Intro
- [Scott] Creating labels within Google Contacts can be very helpful, but did you know there's an alternative way to create email groups, which gives you a lot more flexibility?
In this video, I'm going to show you how to use Google Groups, so you can contact many people with just a single email address. (machine screeches) This video is sponsored by SaneBox, the email inbox lifesaver.
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Contact Labels
Within Google Contacts, we have the ability to create labels, which is really another way of saying we can create groups. So, for example here, I have a label called "Client Team," where I have a collection of six different individuals.
Now, not only can I organize them here within Google Contacts, but what is most helpful is that I can then use that label within my Gmail account. So, if I start to type in "client," as in client team, there is my group.
I can select that, and now, all six email addresses have been input into my to field, and I can go ahead and send this email. But there are a couple of problems when it comes to using labels.
Problems with Labels
Number one, it's going to be much harder for me to determine, did I send this to the team, or did I just individually add these email addresses? I won't be able to filter by client team here within my Gmail account.
And number two, you may notice that if you try to access your labels within the Gmail mobile app, most often, it will not be displayed, meaning that you will not be able to access these labels from your mobile device.
But what if instead, you could create a custom email address like the one you see here, and have as many people within that group? Not only do you not have to share that information with others, but more importantly, you can now filter, and you can do special things with this new email address, which will contain other members.
So, let me show you how to set this up. To make this happen, I am using a free service called Google Groups, and to access your Google Groups account, all you need to do is go to groups.google.com,
Google Groups Interface
and you'll see an interface like what you see here. Now, in my example, I just have the one group here. You can see I have that custom email address. If I click on this group,
I can see the members of this group.
Here, you can see I have those three different members, including myself here, and this gives me a lot more flexibility in not only managing this group, but as I mentioned before, I can now have a single email address to manage, which gives me a lot more flexibility within my Gmail account when it comes to labels, when it comes to filters, when it comes to managing this group as a whole.
Create a New Group
So, let's go ahead and create a new group. In the top left-hand corner, you can see that there is this Create Group button. I'm going to select that, and we'll be prompted with a new dialogue box. Now, you can call your group anything that you want.
I'm going to call this my test group in this example. But where we need to pay special attention is the group email, because this must be a unique email address. Remember, the domain at the end will always be googlegroups.com.
That means the front end must be unique. Now, I'm going to assume that test-group is already taken.
If I attempt to say Next, oh, this is already taken.
So, let me try something a little more unique. I'm going to call this orthoplessimeter. Let's see if simpletestgroup is taken in this case, and I'm going to say Next. Mm, that's taken as well. Maybe I'll add a number at the end just to make it that much more unique.
Who Can Access
Keep in mind, this unique email address is not something that you're going to be sharing publicly, so it's all right if it has a few numbers or if it's not the easiest to read.
The important thing is that it is unique. Now, in the second step, we have a number of options here, in terms of who can access or who can be a member. So, who can search for this group?
Well, I would recommend that you leave it at group members only. Otherwise, you can make it available to anyone on the web, but that would be if you are wanting to create some type of mailing list.
So, I'm going to keep this at group members. Next, who can join the group? Well, I'm going to say only invited members, but you do have the options to allow people to request to join, or anyone can join. Again, these options would be if you are creating some type of mailing list,
so I'm going to keep it at only invited users. And then, down below, we have three other important options to consider. Who can view conversations, who can post,
and who can view members. Now, these first two options are referring to the ability to see these conversations within Google Groups. I would recommend you keep these at the group member level.
But in terms of who can view the members, you may want to adjust this to group managers or group owners. This is especially important if you do not want to share others' email addresses with others when you're sending out to these particular groups.
Adding Members
I'm going to hit Next, and last but not least, we have the opportunity to start adding our members. Now, of course, we can always add our members, but I'm going to come down here and select Directly Add Members.
I don't want to send out a bunch of invitations. Again, this might be appropriate if you're wanting to create a mailing list, but I'm going to say Directly Add Members. And here, I can simply copy and paste
the members I would like to add to my group. So, let me add a few sample email addresses here. Let's say this one here. We're going to add those two email addresses.
