Groups are what make Gaggle Mail great. With your groups you can make the most of what Gaggle has to offer, organizing activities, dispensing wisdom, or just keeping in touch.
To make your groups successful, you need to add other people though — you can’t just talk to yourself! And Gaggle Mail makes it as easy as possible for you to get more people involved, whether individually or in large batches.
There are two main ways to grow your group numbers: adding people directly or inviting them to join. We’re going to go over both these methods below, as well as covering a number of other useful hints and tips as well.
How to add members to your Gaggle Mail group
Adding members to your group is simple. Just head over to the Members area of your group administration panel, and click the ‘Add’ button. This will bring up a text box where you can enter contact details of anyone you want to add to your group.
You must enter an email address (no surprises there!). You’ll also see a field for the member name, although filling this in is optional. The order you fill in the details (name first or email first) doesn’t matter, as long as you separate them and keep it to one person per line.
Once you’ve filled out your new member’s details, decide whether you are going to send a welcome email and check or uncheck the box accordingly, then click ‘Add Members’. If you’ve chosen to send them an email, they will receive a welcome message and can begin participating right away!
Top tip >> If you’re moving people over from an existing email list or system, then adding members directly is the easiest route to take. You can add multiple members in one go — resulting in less admin work for you.
If, on the other hand, you’re adding new members to your group — and if they haven’t given you specific permission to use their email address — then our next option is arguably more suitable…
How to invite people to join your group
A little etiquette goes a long way. So rather than assuming your contacts want to join a group, why not ask them upfront?
The process of inviting members is almost identical to adding them directly — head to the Members area, click the ‘Add’ button, then fill in the details in the box. However, when you reach the bottom of the screen, rather than checking the ‘Directly to the group’ box, check the ‘Send an invitation for people to accept’ box instead.
This will send an invitation email to every address you add, giving every potential new member the opportunity to accept or reject the invitation.
Top tip >> You don’t have to invite members. Even if people haven’t given you permission to add them directly, you can still go ahead as every welcome email includes an ‘Unsubscribe’ link. The choice is yours.
How to add or invite members in bulk
Got a long list of members to add or invite to Gaggle Mail? You can do this by uploading a .csv or .xlsx file containing their email addresses and names.
Your list can be in any order you like, as long as there’s just one column for email addresses, one column for names, and only one email address and name per line, like this:
So there you have it. Building your groups in Gaggle Mail is a short and straightforward process.
If you have any further questions about the changes we’ve made — about adding new members or just about your groups in general — then get in touch. We’re here when you need us.