Notion's finally getting serious about its automation capabilities, reducing the need for third-party services like Zapier and Make. The new Gmail action is especially useful by personalizing and sending emails in bulk, like a conventional mail merge system you may have used with Excel or Google Sheets.
I'm going to walk you through the best system for leveraging that capability and, in doing so, provide a good primer on Notion automations in general. For members of Notion A-to-Z, you can access this system as a fully configured template to duplicate to your workspace or reference as you reconstruct it yourself. If you're not yet a member of Notion A-to-Z, consider joining us for full access to all Notion VIP templates and resources so you can get the most from Notion.
My #1 rule for using Notion is to:
This is the crux of the Bulletproof framework, which starts with about nine master databases applicable to almost all users. Two of those databases are People and Organizations, which are referenced by this automated merge system. While this template is isolated, the idea is to apply it to your master People and Organizations databases that already serve as your single sources of truth. I've added a third database called Mail Merges to the Bulletproof starter template, along with some new properties in the People database and a "Mail Merge" view.
For each mail merge campaign, you'll add an item to this Mail Merges database and give it an easily recognizable title. The database includes properties for the email subject, body, and signature you'd like to use. Within the subject and body, you can use placeholders for the recipient's preferred name and organization, which can be used once or multiple times. If you want to add hyperlinks, be sure to follow the examples here using the same simple tagging structure.
In the People database, I've added a Mail Merge view to the Bulletproof starter template. Each person is related to their organization, which is already part of your system if you're following the Bulletproof Method. The database includes their email address and preferred name, which is how this mail merge system will address them in their personalized emails. There's also a relation back to the Mail Merges database. To include someone in your current mail merge campaign, you'll select it in this property. When working in your full People database, it'll be helpful to choose from within views that are filtered or grouped by properties like Relationship Type.
Two formula properties create personalized versions of the mail merge's subject and body by replacing placeholders with each person's organization and preferred name. With the status property, when you're ready, you can trigger sending emails. You can do this one at a time or multiple simultaneously, but be careful not to trigger suspicion of spam from Google. I wouldn't send more than 20 per hour.
Every Notion automation has one or more trigger events, then one or more actions. This one's triggered when that status property is set to "Triggered." The first action uses the new Gmail integration. You'll connect your Gmail account to send from it. It can be a free Gmail account or a paid Google Workspace account with a custom domain. For the recipient, we're using the Email property of the triggered person. The subject uses a formula that references the personalized subject property, and another formula populates the personalized body, which includes the signature you created for the current campaign. You'll also want to include a display name for the sender. After sending the email, another action changes that status property to "Sent."
Let's walk through a sample mail merge campaign. In this scenario, I'll be the creator of Notion VIP contacting prospective content partners in bulk, with each email personalized. We'll pick up with those prospects already in my master People database and related to their organization.
In the Mail Merges database, the title of this campaign is "Prospective Content Partners." The subject is "Introduce Notion Users to <Organization>," where "organization" is a placeholder for the recipient's organization. The body contains multiple instances of the organization and preferred name placeholders, along with a few hyperlinks using that similar tag format. The signature can be formatted with Notion's native rich text options.
In the People database, my recipients are related to their organization, with their email and preferred name already populated. When working with a full master database of people, I typically filter by relationship type. But here, I'll choose all of my contacts. Within the Mail Merge property, I'll select the "Prospective Contact Partners" campaign. This populates the personalized versions of the subject and body. I'll drag to fill down to personalize all of their subjects and bodies.
From there, I can use the status property to trigger the automation to send the personalized emails and update the status property. As mentioned, I'd trigger no more than 20 per hour. If you test on yourself, don't be alarmed if it takes a few minutes to receive the email. Something about Notion's integration with Gmail causes a brief lag.
You can see the enormous utility of combining conventional mail merge capabilities with your single sources of truth in Notion. With Notion A-to-Z, you can access this system as a standalone template or within the latest Bulletproof Workspace. If you're not yet a member, I hope you'll join us so you can get the most from Notion.