Have you joined my incredibly non-annoying, once-in-a-while email newsletter?
You can tell I’m tired. Every once in a while, I want to reach a segment of people in my network. Not an email newsletter or update, but a specific email sent to specific people, on a specific topic about which I know they care.
I use a very cool Gmail program that allows you to send a mail merge to a select few. (Don’t get excited, you can’t send a billion-person blast to everyone you’ve ever met, it’s deliberately designed not to do that, and anyway, if you want to do that, you actually hurt the universe.)
Anyhow, you write an email and put it in your “drafts” folder on Gmail, then you direct this script to that email, and you can make it personal, with a first name, etc. Beats the “bcc” by a mile.
So today, in reaching out to 300 specific business buddies about a very cool event I’m producing in NYC, I used the mail merge. Right? Why not. I figured it would be helpful.
I hit send. Thirty seconds later, I got an email back “Sorry, dude, I’m not.”
Followed two seconds later by “Huh? No, why?”
Something was wrong.
Sure enough, I looked in my “sent” folder. I just sent out 300 emails with a subject line of “Hey bro… You still top tier at Hilton? I may have something for you,” and nothing in the body.
Oops. I just sent the wrong email to 300 people in about five seconds. Ah, technology.
So the following happened in order:
1) The color drained from my face.
2) I cursed a stream of sixteen curses, invoking several mythical deities.
3) I sent out this:
Subject: Apologies
My apologies – I just sent you an email that obviously wasn’t for you. My sincere apologies.Best,-Peter Shankman
Happens to the best of us. I like how you’re willing to admit your mistakes in public at risk of ridicule. It shows your “human” side, your humility and your accessibility.
Great point Jamie. Owning one’s mistakes as Peter did/does keeps others from having any power to use them as a cudgel.
Thanks, Cheryl!
Great point Jamie. Owning one’s mistakes as Peter did/does keeps others from having any power to use them as a cudgel.
Great point Jamie. Owning one’s mistakes as Peter did/does keeps others from having any power to use them as a cudgel.
Great point Jamie. Owning one’s mistakes as Peter did/does keeps others from having any power to use them as a cudgel.
Must have been more than one draft in your gmail drafts folder. I love the ability to merge a list of contacts with a draft email. So much so that I created a SlideShare presentation explaining how to do it. That is still one of the top referrers to my website and some of the top content on my website. Cheers! http://charlestonpr.com/posts/mail-merge-with-gmail-google-drive/
Cheryl, thanks for posting this but I looked at your presentation, and I cannot figure out for the life of me how to actually DO the mail merge, and I used to be a senior engineer with Intel. It seems like there are some major steps missing.
First you must format the email as a draft in gmail, adding fields to help personalize the email. Use << on either side of your field names. Reference field names from your database containing your distribution list which you have saved in Drive, as a spreadsheet.
Save the draft in your drafts folder of gmail. This is the body of the email which will be merged with data from your database/spreadsheet.
Now you must install the script from the Google Drive Script directory. The script installs into the spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet open, click the menu item "tools" then click Script Gallery; then searh for "Yet another mail merge"; Click the button to install the script; You will recieve notifications in a popup window that the script will have access to your contacts and other information; when the script is installed you will get a notification that it is installed, and you will see another column in your spreadsheet labeled "mail". You may get a request to authorize the script to run. Then when you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to select the field which contains the email address; When you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to "select the template" — the template is your draft email in your drafts folder. Just be sure that you see that email subject and select it. Tick the box to receive copies of the mail if you want to have those. Then choose to "send" email; When the merge is complete you will see a note in a pop up window that the merge is done. You will note that the "mail" column in your spreadsheet has a data in it now rather than being empty. Should you wish to use this same spreadsheet in the future, be sure to clear the Mail column of values.
Cheryl, thanks for posting this but I looked at your presentation, and I cannot figure out for the life of me how to actually DO the mail merge, and I used to be a senior engineer with Intel. It seems like there are some major steps missing.
First you must format the email as a draft in gmail, adding fields to help personalize the email. Use << on either side of your field names. Reference field names from your database containing your distribution list which you have saved in Drive, as a spreadsheet.
Save the draft in your drafts folder of gmail. This is the body of the email which will be merged with data from your database/spreadsheet.
Now you must install the script from the Google Drive Script directory. The script installs into the spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet open, click the menu item "tools" then click Script Gallery; then searh for "Yet another mail merge"; Click the button to install the script; You will recieve notifications in a popup window that the script will have access to your contacts and other information; when the script is installed you will get a notification that it is installed, and you will see another column in your spreadsheet labeled "mail". You may get a request to authorize the script to run. Then when you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to select the field which contains the email address; When you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to "select the template" — the template is your draft email in your drafts folder. Just be sure that you see that email subject and select it. Tick the box to receive copies of the mail if you want to have those. Then choose to "send" email; When the merge is complete you will see a note in a pop up window that the merge is done. You will note that the "mail" column in your spreadsheet has a data in it now rather than being empty. Should you wish to use this same spreadsheet in the future, be sure to clear the Mail column of values.
