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Your step-by-step guide to personalised bulk email in Outlook

📧 Microsoft 365 🔒 Data stays local ⚡ Powered by Graph API 🏢 Promethean IT

Contents

Section A — Quick Start

Follow these 5 steps and you'll have a personalised email in every inbox within minutes.

1
Step One

Open Mail Merge in Outlook

Start a new email in Outlook as you normally would. In the toolbar at the top, find the Mail Merge group and click Run Merge. The Mail Merge panel will open on the right side of your screen.

💡 Tip: Can't see the button? Make sure the add-in is installed by your IT admin. The button only appears in the compose window, not your inbox.
📌 The Outlook Send button sends only your current draft as a single email. Always use the ▶ Run mail merge button in the panel to send to your full list.
Home
Message
Insert
✉️
Run Merge
Mail Merge
To
Subj
Click Run Merge to begin →
  • 1 Click Run Merge in the ribbon
  • 2 The Mail Merge panel opens on the right
2
Step Two

Import your recipients

Your recipients come from a CSV file — a simple spreadsheet you can export from Excel, Google Sheets, or your CRM.

Click 📂 Load file to upload your CSV, or paste the data directly into the text area.

Your CSV must have an email column. Add extra columns like first_name and company for personalisation.

email,first_name,last_name,company ,Sarah,Johnson,Acme Corp ,Mike,Chen,Acme Corp ,Emma,Wilson,Globex
💡 Tip: Use the ⬇ Sample CSV link to download a ready-made template you can fill in.
✉️
Mail Merge
👥 Recipients
✏️ Compose
⚙️ Options
3 recipients ✓
email,first_name,last_name,company sarah.johnson@acmecorp.com,Sarah,Johnson,Acme Corp mike.chen@acmecorp.com,Mike,Chen,Acme Corp emma.wilson@globex.com,Emma,Wilson,Globex
emailfirst_namecompany
sarah.j@…SarahAcme Corp
mike.c@…MikeAcme Corp
emma.w@…EmmaGlobex
  • 1 Click Load file to upload your CSV
  • 2 Recipients appear in the table below
  • 3 Count badge confirms how many will receive the email
3
Step Three

Write your email & personalise it

Switch to the Compose tab. Type your subject line, then write your email body directly in Outlook's compose window (the main email area).

To personalise each email, use the tags — click any purple chip to insert it at your cursor position. Mail Merge will automatically swap each tag for that person's real details when it sends.

  • 1 Type your subject. Click {{first_name}} to insert it into the subject too
  • 2 Click in the Outlook compose body, then click a tag chip to insert it there
  • 3 {{greeting_line}} auto-writes "Dear Ms. Wilson," from your CSV data
💡 Example: Subject "Hi {{first_name}}, Q3 update from {{company}}" becomes "Hi Sarah, Q3 update from Acme Corp" for Sarah.
✉️
Mail Merge
👥 Recipients
✏️ Compose
⚙️ Options
Subject line
Hi {{first_name}}, Q3 update from {{company}}
👆 Click a tag to insert it into your email
{{first_name}} {{last_name}} {{email}} {{company}} {{title}} {{greeting_line}} {{today}}
4
Step Four

Preview before you send

Always preview before sending. Click the dark 👁 Preview button in the footer bar. A window pops up showing you exactly what each recipient will receive — subject and body — with all the tags already replaced with real data.

Use the ← Prev and Next → arrows to flip through each person's version of the email.

💡 Catch mistakes here. If a name shows as "Hi ," instead of "Hi Sarah," — your CSV column is probably called something different. Check that it's named first_name exactly.
✉️
Mail Merge
👥 Recipients
✏️ Compose
⚙️ Options
Subject line
Hi {{first_name}}, Q3 update…
Preview 1 of 3
Subject: Hi Sarah, Q3 update from Acme Corp
Dear Sarah,

We wanted to share the latest quarterly update from Acme Corp. As one of our valued contacts, we thought you'd appreciate a heads up…

Kind regards,
The Team
Sarah Johnson
  • 1 Tags replaced with real data
  • 2 Flip through all recipients
  • 3 Close and fix any issues before sending
5
Step Five

Send your merge

When you're happy with the preview, click the orange ▶ Run mail merge button. A confirmation summary will appear showing how many emails will be sent — click Send Now to confirm.

