How to Create a Group Mailing List in Apple Mail

By Sophie Southern

Creating a group mailing list is practical for sending newsletters, announcements, invitations and memos, but you may not necessarily want to pay the fees for paid group-mailing services. If you're on a Mac, you can use Apple Mail in combination with Address Book and Automator to create a custom group mailer. While you can't technically make a mailing list in Mail, it can access your mailing list from Address Book.

Click the Mail icon in your Dock to open Apple Mail. Locate each contact you want to add to your mailing list and click and hold the contact name in the "From" field of your email until you see an options menu.

Select "Add to Address Book" to automatically copy the email address and available contact information to your Address Book. Repeat this process with all of the contacts you want to add to your mailing list.

Navigate to your "Applications" folder and open Address Book. Click the "+" symbol below the "Groups" column in the far left to create a new group. Type a name for your group, such as "Mailing List."

Locate and select the contacts you want to add to the list. You can use the "Shift" key to select multiple contacts in a row or the "Command" key to select non-consecutive contacts. Drag and drop the contacts to the newly created group to add them. Close your Address Book.

Navigate back to your "Applications" folder and open Automator. Click the "Workflow" icon and then click the "Choose" button.

Click the "Mail" link in the left column. In the second column, which is the action library for the category, locate and select "New Mail Message." Drag the action into the action window, which is the column all the way to the right.

Click the "Contacts" link in the left column. Drag the "Get Specified Address Book Items" action into the action window on the right and drop it underneath the "New Mail Message" action.

Click the "Add" button in the action window. Select your mailing list group from the left column and hold the "Command" and "A" keys at the same time to select all. Click the "Add" button.

Click the "Mail" link in the left column of the Automator application window. Drag the "Group Mailer" action into the left column and release it under the "Get Specified Address Book Items" action.

Drag the "Send Outgoing Messages" action, also in the Mail category, underneath the "Group Mailer" action. Select "File" from the top menu bar and then select "Save" to save your mailing list workflow.

Type a subject and body for your email into the New Mail action window in the "Subject" and "Message" fields, respectively. You can change these each time you send a new mailer. Click the "Account" tab to select the email account you want to use with "Apple" mail.

Click the "Run" button in the top-right corner of the Automator application window to run your work flow and send your group mailer. When you click the "Run" button, Automator will automatically send your email to the contacts on your list. If you want to view your messages before sending them, drag the "Send Outgoing Messages" action out of the action window.

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