Cheryl, thanks for posting this but I looked at your presentation, and I cannot figure out for the life of me how to actually DO the mail merge, and I used to be a senior engineer with Intel. It seems like there are some major steps missing.
First you must format the email as a draft in gmail, adding fields to help personalize the email. Use << on either side of your field names. Reference field names from your database containing your distribution list which you have saved in Drive, as a spreadsheet.
Save the draft in your drafts folder of gmail. This is the body of the email which will be merged with data from your database/spreadsheet.
Now you must install the script from the Google Drive Script directory. The script installs into the spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet open, click the menu item "tools" then click Script Gallery; then searh for "Yet another mail merge"; Click the button to install the script; You will recieve notifications in a popup window that the script will have access to your contacts and other information; when the script is installed you will get a notification that it is installed, and you will see another column in your spreadsheet labeled "mail". You may get a request to authorize the script to run. Then when you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to select the field which contains the email address; When you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to "select the template" — the template is your draft email in your drafts folder. Just be sure that you see that email subject and select it. Tick the box to receive copies of the mail if you want to have those. Then choose to "send" email; When the merge is complete you will see a note in a pop up window that the merge is done. You will note that the "mail" column in your spreadsheet has a data in it now rather than being empty. Should you wish to use this same spreadsheet in the future, be sure to clear the Mail column of values.
Cheryl, thanks for posting this but I looked at your presentation, and I cannot figure out for the life of me how to actually DO the mail merge, and I used to be a senior engineer with Intel. It seems like there are some major steps missing.
First you must format the email as a draft in gmail, adding fields to help personalize the email. Use << on either side of your field names. Reference field names from your database containing your distribution list which you have saved in Drive, as a spreadsheet.
Save the draft in your drafts folder of gmail. This is the body of the email which will be merged with data from your database/spreadsheet.
Now you must install the script from the Google Drive Script directory. The script installs into the spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet open, click the menu item "tools" then click Script Gallery; then searh for "Yet another mail merge"; Click the button to install the script; You will recieve notifications in a popup window that the script will have access to your contacts and other information; when the script is installed you will get a notification that it is installed, and you will see another column in your spreadsheet labeled "mail". You may get a request to authorize the script to run. Then when you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to select the field which contains the email address; When you choose to run the script, you will be prompted to "select the template" — the template is your draft email in your drafts folder. Just be sure that you see that email subject and select it. Tick the box to receive copies of the mail if you want to have those. Then choose to "send" email; When the merge is complete you will see a note in a pop up window that the merge is done. You will note that the "mail" column in your spreadsheet has a data in it now rather than being empty. Should you wish to use this same spreadsheet in the future, be sure to clear the Mail column of values.
While mistakes do happen, you could also ask your subconscious or higher self what was going on other than you being tired or accidentally hitting the wrong key. Wait. These parts of ourselves actually LOVE to chat with us, it’s true! Frankly they chat with us all the time, it’s just that usually they are churning out the garbage that we think is real because it comes from “inside” but it’s really just junk we can clear away. Sometimes you’ll get a answer that comes in the form of a thought, cool. But sometimes, and this stuff is freakin’ cool! – sometimes you’ll get a response in the form of an experience…someone who got that email has something wonderful to offer or do with you, some astoundingly wonderful new thing that you couldn’t have thought of consciously…and then you know that you are more than your conscious mind and physical self. Genius is sometimes in the allowing ourselves to know that we don’t know, and then asking those parts of ourselves and the Universe that do know to step in and show us the way! π
I have always found that honesty is the best policy, especially when it comes to communications. You don’t always have to kill people will details, but it’s important to own up to your mistakes rather than try to find a way out of them.
I have always found that honesty is the best policy, especially when it comes to communications. You don’t always have to kill people will details, but it’s important to own up to your mistakes rather than try to find a way out of them.
I have always found that honesty is the best policy, especially when it comes to communications. You don’t always have to kill people will details, but it’s important to own up to your mistakes rather than try to find a way out of them.
I have always found that honesty is the best policy, especially when it comes to communications. You don’t always have to kill people will details, but it’s important to own up to your mistakes rather than try to find a way out of them.