I can distinguish if they're going to be a member, or if I want to give them other abilities, such as being a manager or a group owner. I don't have to include a welcome message. And lastly, we want to take a look at the subscription level.
Now, each email is what we are going to keep for our purposes, but it does give us a few other options. Again, these are more in line if you are using this as a mailing list.
We're going to keep that at the default of each email, and I'm going to say Create Group. It's going to ask me for my CAPTCHA. No, I am not a robot. And in just a matter of seconds, we are now brought back to the My Groups section, and here, we can see we have our test group created with our unique email address.
Starting a Conversation
Now, if I click on this test group, the first area it's going to bring me to is to Conversations, because I can start to have a conversation right here within Google Groups.
I don't actually need to go to my Gmail account to start conversing and start sending a message. If I click this Start a Conversation link, it will prompt me with a dialogue box, which looks very, very similar to a Gmail account. I can start to add a subject and add my message down below. But I'm going to cancel this for now,
and I want to come over here to the People section. Here, you can see our full list of all of the contacts,all of the email addresses included in this group. I can see when they joined, I can change their permissions.
I've got a lot more flexibility here, and of course, I can add new members whenever I like. But the last thing that we want to stop at is the About section here. This is probably the easiest place we can go to.
Simply copy the email address itself, because this is what we want to start using
within our Gmail account, or you can really use it within any email account, and start sending messages out to this group.
Sending a Message
Now, jumping back to our Gmail account, here, you can see that we have been notified that our group, Test Group, has been created and ready to use, so it will give us a notification.
But now, if I go to compose a new message, all I'm going to do is paste in that single email address here. Remember, it's going to contain these different members down below. If you hover over it, it'll show you which members are included, but there is only one email address here. It's not going to load my to line
with 27 or 38 different email addresses. And then, I will also not know if I sent them as a group, or if it's just part of the group. Here, I know that everyone within this group will be sent this message. In this example, I'll just ask if we can meet later this week,
and to send me a quick reply to confirm. So, a single email address, a fairly simple message, and I'm going to hit Send Now, let's see what it looks like for people who receive that email.
So, here I am within one of my recipient's account, and the first thing you may notice
is that people who have been added to your group will be notified.
Here, you can see the first message they received is, "You have been added to Test Group." So, you may want to reserve this Google Groups functionality for people that you know well, since they will be notified that they've been added to that group. But up above, here, you can see they've received your message from your email account, and if we open up this email, we can see that they do not have access to the other email addresses.
They can see that it was sent to this group email, which they are a part of, but the messaging, the formatting, everything else is the same. The other thing to note is that there is some additional information at the very bottom of the email.
This is below your signature line. Things such as, "You received this message because you are subscribed to this Google group." They will also have the opportunity to unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails in the future.
This type of language, of course, is more common when we are receiving newsletters or marketing information, but the Google Groups functionality
is based on allowing people the opportunity to leave if they choose to. So, some of these things to keep in mind when you're creating your Google groups, or when to see when it is most appropriate to use this functionality. Lastly, if they hit Reply,
their reply will go to you because you are the sender, but if they hit Reply All, you will see that they still do not have access to the other email addresses in this group.
Everyone else within this group will still receive this message, so they can safely reply all and continue a group thread, but they too only have to manage a single email address, rather than replying all, or maybe being hesitant to reply all if they see that there are seven or more people within this particular group.
Last but not least, keep in mind, as we return to the Google Groups interface, you can manage and see all of your group conversations here within Google Groups. Here is the message that I just sent out.
I can click on this, and I can continue to respond. Either Reply All, Reply to Author, or Forward. But you don't ever have to come back in here unless you want to manage the people within this group, because otherwise, all you need to know is to use this unique email address, and you have your own custom and very flexible group.
Now, if you're wanting to learn even more ways to simplify your software and get more done, join me at simpletivity.com, where you can access my free guides
and additional software tutorials. Thank you so much for watching, and remember,
being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
