How to use Gmail contact groups to optimize your teamwork

Between sharing skills and data, collaborative work means a higher need for speedy, efficient and clear communication. Remote teams, global organizations and company departments need to have their conversations streamlined. That’s where gmail contact groups help.

The idea behind the tool is that small business owners can work within gmail and its easy navigation interface, without sacrificing the professional side. That means using gmail as a business tool with a separate account and having specific group inboxes for each part of it. 

How Gmail helps your business stay professional

The need for a streamlined process is clear, especially for small companies. There are many advantages to choosing email conversations over messages and calls. First, there is a clearer set of expectations that can be easily reviewed. Contact groups for gmail help send the information to all that need it instantly, making the process much faster and easier.

Secondly, a gmail account is integrated to Google Drive and to Google Business tools, so you can manage every aspect at the same place. Instead of looking for information in personal accounts, everything is stored right where it needs to be.

Aliases are easy to set up

One of the reasons Gmail is a favorite among team managers is the easy process to set up aliases. Right at the configurations bar, you can create aliases for each department or professional.

That way, you can add finance@companyname, payroll@companyname, hr@company name to a single inbox and have the manager oversee them all easily, for example. 

Use your own domain

Do you have a website for your company? Then you can add your own domain to your gmail business account. It’s very easy to set up, all you need is to go through an authentication process and your email redirects right to gmail’s interface.

Gmail contact groups

This is a hidden gem for managers and business owners. Every time a message needs to be sent across the board to employees, distributors, clients and other groups, there is manual labor involved in setting up addresses and updating if needed.

The gmail group contacts is an automatic tool to make the process faster. This way, you set up multiple groups of people by specific demands and instead of copying and pasting recipients every time, you can have an automated list.

How to create a contact group in gmail

And how can a business manager or owner set up these lists? It’s a pretty easy process. First, you need to access your contacts page on a web browser. From there, every single contact you have on gmail will be displayed on a list which you can sort alphabetically or by last message received, however you prefer it. Then, check the box to the left of the names of the people you want to add to a group.

For example, say you are creating a gmail contact group for employees. Find them all, check the boxes and click on the labels icon at the top menu. Click “create label” and name it “Employees”. Then save.

Create labels according to your list, such as “distributors”, “clients”, “employees”, “managers”, etc. This helps your emailing process since now you don’t have to manually add each of them to every message you send.

Adding contacts to a gmail using the gmail mobile app

If you’re on the mobile app, the process is similar. Open the contacts app, select all the names you need and click the three-dots icon. Then select “add to label” and repeat the process above as needed.

Sending a message to a gmail contact group

Now that you have your lists ready, it’s time to test their functionality. Go back to gmail and open a new message. Add your texts and then, at the “BCC” field, write the name of the mailing list you want to send it to. Now, all the recipients will have it delivered to their inboxes.

And, since you used the BCC field, they won’t be able to see the accounts of other recipients. This works better for privacy and for sending information to clients without exposing other clients’ information.

Internal messaging

However, when messaging employees and other company internal contacts, you can use regular CC. This way, everyone is aware of team members’ addresses and can direct information or questions to the responsible teams and managers.

Get one step ahead with shared inboxes

If you are sending emails to clients and your team gets lost in email threads and forwarded messages when dealing with the incoming responses, you should try Drag. Our shared inboxes and boards can be used by an entire team simultaneously. Say you use the marketing inbox to inform clients of an important deal. With Drag all the marketing team members can access the replies in a task management board and assign the one responsible for each contact. Don’t waste time forwarding messages and navigating email threads ever again, manage emails like clockwork across your entire team.

Managing and adding contacts to gmail lists

If you have a new employee, client or anyone you want to add to a preexisting list, the process is still easy. Go back to your contacts page, find their address and select. Then click “Label” and add them to the respective existing list.

Conclusion

Now you know how gmail contact groups can help your business grow, reaching audiences, managing teams and organizing day-to-day operations. Next, you should check how to use the other features on Google Workspace to organize, automate and archive important information.