The Miracle of Mail Merges and Email!

I’ve used Mail Merges in Microsoft Word for years to mail out different things personally and professionally. But yesterday I discovered (HAPPY DAY!!) you can email all those individualized letters with individualized information in each email with one click!

I’ve been updating the SRP resource guide. I started with the painful process of calling each performer to verify all that info. Dreadful, tedious, and so slow. Then I decided to email them all instead. I had already input all their basic info (name, email address, phone number, cost of the performance, program description) into an excel spreadsheet to make for an easier list to call from.

Pictured below is part of the spreadsheet.

So I followed the steps to do a mail merge
1. Open Microsoft Word
2. Click on “Mailings” in the top tool bar (you know the one -- File | Home | Insert etc, etc)
3. In the set of tools that pop up, select “Start Mail Merge” and if it’s your first time doing this, use the “Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard”.

4. If you need a step by step guide with screen shots (those always help me out) to do the initial mail merge, here’s a link from Microsoft, with screen shots, to assist you. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Mail-merge-using-an-Excel-spreadsheet-858c7d7f-5cc0-4ba1-9a7b-0a948fa3d7d3

5a. This was a skeleton of my finished letter.

5b. And here’s what it looks like with the info filled in from the spreadsheet.

6. HERE’S WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS!!

Instead of copying and pasting each of these form letters into individual emails….with one click, all the emails go out at the same time!! I was very skeptical at first so I sent a test out first to my own email. And it worked!

So at exactly 3:38 PM on 11/15/16, forty five individualized emails went out to all the performers. And as of 9:00 AM on the next day, twenty four performers had already responded! PRESTO! And that is my “Stupid Human Trick” of the year. I’m quite proud of myself.

- Michelle J. @ CEN