How to Create an Email Group in Outlook

Email remains the primary source of communication between businesses, small businesses, consumers, and marketers. There are times when you need to frequently send the same email to a group of people. Instead of adding contacts every time to compose mail menu, you can create mail group in Outlook and save yourself the hassle.

After setting up a group, you can insert it into the email and send a single message to multiple people at once. To be clear, all terms such as Contact Group, Contact List, Email Group, or Distribution List are the same. So, don’t get confused between them.

This is important for every Outlook user when they plan to send a mass email to a group of recipients, including employees, colleagues or friends. A group email allows each user to send a single email to multiple recipients at once rather than a tedious copy and paste activity.

After all, nearly 400 million email users actively rely on Outlook as their primary email medium and face this problem very frequently. This article will show you how to create a group email in Outlook using the default method. Let’s start.

What is a messaging group

An email group (contact group) is a collection of email IDs for sending emails frequently. When an administrator sends an email to an email group, all contacts in that group label receive the same email.

It’s similar to WhatsApp broadcasting, where an admin sends a message to the mailing list, and everyone in the group receives the message.

Use Outlook contacts to create an email group

In the example below, we’ll use Outlook Web to create a contact group. The trick will work on all platforms such as Chrome OS, Windows, Mac, and even Linux.

Here is a step by step guide on how to create an Outlook group to send bulk emails.

Step 1: Open Outlook on the web and sign in using Microsoft account credentials.

2nd step: Outlook Web collects small applications such as Outlook Calendar, Outlook Contacts, Microsoft To-Do, and Sticky Notes. Tap the Outlook Contacts icon.

Step 3: The next screen will show all the Outlook contacts that you have stored on Outlook.

Step 4: Hover over the contact you want to add to the mailing list, then click the checkbox to select it. Repeat for each contact you want to put on the list.

Step 5: Make sure that each contact you add is associated with an email. Otherwise, they won’t appear in the label when you email them later.

Step 6: After selecting each contact, click the Add to list, and then select New Contact List.

Step 7: Give the list a relevant name and press Enter.

You can create as many labels as you want in Outlook. Remember to give them a relevant name such as Family, Office, Company, Customers, etc.

Send email using email group in Outlook

Now that you have created a list with Outlook, it is time to send the email using Outlook. Follow the steps to the contact list in Outlook.

Step 1: Open Outlook on the web.

2nd step: Tap the Dial button in the upper left corner.

Step 3: In the New Mail window, start typing the name you gave to the contact list, then click the suggestion when it appears below the text field.

Step 4: After selecting the contact list, fill out the email and then click the Send button to send it to all members of the group list.

Unlike Gmail, Outlook Web does not display email addresses added to the compose mail menu. It just displays the name of the contact group. This is a bummer because you may need to verify contact names and email IDs before clicking the send button.

Edit an email group in Outlook

If you’ve recently expanded your family group or office group with new members, you’ll want to add them to the Outlook Contacts group. Follow the steps below to change the mail group.

Step 1: Open the Outlook on the web contact.

2nd step: Select All Contact Lists from the hamburger menu.

Step 3: Select the contact list you want to edit.

Step 4: Tap the Edit button in the contact list.

Step 5: Here you can type the contact’s name or email address to add them to the email contact group.

Step 6: If you want to delete an existing contact, tap the x mark next to it.

Pro tip: If you want to reduce confusion between the groups created, add a description for the mail group.

Outlook group limitations

Before you get started and begin to create Outlook email groups, you should understand some of the limitations of this method.

• Although you can easily send group emails in Outlook, creating an email group is a manual and time consuming process. Also, you should make sure that you have added the email IDs of each contact that you intend to add to this group.
• Email follow-ups are difficult. Let’s say you sent an email to a group of people. Some of them answered, others didn’t. You will need to write an individual email follow-up for each email address and send multiple emails manually.
• An Outlook group lacks personalization. You cannot personalize your group emails for individual recipients. Remember that you are writing an email for a group, not just one person. A generic email will not look good compared to a detailed, tailored email.

Send a bulk email on the go

Email groups can be a blessing for someone who manages the same email to a group of people. It is also a must have addition for small and medium businesses. On an individual level, it declutters the email process and saves you resources and time.