How to Automatically Label Emails in Gmail

Disorganized inboxes can scramble necessary project information and hinder efficient workflows. Organizing your team inboxes boosts productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Unfortunately, organizing inboxes can be a tedious process. Learning how to automatically label emails in Gmail can help create a seamless, organized inbox without all the busy work.

How To Automatically Label Emails in Gmail: Finding the Right Automation Tools

Learning how to automatically label emails in Gmail can make a huge impact on your team's workflow collaboration and user experience. Gathering information for various projects is much easier when team members label each email by project name.

To automatically sort emails into a label in Gmail, you must first create your labels in your inbox. 

Gmail makes creating labels fast and easy. Simply press the + icon next to “labels” and add the preferred name and location. You can also color-code your labels and toggle them on or off to hide them for clearer organization.

To sort your emails automatically into labels, Gmail filters will be your best friend. Click on the search options at the top to set up filters. From there, you will see this screen:  

Using the available options, users can enter information about specific senders and topics to create a filter that sorts all emails meeting that criteria into the Gmail label of their choice. 

For example, if you want all messages with payroll information to filter into a label titled “payroll,” simply set the subject line to include “payroll,” and include related words to help filter those emails correctly into the payroll label you created. 

Automate Labeling with Tools Outside Gmail

Labeling is important in Gmail, but it takes a lot of time and effort to do manually. While users can label tasks using native Gmail functions, additional automation tools offer more efficient, user-friendly ways to automate this task so your team can focus on more critical tasks. 

If you’re looking for a tool that will automatically label emails in Gmail, there are a few things you should consider:

Versatility

Automation should ‘autopilot’ your busy work to boost your team’s productivity in the most efficient way possible. As a result, automation tools for Gmail must be versatile. The level of automation should support both individual and shared inboxes. 

Customization

Automation reduces manual actions by using a predetermined set of rules to sort information. Setting automation rules can get complicated and is often time-consuming for teams. 

With Gmelius, we use an “If this–then that” formula that allows team members to base automations on cause-and-effect clauses. For example, if this user sends an email, then it needs to be labeled with a specific project name. 

Such automation rules allow team members to add labels based on a set of factors. Instead of going through each email to determine which ones fit your guidelines, setting “if this–then that” automation rules can complete the same actions in a fraction of the time it takes humans. 

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Time-Based Service-Level Agreement Rules

Teams often automate with service-level agreement (SLA) rules so emails never go unanswered or receive a response too late. This is important for helping teams maintain unified information sources. After all, each individual organizes their own email differently. 

Setting this type of automation rule keeps client contracts in line without the added stress for account managers. With time-based SLA rule automation, teams can label multiple tasks simultaneously, enabling you to meet every aspect of your client agreement with short response times and quality customer service. 

Kanban Boards

Kanban boards offer virtual environments that visually organize all the tasks and assignments in your team’s workflow. Sophisticated automation tools allow team members to add conversation-based tags or move assignments to the next column. Finding a solution that combines Kanban boards and automation offers your team a visually appealing workspace that is well organized. 

Use Cases: Automation in Action

When learning how to automatically label emails in Gmail, sometimes it’s helpful to examine use cases and apply them to your own scenario. Here are a few examples of teams that use workflow automation with Gmelius. Gmelius has all the features and integrations mentioned above—and more—to enrich your team’s efficacy. 

Legal Teams

Within the world of law, communication is critical. On one hand, Gmail can help keep tabs on cases, record billable hours, and communicate with clients. If you are not using Gmail to its full potential, disorganization can interrupt

communication and damage your cases and your performance.

Technology and Customer Support

The technology industry has become deeply integrated with many virtual workplaces in the last few years. With this transition, online communication has become increasingly important within the tech industry. Many technical workers no longer sit next to co-workers in face-to-face settings, so quick questions may not be an option. 

Gmail labeling can help identify specific tasks and assignments, eliminating the need for additional questions.

 Many IT companies use a hierarchical tier system, which can benefit both information technology and customer support. A tier system sends tasks as emails to a team on tier one. Tasks get escalated or delegated to the proper tier based on the urgency or complexity of the task or request.

Learning how to automatically label emails in Gmail can be beneficial for tier systems, as automatically adding an “urgent” label to time-sensitive tasks can prevent teams from breaching SLAs. For example, if an email comes in with the subject, “Computer screen won’t turn on,” you can set an automation rule so that if a task contains the word “screen,” then it is labeled as “tier 2.” Teams on tier 2 know their responsibility is to work on “tier 2” tasks. 

Gmelius’ customizable Kanban boards offer a visual workspace where each tier can have its own column. Emails can be automatically sorted into the correct columns, so the right team members can address them quickly. 

Sales

Sales teams bank on communication with potential clients, whether through phone calls or email. Sales teams often need to save emails from potential customers for later review. Encouraging customers from the initial research

stage toward conversion could take months or even years. In these cases, potential customers often need more time to progress along the sales funnel. To provide potential buyers the time they need to decide without losing a possible lead, sales teams can use automation rules that move these emails into a “contact later” label. Gmelius simplifies this action with shared Gmail labels, so everyone on your team can view potential prospects, increasing potential sales.

Higher Education

In an effort to accommodate students who cannot attend school in person, Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, offers the opportunity to earn online degrees. This option has grown in popularity among other universities across the country, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Online communication can be difficult, especially for students who already use several other digital messaging channels. Fortunately, Boise State department heads recognized this challenge early on and placed communication and collaboration at the top of their list of issues to tackle. 

Shared Gmail labels and workflow automation rules from Gmelius help university administrators support multiple programs by organizing emails, streamlining workflows, and ensuring the correct contact person promptly receives the proper task or request. 

Admissions officers use shared Gmail labels to keep track of applicants who need to send additional documents to complete their applications. Individual colleges can use the same functionality to track different department and committee communications—and follow up later on assigned action items. 

Professors can use shared Gmail labels to sort incoming student assignments into different classes, create shared inboxes for collaborative graduate seminars, and keep everything separate from messages to and from shared inboxes for various research committees. Student advisors have an easier time keeping track of individual student requests and special needs (or homework assignments) when they use shared labels and add specific context with email notes.

Using Gmelius has streamlined distance learning at Boise State for students, professors, and staff across the board.

Gmelius: The Workflow You Deserve

When learning how to automatically label emails in Gmail, it’s important to use a comprehensive automation tool. Gmelius offers all the aforementioned automation features—and more—so your team only needs one tool to increase collaboration and productivity. Whether you work in customer support, sales, law, or higher education, Gmelius’ automation and labelling functions can help your team succeed in countless ways! 

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‍Learn how to automatically label emails in Gmail with Gmelius. Check out our features and integrations and learn how Gmelius is built to improve team communication and collaboration. Ready to get started? Sign up today!