We are answering some of the most frequent questions from our users below. If you need more specific information about how to use the platform, you can always have a look at our user manuals.
Installation and account
Installing the extension is a simple process. Just go to the Chrome Web Store and click on the "Add to Chrome" button. The extension will be added to your browser and you will be automatically prompted to Gmail (as you will need to be logged into a Gmail account in order to use the extension). Once you are logged into Gmail, the next step is to activate your account.
In the browser where the extension is installed, you should login to Gmail with your preferred email account. You will notice that a welcome popup opens in the top right corner, from which you will be able to activate your account, by clicking the "Activate account" button. This will open a new popup (this one from Google) requesting the permissions required by the extension. Once granted, your Gumbamail account will be ready and you will be able to start using the extension.
When you create an account in Gumbamail, we request access to your Gmail account for the following purposes:
Have access to and download your Google Drive files: we need this to look for your recipient list in your spreadsheets from Google Drive.
Have access to and download your contacts from Google Contacts: we need this to retrieve your contacts from Google and add them to your recipient lists.
Have access to, make changes and delete your spreadsheets from Google Drive: we need this to be able to process your recipients’ data from a spreadsheet that you have previously selected.
Under no circumstances will we request access to your Gmail account to look at, change or send emails on your behalf.
You may cancel your account at any time in the "Account" view. Bear in mind that all of your campaigns, templates, recipient lists, domains and settings will be deleted permanently once you cancel your account.
About payment and pricing plans
Yes, there is a free plan that is automatically linked when you activate your account. The free plan allows you to try the extension without any time limitation, but it is limited regarding the number of emails that can be sent (250 emails per month with a maximum of 100 emails sent per day). You can check our pricing plans to see exactly what is included in the free plan.
At the moment, using a credit card is the only available payment method. You may use a Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, or American Express card.
None of our pricing plans have minimum-term commitment, which means you can cancel your plan immediately after you want to do so.
First steps and use of the extension
A recipient list is a list containing information about the recipients of your campaigns. With Gumbamail you can create as many lists as you need, including an unlimited number of recipients.
Lists should include for each recipient at least their email address, but can contain more data to allow you to personalise the campaign email (e.g. the recipient's name).
To create a list, you will first need create an empty list with a given name. Then, you will have to import your recipients' information in one of three ways: uploading a CSV file, selecting a Google Sheets spreadsheet, or selecting a group of contacts created in Google Contacts. Once the information has been imported, you will be able to review the information (discarding rows or columns) before saving your recipients information in the list.
Before you can set up your first mailing, you must create at least one recipient list, which will include the recipients to whom you will send the campaign.
Then, you will be able to create your first campaign through a few simple steps. You will have to enter the sender's information, the campaign's subject, the recipient list(s) and finally design the content of the email, starting from one of the available predefined templates included in the extension (more than 850). Finally, when the design is ready, you can send a test email, send the campaign or schedule it to be sent at a specific date and time.
Once the campaign is sent, you can check the campaign report, where you will find the content of the email sent and a summary with statistics about the success of the delivery (such as emails delivered, soft bounces and hard bounces) and the impact of the campaign (emails opened, not opened, complaints). You can also check and export the behaviour of each recipient, consult how many times the URLs included in the email have been opened and other advanced data (such as opens per device, per country, per browser, etc.).
On any paid plan there is no limit on the maximum number of emails that can be sent daily. Since we have our own sending platform that is not dependent on Gmail, your emails will not be affected by the daily sending limit set by Gmail (2,000 emails per day).
In case you own a domain, you can register and verify it in Gumbamail. Once registered, you can set up DKIM and SPF, which allows email providers to verify the identity of the sender of your campaign emails. This enhances deliverability, as email providers consider these emails as legitimate and trustworthy at delivery time.
Email design
You can customize any of our more than 800 free templates or design your own from scratch. Thanks to our drag & drop editor you will be able to create beautiful designs without the need of HTML knowledge.
Yes. When creating a list, apart from including the required email address of each recipient, you can include any additional information (such name, age, interests, etc.). Later, when creating your campaign, if you have chosen a recipient list that contains additional information, you will be able to include one or more of your custom merge tags while designing the content of the email. At sending time, this merge tags will be replaced by the value associated with each recipient, so that each email is different.