This is How Gmail Automation Works (+ 10 Easy Techniques, incl. AI)

Can you imagine? that we often spend up to 20% of our time on just managing emails?

20%! That’s more than 90 minutes in an 8-hour workday!

It’s no surprise that we often feel burnt out, resigned, and stressed beyond belief just by thinking about opening the inbox. After all, the work keeps piling up, and we know we’d be stuck processing emails….again.

Enter Gmail automation, a way to reclaim at least some of that time.

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Below, I outlined everything you should know about it. I also offered nine amazingly simple ways to get started with automating your Gmail.

So, let’s do it.

What is Gmail Automation? 

I admit that the term – Gmail automation – can feel a little bit elusive so let me explain it in a bit more detail.

When we talk about automating Gmail, we refer to rules that you can put in place to manage emails that arrive in your inbox automatically.

The simplest example of Gmail automation is deleting or archiving newsletters and other irrelevant content. With just a simple filter, you can get Gmail to skip showing particular types of messages in your inbox and move them to Trash instead. You’ll no longer see them and you will never have to process and waste time on them again.

But naturally, there is far more to automating Gmail than just setting up filters. Software like Keeping (disclaimer – this is my tool,) can help you take automation even further, particularly if you’re using Gmail to manange customer support inquiries, and so on.

For example, Keeping could automatically assign tickets, prioritize important customers, or ignore spam and promotional emails, and so on.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Before we discuss the different ways to automate Gmail, let’s quickly recap why it’s such a good idea.

The Benefits of Gmail Automation

Gmail automation saves time

Let’s start with the obvious – When you automate various tasks in Gmail, the system takes over, and you no longer have to perform those actions.

But this means more than just not having to click on a particular button or so.

Just think about it, with clever filters and automations, you no longer have to make various decisions about different messages. It’s the system that identifies marketing messages, newsletters, promotions, etc. and acts on them according to the rules you’ve specified.

In most cases, you don’t even see those messages. And thus, you no longer have to use up internal resources and energy to process those.

Automating Gmail helps you work faster, too

This comes as a result of using various automations to speed up the response time. Capabilities like canned responses, for example, allow you to use pre-set answers so that you don’t have to write replies individually every time.

Also, being able to allocate messages to more suitable colleagues will help you clear the inbox quickly while moving projects further, too.  

Not to mention that by automating Gmail, you create a more organized inbox

It’s crazy but also, so common. People keep all their emails in the inbox, including unread newsletters and marketing emails.

The result… Well, for one, the inbox looks beyond overwhelming. Plus, I’m sure that the ever-growing number of unread messages is not helping to reduce the anxiety.

Various automations can help reduce that clutter, and organize the entire email account.

In this case, the result might still not be inbox zero, but at least it’s a more manageable one.

It all sounds great, but can you actually automate an email in Gmail?

Yes, you absolutely can automate an email in Gmail and there are several ways you can do it.

It all depends on what you want to do with your emails since you can set up your Gmail to support your workflow and save more time. 

If you want to automate an email, you can set up filters and labels to categorize your email and filter messages. Alternatively, you can instruct Gmail to take an alternative action for new emails that arrive in your inbox. It’s possible to set up automatic replies so you can deal with emails that you receive without human intervention. 

That being said, there are only a limited number of ways to automate emails in Gmails without investing in third-party software like Keeping. If you choose Keeping, you can organize your incoming messages much more effectively to allow a team of agents to collaborate on customer service. 

10 Ways to Automate Gmail

1. Set emails to go to a folder in Gmail automatically

In Gmail, the platform uses a system of labels to replace the concept of folders in your inbox. Labels allow you to sort incoming messages into different categories to give you a handle on the different types of mail coming into your inbox. 

Not only does Gmail allow you to use labels, but you can also automatically route your emails according to labels without manual intervention. You automatically sort emails into labels using filters, which are easy to set up using Gmail. This method keeps your inbox clear of emails that don’t necessarily need your immediate attention. 

Here’s how to do it: 

• Select the icon to the right of the search bar in Gmail. 
• This opens a drop-down menu with a number of fields you can fill in to create your filter. 
• Enter the text you like into the fields including From, To, and Subject. 
• Select the button “Create filter”. 
• In the screen that opens, select the option to “Apply the label” and select “Choose label”. 
• Select “New label” and enter the name of your label in the field that appeals. 
• Select “Create” to set up your new label and then select “Create filter”.

You have now created your new filter in Gmail and all new emails in Gmail will be categorized with the appropriate label. This helps keep your inbox organized. You can even choose different colors for your labels to give it more of a visual distinction in the inbox. 