A progress bar tracks the send in real time. The log at the bottom shows each email as it's dispatched. Once complete, emails appear in your Sent Items folder.

💡 Safe to close Outlook? Not recommended while a merge is running — leave the compose window open until the progress bar reaches 100%.
📌 Emails are sent one at a time on behalf of your Microsoft 365 account, so they come from you — not a third-party server.
✉️
Mail Merge
👥 Recipients
✏️ Compose
⚙️ Options
Ready to Send
3 personalised emails
to 3 recipients
~15 seconds
  • 1 Confirmation shows the total count
  • 2 Progress bar tracks every send
  • 3 Log confirms each delivery
Optional — Additional Features

Not needed for a basic send. Come back to these when you're ready to do more.

📨
Test Send
Send yourself (or a colleague) a single test email before the full merge. It uses the data from whichever row you select in the Row 1 dropdown, so tags are replaced with real data.
Where to find it → Footer bar → 📨 Test button
✉️ Mail Merge Footer bar
Sends one email to yourself using Row 2's data
🕐
Schedule a Send
Set a future date and time for your merge. The emails will be queued in Exchange and sent automatically — even if Outlook is closed at that time.
Where to find it → Options tab → Scheduling → toggle Schedule send
✉️ Mail Merge — Options
Scheduling ON
Schedule send
Sends at 9:00 AM on 20 Aug, even if Outlook is closed
📎
Attachments
Attach files that go to every recipient (e.g. a brochure), or match individual files per-recipient by adding an attachment column to your CSV with the filename. Max 3 MB per file.
Where to find it → Recipients tab → Attachments section
✉️ Mail Merge — Recipients
Attachments — Shared
Q3_Report.pdf
All 3 recipients will receive Q3_Report.pdf
🚫
Suppression & Opt-Out Lists
Suppression list: Upload a CSV of addresses to skip for this merge only. Opt-out list: A permanent skip list that applies to every merge — great for unsubscribes you never want to contact again.
Suppression → Recipients tab · Opt-out → Options tab → Opt-Out / Unsubscribe List
✉️ Mail Merge — Recipients
Suppression list
12 addresses loaded
john.doe@old.comSKIP
noreply@bounce.comSKIP
These addresses will be silently skipped
📋
Templates
Save your subject line, reply-to address, and all settings as a named template. Next time you run a similar campaign, load the template and everything is restored in one click.
Where to find it → Compose tab → Templates section
✉️ Mail Merge — Compose
Templates
🧪
Simulate & Drafts Mode
Simulate: Dry run — no emails are sent, but you download a CSV showing exactly what each recipient would receive. Perfect for QA.

Drafts: Saves all emails to your Drafts folder instead of sending, so you can manually review and send each one.
Footer bar → Simulate or 📝 Drafts buttons
✉️ Mail Merge Footer bar
Simulate → downloads preview CSV · Drafts → saves to Drafts folder
⚙️
Advanced Options (Options tab)
Save to Sent
Keeps a copy of every sent email in your Sent Items. On by default.
BCC Self
Blind-copies you on every email in the merge — useful for your own records.
Dedup
Automatically skips any duplicate email addresses in your CSV.
Read / Delivery Receipt
Request a read or delivery receipt on every email sent.
Rate Limiting
Set a max emails-per-hour cap or add a delay between batches. Helps avoid spam filters on large sends.
Business Hours Window
Restricts sending to Mon–Fri 9am–5pm. Emails outside this window pause until the window reopens.
Priority & Sensitivity
Mark emails as High priority (!) or flag them as Confidential or Private.
Send As / On Behalf Of
Send using a shared mailbox address (e.g. info@company.com) if Exchange grants you that right.
List-Unsubscribe
Add an RFC-compliant unsubscribe link header for newsletter compliance. Supports {{email}} tokens.
✉️ Mail Merge — Options
Save to Sent
Dedup
Read receipt
BCC self
Plain text
Flag follow-up
Priority Sensitivity

Need help? Contact Promethean IT

leighton@prometheanit.com · mail-merge-addin on GitHub

Mail Merge v2.5.0 · Classic Mail Merge Engine for New Outlook
All data processed locally · Powered by Microsoft Graph API