If you work in sales or customer success, you probably spend way too much time chasing people who don’t reply. The worst part? You know you should follow up more—but it’s boring, tedious, and easy to forget. This is for folks who want to stop dropping leads and start closing more deals by automating their follow-up emails, without shelling out for expensive tools or messing with code.
Let’s talk about using Yamm—short for Yet Another Mail Merge—with Google Sheets and Gmail. It’s straightforward, cheap, and does what it says on the tin: sends personalized emails (and follow-ups) in bulk, right from your Google account. No, it’s not magic AI. But it actually works.
Why bother automating follow-ups?
First, the obvious: most people don’t reply to your first email. Life is busy, inboxes are messy, and even hot leads get distracted. If you don’t nudge them, you’ll lose deals that could’ve closed with a simple reminder.
But manual follow-ups stink. Here’s what tends to happen:
- You forget who needs a nudge and when.
- You lose track of threads in your inbox.
- You waste hours copying, pasting, and tweaking emails.
Automating this stuff means:
- No one falls through the cracks.
- You look organized (even if you’re not).
- You have more time to handle actual sales conversations.
Yamm isn’t the only tool for this job, but it’s one of the easiest if you’re already using Google Workspace.
What you need before you start
Before you try to automate anything, make sure you have:
- A Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace)
- Access to Google Sheets
- The Yamm add-on installed (search “Yet Another Mail Merge” in the Google Workspace Marketplace)
- A rough list of leads you want to email (names, email addresses, maybe company names)
- A couple of email templates (one for the first email, one or more for follow-ups)
If you don’t have templates, don’t overthink it. Simple, human, and polite usually wins over clever copywriting.
Step 1: Set up your lead list in Google Sheets
Yamm uses Google Sheets as the engine for your mail merge. That’s good news, because you can sort, filter, and update your leads easily. Here’s how to get your spreadsheet ready:
- Open a new Google Sheet.
- Create columns: At minimum, you need “First Name” and “Email.” Add others as needed (e.g., “Company,” “Last Contacted,” “Status”).
- Paste in your leads. Each row is one contact.
Pro tip: Add a “Last Follow-Up Sent” column. It helps you keep track if you want to do more advanced stuff later.
Step 2: Install Yamm and connect it to your sheet
If you haven’t installed Yamm yet, do this now:
- Go to the Google Workspace Marketplace.
- Search for “Yet Another Mail Merge.”
- Click “Install” and follow the prompts.
Once installed:
- Open your lead sheet.
- Click “Extensions” → “Yet Another Mail Merge” → “Start Mail Merge.”
Yamm will prompt you to connect your Gmail account and authorize permissions. Yes, it needs access to send emails on your behalf. If you’re squeamish about privacy, read their policy. But it’s a legit, widely-used add-on—not some fly-by-night spam tool.
Step 3: Write your first email template
Yamm sends emails using drafts in your Gmail. Here’s how to make it work smoothly:
- Open Gmail.
- Write a new draft. Use placeholders for personalization, like
{{First Name}}or{{Company}}. Example:
Subject: Quick question, {{First Name}}
Hi {{First Name}},
Just checking in to see if you had a chance to look over my last email. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks, [Your Name]
- Save the draft. Keep it in your Drafts folder. Don’t send it.
What to watch out for: Don’t get too clever with personalization. If your sheet doesn’t have a “Company” column but you use {{Company}} in your email, Yamm will send out blank fields. Double-check your headers.
Step 4: Configure and launch your first mail merge
Back in your Google Sheet:
- Click “Extensions” → “Yet Another Mail Merge” → “Start Mail Merge.”
- Select the Gmail draft you just wrote as your template.
- Choose the columns for “To” (usually your Email column) and any custom fields.
- Set sender name if you want (optional).
- Test with a few rows first. (Always test! You don’t want to accidentally send 500 emails with “Hi ,”)
Yamm will send your emails from your Gmail account, one by one. This keeps things personal and reduces the chances of landing in spam.
Reality check: Google limits how many emails you can send per day. Regular Gmail is 50-100/day; Google Workspace is up to 1500/day. Don’t try to blast huge lists all at once, or you’ll get throttled or blocked.
Step 5: Automate your follow-up emails
Now for the real magic: follow-ups. Yamm can send automatic follow-up emails to people who don’t reply to your first message. Here’s how:
- Create a follow-up draft in Gmail.
- Write a new draft, just like before.
- Use the same placeholders.
-
Example:
Subject: Any updates, {{First Name}}?
Hi {{First Name}},
Just wanted to bump this to the top of your inbox in case you missed my last note. Happy to answer any questions.
Best, [Your Name]
-
Back in your sheet, start the mail merge again.
- Under Yamm’s settings, look for “Follow-up emails.”
- Choose your follow-up draft.
- Set the delay (e.g., 3 days after no reply).
-
Optionally, add more follow-up steps (but don’t go overboard—two is usually plenty).
-
Launch the campaign. Yamm will automatically check for replies and only send follow-ups to people who haven’t answered.
What works: - Short, polite reminders. - Spacing them a few days apart. - Stopping after 2-3 attempts (any more and you risk being annoying).
What doesn’t: - Sending daily nags—people will unsubscribe or mark you as spam. - Overly generic follow-ups (“Just circling back one more time!”). - Pretending to be someone else or using fake urgency.
Step 6: Track results and tweak as you go
Yamm adds columns to your sheet showing who opened, clicked, replied, or bounced. Use this data:
- Filter leads: Focus on folks who opened but didn’t reply—maybe they need a different approach.
- Update “Status”: Mark leads as “Responded,” “Not Interested,” etc. This helps you avoid bugging people who already said no.
- Tweak templates: If your open rates are bad, try new subject lines. If replies are low, change your call to action.
Ignore the hype: No tool guarantees a flood of deals. Automating follow-ups gets you more conversations, not instant sales. The real work still happens in your replies.
Pro tips and honest takes
- Keep it simple. The more steps you add, the more things can break. Start with one follow-up; add more later if you need.
- Don’t over-personalize. First name and maybe company is enough. The rest feels forced.
- Respect unsubscribes. If someone asks out, take them off your list. Yamm won’t do this automatically.
- Stay out of spam. Use your real email, send to real people, and don’t overdo it. Google watches for weird spikes in activity.
- Yamm is not a CRM. It’s a mail merge tool. Use it for sending, then update your real CRM as needed.
When Yamm isn’t enough
If you need true drip campaigns, automatic unsubscribes, or complex workflows, you’ll outgrow Yamm. At that point, look at proper sales automation tools—but expect to pay more and deal with more complexity.
For most small teams, though, Yamm + Sheets covers 80% of the problem without a big learning curve.
Wrapping up: Don’t overcomplicate it
Automating follow-ups isn’t sexy, but it works. With Yamm, you spend an hour setting things up, and you stop losing deals because you forgot to send that second email. Start simple, test your process, and tweak as needed. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of done. The sooner you automate the boring stuff, the sooner you can focus on deals that actually matter.