Is using older stacks of information. Guess no one talks to it about Google scripts so much.

It tells me to create a Apps Script in Drive, something I didn't know you could do - but there it is, when you hit 'New' --> 'More' on the Drive home page. ChatGPT also kept giving me incorrect code that wasn't compatible with what I was doing (For instance, it would have a function to open something, but since the code was running in the App space and not triggered from Gmail, it wouldn't know what to start.)

For a time, I couldn't open the Apps Script option in the menu with a new sheet without the page not being found; I do not think it was attached to the script I had created previously. Creator error!

Another Way to Send Batch Scripts in Gmail

...And then after YouTubing, I found that not only had someone created a script prior, but one of my favorite YouTubers, Jeff Su, had already walked us through using it. When in doubt, you don't need to spend 4 hours reinventing what's already there. And 2 years later, this post is still accurate.

Basically, you allow the script to be attached to your account. Then, fill out the email's body and subject in gmail, then run the sheet, tell it the title of the draft, and send it to people in the list.

The images are listed below in order.

First, after you attach the script from the video, and write the message, the Mail Merge button will appear in your Sheet.

Second, this will pop up.

Third, put in the title of your draft where you wrote the message.

Last, if the script runs correctly, you'll see date and time stamps in your Google Sheet.

Conclusion

My only issue is that making a copy keeps defaulting to my personal gmail account instead of my business-personal one. I had to log out of my personal one for it to take.

This may also trigger DMARC issues if enough recipients mark it as spam.

I also tried with an attachment and it went through. So this was an exercise in researching available options, comparing AI chat systems and their different methodologies, using queries and prompts and refining them, working with Google Sheets, Gmail, and automation.

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