2. Automate an email list in Gmail

In Gmail, you must use Google Contacts to automate a Gmail list. A contact list contains a list of contacts that you have selected, such as “new subscribers” or “customer service team”. Using this method enables you to automatically send an email to many recipients at once instead of having to add them to your email manually. 

This automation can be helpful if you regularly send email to a particular group of respondents and want to save time. As long as the person is saved in your contacts, you will be able to add them to your contact list. 

Here’s how to do it: 

• In the left-hand menu in Google Contacts, select “Create label” and a new screen will open. 
• Name your contact label something descriptive and then select “Save”. This will create your new label in the sidebar. 
• In order to add your contact to the list, select the checkbox next to the contact name, select the label icon from the menu at the top and choose your label. 
• Alternatively, you can drag the selected contacts onto a label in the sidebar. 
• Navigating to the toolbar above the label, you can select “Manage labels”.  
• If you have a list of contacts you want to import, navigate to the sidebar, and select “Import” to import a CSV or vCard file that contains a list of external contacts. 
• When you are in the import window, choose the custom label that you want to apply to each imported contact.

When you want to include a mailing list from Google Contacts to your email recipients, just find the label name by typing it in the “To” field in Gmail. In this way, you will be able to send mail to multiple contacts without searching for them manually. 

3. Create Gmail templates and canned responses

In Gmail, it’s possible to set up email templates that you can use to reply to repetitive emails. It’s a waste of time to write out the same email repeatedly, or it takes an extra step to copy and paste a response from Microsoft Word. 

There is a way to save canned responses that you can select and insert into an email using just a few clicks. It’s very simple to save an email template within Gmail that you can save and use every time you need it, eliminating the need to type out a response every time manually. 

Here’s the way to do it: 

• Enter Gmail and open the “compose” window. 
• Type the email you want to save as a template and select the three dots at the bottom of the window. 
• Go to “templates” and select “save draft as template”. 
• This process will save your new email as a template for next time. 

Next time you compose an email in Gmail, follow the same process by going to “templates” and selecting the template you would like to insert into your email. Choosing your template automatically inserts the pre-written text into your email, which you can then send as normal to your recipient. 

4. Set up an auto-response

If you’re like many busy workers, you may want to set up an auto-response in your Gmail inbox to automatically deal with incoming mail. This is especially useful if you are a customer service team using Gmail and you want to alert your customers about opening hours and average response times. 

In Gmail, there is a way to trigger an auto-responder that is sent to all emails that arrive in your inbox. You can set this up once and it will automatically reply to all incoming mail. Gmail controls the schedule so that it is only sent once every four days, so even if your respondent emails you multiple times they won’t be overwhelmed with auto-responders. 

Here’s how to do it: 

• In the top right-hand corner of Gmail, select the gear icon to open Gmail settings, and then navigate to “See all settings”.
• In the screen that opens, scroll down to the “Vacation responder” section which is just at the bottom of the screen.
• Toggle the “Vacation responder on” to turn on your vacation responder.
• Enter the range of dates, subject line, and message in the fields provided.
• You can check whether you only want people in your contacts to see your vacation responder. 
• Select “Save Changes” to set up your vacation responder.

Now, any time you receive an email in your Gmail, the sender will automatically receive an auto-response letting them know you have received it. You can include all sorts of relevant information such as your business hours, or an emergency contact. 

5. Schedule emails for later

Did you know that in Gmail it’s possible to delay the sending of an email to a time that suits you better? This works when you want to write your emails in batches but you want your recipients to receive them at a more appropriate time of day. 

Sending an email at different times of day makes it more likely you will receive a response. It might suit you to compose an email at midnight, but you would rather it be one of the first emails your correspondent receives at 9am in the morning. This works if you want to give the impression of particular business hours but you want to write emails in your own time. 

Without this Gmail automation, you would have to write a draft and then remember to send it at the appropriate time. You can remove the chance of human error by scheduling a send in Gmail. 

Here’s how to do it:  

• Open the Compose window in Gmail to write a new message. 
• Enter the recipient, the subject, and the text you want to include in your email. 
• Next to the “Send” button, select the down arrow and select “Schedule send”. 
• Select “Pick a date and time” to determine when you want your email to be sent, and enter the fields that open. 
• Select “Schedule send”. 

It’s much more convenient to schedule an email at a time the respondent is more likely to open it, but allowing you to write the email when it suits you. 