It never hurts to say “I’m sorry” and mean it–even when you suspect it is the person on the other side of the exchange that actually made an error. A friend recently sent me an article from a magazine he writes for and thus gets a copy of in advance of subscribers like me. The article was by a bigtime authority in a field my new business is in ABOUT the area I’m working in, or so he said. His email was to tell me the guy made a key error in the article that my business is about and corrects and that I should write to the author, drop my friend’s name, and suggest a correction in the next issue to mention my biz in the process. I did that very nicely. The expert/author wrote back a polite but terse thanks-but-no-thanks saying the article “really wasn’t about” the subject my friend thought and told me it was. I know my friend, and later saw the article and we were right and the author was in avoidance mode for his mistake, but I didn’t say any of that or argue with him–I just wrote a very polite apology for the misunderstanding and thanked him for correcting me. End of story? No…Karma is a good thing, folks. Three days later, a person in the top brass of that mag who I’ve been connecting with about potential coverage of my business when it goes live in June writes to ME about the article ALSO saying it is about my subject AND wrong AND suggesting that I write a “letter to the editor” to correct it and mention my business, and even connects me WITH the editor for that purpose, invites me to lunch, and we initiate a whole new phase of “we like us so we’ll help each other” conversation AND the editor says “Yes” to the correction letter’s publication! BEST of all? The NEXT issue–the one it’ll be in–happens to be the ONE issue per year they email to the lists of all 5 other publications they do in the same arena, an added e-circulation of over 100k all of whom will get my totally un-paid-for-promotional letter-to-the-editor with the mag’s thanks. Now imagine if I’d argued with the original writer, who still has clout there and in the industry, told him it was HE who was wrong and not me? It ALWAYS pays to be nice…but then, there’s some guy named Peter who says that all the time, right? Yeah. I knew I’d heard it somewhere…. π
It never hurts to say “I’m sorry” and mean it–even when you suspect it is the person on the other side of the exchange that actually made an error. A friend recently sent me an article from a magazine he writes for and thus gets a copy of in advance of subscribers like me. The article was by a bigtime authority in a field my new business is in ABOUT the area I’m working in, or so he said. His email was to tell me the guy made a key error in the article that my business is about and corrects and that I should write to the author, drop my friend’s name, and suggest a correction in the next issue to mention my biz in the process. I did that very nicely. The expert/author wrote back a polite but terse thanks-but-no-thanks saying the article “really wasn’t about” the subject my friend thought and told me it was. I know my friend, and later saw the article and we were right and the author was in avoidance mode for his mistake, but I didn’t say any of that or argue with him–I just wrote a very polite apology for the misunderstanding and thanked him for correcting me. End of story? No…Karma is a good thing, folks. Three days later, a person in the top brass of that mag who I’ve been connecting with about potential coverage of my business when it goes live in June writes to ME about the article ALSO saying it is about my subject AND wrong AND suggesting that I write a “letter to the editor” to correct it and mention my business, and even connects me WITH the editor for that purpose, invites me to lunch, and we initiate a whole new phase of “we like us so we’ll help each other” conversation AND the editor says “Yes” to the correction letter’s publication! BEST of all? The NEXT issue–the one it’ll be in–happens to be the ONE issue per year they email to the lists of all 5 other publications they do in the same arena, an added e-circulation of over 100k all of whom will get my totally un-paid-for-promotional letter-to-the-editor with the mag’s thanks. Now imagine if I’d argued with the original writer, who still has clout there and in the industry, told him it was HE who was wrong and not me? It ALWAYS pays to be nice…but then, there’s some guy named Peter who says that all the time, right? Yeah. I knew I’d heard it somewhere…. π
It never hurts to say “I’m sorry” and mean it–even when you suspect it is the person on the other side of the exchange that actually made an error. A friend recently sent me an article from a magazine he writes for and thus gets a copy of in advance of subscribers like me. The article was by a bigtime authority in a field my new business is in ABOUT the area I’m working in, or so he said. His email was to tell me the guy made a key error in the article that my business is about and corrects and that I should write to the author, drop my friend’s name, and suggest a correction in the next issue to mention my biz in the process. I did that very nicely. The expert/author wrote back a polite but terse thanks-but-no-thanks saying the article “really wasn’t about” the subject my friend thought and told me it was. I know my friend, and later saw the article and we were right and the author was in avoidance mode for his mistake, but I didn’t say any of that or argue with him–I just wrote a very polite apology for the misunderstanding and thanked him for correcting me. End of story? No…Karma is a good thing, folks. Three days later, a person in the top brass of that mag who I’ve been connecting with about potential coverage of my business when it goes live in June writes to ME about the article ALSO saying it is about my subject AND wrong AND suggesting that I write a “letter to the editor” to correct it and mention my business, and even connects me WITH the editor for that purpose, invites me to lunch, and we initiate a whole new phase of “we like us so we’ll help each other” conversation AND the editor says “Yes” to the correction letter’s publication! BEST of all? The NEXT issue–the one it’ll be in–happens to be the ONE issue per year they email to the lists of all 5 other publications they do in the same arena, an added e-circulation of over 100k all of whom will get my totally un-paid-for-promotional letter-to-the-editor with the mag’s thanks. Now imagine if I’d argued with the original writer, who still has clout there and in the industry, told him it was HE who was wrong and not me? It ALWAYS pays to be nice…but then, there’s some guy named Peter who says that all the time, right? Yeah. I knew I’d heard it somewhere…. π