6. Set up automatic forwarding

There could be times when you want to automatically forward an email to someone else in Gmail, when someone emails you but you think the message is more appropriate for someone else. This could be when you want to send a request to your assistant, or your customer service team wants to forward inquiries to the billing department, for example. 

You can use Gmail filters to sort the emails you would like to forward which means you don’t have to organize them yourself. 

Here’s how to do it: 

• Select the icon to the right of the search bar. 
• Enter the “From” address if relevant, or enter “Subject” with the appropriate terms for the email you want to forward. 
• Select “Create filter” to open a new window. 
• Select the option to “Forward it” and “Create filter” to forward the relevant emails to a new email address. 

It’s important to remember that to set up a forwarding address you have to add it to the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” section of Gmail settings.

7. Automate email sequences with third-party software

In Gmail, there is no native way to automate an email sequence – and by email sequence, we mean follow-up recurring emails if a certain condition is or is not met. To achieve this functionality, you’ll need to use a tool like Right Inbox which is a free add-on for Gmail. First you have to install Right Inbox before you can create a sequence. 

In Right Inbox, you can create an email sequence for your outgoing messages depending on whether an email has not been opened, the link not clicked on, or the email not replied to. To create a sequence, select “Sequences” and hit “Manage Sequences”. You can select an amount of time that has elapsed for the follow-up email to be sent. 

These sort of email sequences are very useful if you are regularly emailing recipients who need to respond, such as a high-performing sales team. You can save time from manually having to follow-up with people who have already been emailed. 

Utilizing email sequences enables the hard work to take place in the background while you get on with more productive tasks. 

8. Use smart compose

In Gmail, it’s not exactly possible to create an auto-generated email, which is an email created by AI instead of a human. What you can do in Gmail is take advantage of predictive AI (or what Gmail calls Smart Compose) which suggests phrases and sentences as you type an email, saving you valuable time in composition. 

The big advantage of Smart Compose is that Gmail suggests text for you personalized to the way you normally write, so its helpful hints are specific only to you. It’s about the halfway point between an entirely AI auto-generated email and one that’s been written by a human. 

At the moment, Gmail can’t use AI to write the email for you, but you can use tools like Flowrite which uses artificial intelligence to create emails for you based on minimal input. In Flowrite, you make bullet point suggestions for what you want to include and the platform writes the email for you. 

Machine learning is developing to a point where soon emails will be composed artificially. 

9. Hide all promotional emails from your inbox

Most of us receive far too many newsletters and promotional emails. Of course, many of these are relevant and interesting. But we still don’t need to be sorting through them every time we open the inbox.

Luckily, you can set Gmail to detect those messages and hide them from view.

Here’s a quick hack to help you do it. It focuses on one aspect of all promotional emails – By law, these emails are required to allow users to unsubscribe. And so, as a result, they all contain the word “unsubscribe” in them, and usually, that’s a link to the unsubscribe page.

To quickly filter for those images, set up a filter that looks for all emails with the word “unsubscribe” in them.

Then, set the filter to send those emails to a specific label AND skip the inbox (or archive them.)

That’s it. From now on, all marketing emails will immediately be stored in the label you’ve created.

This means that you can still go through all those emails. But you won’t be seeing them in the inbox all the time.

Pretty cool, right?

10. Integrate with AI to further expand your Gmail automation

It’s true – Gmail has a long history of using AI to help process emails. AI has been part of the spam filter for a long time.

• Features like Smart Compose have been using a hybrid language generator mode to help speed the email writing process.
• Smart Reply would suggest three more relevant answers to an email so you could reply with just a tap or click, and so on.

(image source)

But there is another way to use AI to automate Gmail – Through direct integration with AI.

Disclaimer: You need an account with a third-party AI provider plus a Zapier account to use this method.

For example, using One AI with Zapier can help you take Gmail automation to a whole new level. You can:

Summarize new emails with AI

• Send new emails to another system, like your CRM, with a quick summary of the message.
• Send email summaries to Slack
• Cluster emails, and a ton more.

And that’s it…

When you use the power of Gmail automations, you will find your work-life transformed. These handy tips and tricks are essential if you want to stay on top of a bucket load of emails without simply ignoring or deleting most of them. 

Having a more organized inbox is one of the keys to staying more productive and devoting more time to the work that really matters. Not every email you receive requires personal attention and yet you probably want to send it to a particular part of the inbox. 

Gmail automations enable much better email management and increases the likelihood you’ll get to inbox zero. 

To automate emails in Gmail, you don’t need to leave the Gmail interface. These features are native and can be used by any Gmail user. If you want to extend the capabilities of Gmail, you can consider software like Keeping to take your customer service to the next level.