It never hurts to say “I’m sorry” and mean it–even when you suspect it is the person on the other side of the exchange that actually made an error. A friend recently sent me an article from a magazine he writes for and thus gets a copy of in advance of subscribers like me. The article was by a bigtime authority in a field my new business is in ABOUT the area I’m working in, or so he said. His email was to tell me the guy made a key error in the article that my business is about and corrects and that I should write to the author, drop my friend’s name, and suggest a correction in the next issue to mention my biz in the process. I did that very nicely. The expert/author wrote back a polite but terse thanks-but-no-thanks saying the article “really wasn’t about” the subject my friend thought and told me it was. I know my friend, and later saw the article and we were right and the author was in avoidance mode for his mistake, but I didn’t say any of that or argue with him–I just wrote a very polite apology for the misunderstanding and thanked him for correcting me. End of story? No…Karma is a good thing, folks. Three days later, a person in the top brass of that mag who I’ve been connecting with about potential coverage of my business when it goes live in June writes to ME about the article ALSO saying it is about my subject AND wrong AND suggesting that I write a “letter to the editor” to correct it and mention my business, and even connects me WITH the editor for that purpose, invites me to lunch, and we initiate a whole new phase of “we like us so we’ll help each other” conversation AND the editor says “Yes” to the correction letter’s publication! BEST of all? The NEXT issue–the one it’ll be in–happens to be the ONE issue per year they email to the lists of all 5 other publications they do in the same arena, an added e-circulation of over 100k all of whom will get my totally un-paid-for-promotional letter-to-the-editor with the mag’s thanks. Now imagine if I’d argued with the original writer, who still has clout there and in the industry, told him it was HE who was wrong and not me? It ALWAYS pays to be nice…but then, there’s some guy named Peter who says that all the time, right? Yeah. I knew I’d heard it somewhere…. π
Probably a good thing to remember: whatever is in your drafts folder could be published by accident … so keep it clean!
I would like to know what this Gmail program is. I have some small batch emails I need to send.
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Thanks for sharing. Can we get the list of mythical deities? π
That Peter. What an incompetent screw up. π
But in fact, that’s why people don’t want to own up to their mistakes. They think people will believe the above–that they are incompetent screw ups. But when they don’t admit the mistake, that’s when people think they are incompetent screw ups. So admit it, apologize and move on. People will actually think better of you.
(And to be clear because some people don’t read carefully, I DO NOT think Peter is an incompetent screw up. The only thing wrong with Peter is he keeps jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. >:-) )
I did that. Send a cute-sie follow up blaming it on the ninja lurking in the computer, and the crazy robots. I also apologized and mentioned that you have to ski harder to get better, and sometimes you face plant. That was it. Didn’t hear a peep. People have a 3 second attention span, get the good karma and move on.
Great advice. for business and for life! thank you once again @PeterShankman! had to laugh at ‘you actually hurt the universe’ and ‘string of sixteen curses invoking several mythical deities’.al mythical deities. – See more at: https://www.shankman.com/i-just-sent-the-wrong-ema
I’m just curious to know which deities you tried to invoke. π
I’m just curious to know which deities you tried to invoke. π
I’m just curious to know which deities you tried to invoke. π
I’m just curious to know which deities you tried to invoke. π
Great advice. Would be great if more people followed it instead of going into CYA mode.
At what point did you write the “Upworthy” headline? “Man Sends Email to Wrong Person. You will never guess what happened next…” Enjoy.
EXCELLENT advice Peter..we all will..and do screw up and addressing it is always the best way. You did good!! Thanks for sharing.
EXCELLENT advice Peter..we all will..and do screw up and addressing it is always the best way. You did good!! Thanks for sharing.
EXCELLENT advice Peter..we all will..and do screw up and addressing it is always the best way. You did good!! Thanks for sharing.
EXCELLENT advice Peter..we all will..and do screw up and addressing it is always the best way. You did good!! Thanks for sharing.
What I learned from this lesson is that you should keep your porn drafts on Yahoo, to prevent the Gmail script from sending the wrong thing…
What I learned from this lesson is that you should keep your porn drafts on Yahoo, to prevent the Gmail script from sending the wrong thing…
What I learned from this lesson is that you should keep your porn drafts on Yahoo, to prevent the Gmail script from sending the wrong thing…
Thanks for this. Everyone needs to hear this now and again.
Thanks for this. Everyone needs to hear this now and again.
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“I am sorry for your time”γ
I’m sorry that my mistake interrupt your work and time.
“I am sorry for your time”γ
I’m sorry that my mistake interrupt your work and time.