Author Archives: John Shriver-Blake

Workspace Individual adds storage, mail merge and global regions

Since launching Google Workspace Individual last year, we’ve seen customers from around the world grow their businesses, connect with their customers in more meaningful ways, collaborate with partners, get organized and look more professional. Business owners have told us the familiarity of our tools helps them get more done. And today, we’re offering even more features for Workspace Individual users. We’re announcing an increase to storage capacity and advances in email personalization for all customers. We’re also expanding our regional availability to bring Google Workspace Individual to even more business owners around the world.

Grow your business — and the number of files you can store

Soon every Google Workspace Individual account will come with 1 TB of secure cloud storage. You don’t have to lift a finger to get the upgraded storage: Every account will be automatically upgraded from their existing 15 GB of storage to 1 TB as we roll this out.

As you grow your business, it’s only natural that you’ll have more docs, data and digital assets to manage and store, and Google Drive allows you to do so securely from any device. You can store over 100 file types in Drive, including PDFs, CAD files and images, and you can easily collaborate on and edit Microsoft Office files without converting them. Plus, Drive comes with built-in protections against malware, spam and ransomware so you don’t need to worry about accidentally opening the door to malware just by opening a doc.

A laptop and mobile device showing a variety of file types in Google Drive.

Store over 100 file types in Google Drive

Personalize emails with built-in mail merge

We previously launched multi-send mode, which allows you to easily email many recipients while maintaining their privacy, making it great for sending newsletters and announcements. Now you can add mail merge tags like @firstname to multi-send emails, so each recipient receives a unique email that feels individually crafted just for them. By default, multi-send emails also include an unsubscribe link so recipients can opt out of future messages.

Try mail merge in web Gmail with other premium Workspace features like customizable email layouts to better engage your audience.

Animated image of mail merge tags being used within a single Gmail that offers the recipient a discount when they refer a friend.

Mail merge tags makes it easy to personalize multi-send emails

Expanding the reach and helpfulness of Workspace Individual

We're also launching Google Workspace Individual in a number of new countries and regions: the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Finland, Greece and Argentina. These new countries join a growing list of places business owners can sign up for Workspace Individual, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Australia and six countries across Europe.

As we expand the footprint for Workspace Individual, we’re also deepening the functionality, building on Premium Meet, eSignature in Google Docs, appointment scheduling, and flexible layouts and multi-send in Gmail. See thefull list of new and coming-soon features.

Sign up today with a 14-day trial

Sign up for Google Workspace Individual today with a 14-day trial, or learn more about Google Workspace Individual on our website. If you’re not a business owner but still want premium productivity capabilities and more storage for personal use, check out our Google One plans.

Google Workspace Individual is now available in Europe

We launched Google Workspace Individual over a year ago to help solo business owners reach new customers and bring their big ideas to life. Since then, customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Australia have all used it to grow, run and protect their businesses.

They’ve used Google Meet for consultations, Calendar for scheduling and customized layouts in Gmail to easily communicate in ways that reflect their brands. We’ve loved seeing how businesses of all stripes have brought their passions to the world — from caterers, creative consultants and real estate agents to pet sitters, hair stylists and life coaches.

Now, we’re launching Google Workspace Individual in Europe. This means that customers in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the U.K., and Switzerland can benefit from new and upcoming capabilities designed to help individual business owners stay focused on what they love, and spend less time on tasks like scheduling appointments and sending emails.

We’ve recently added powerful new capabilities to Workspace Individual, including:

  • The ability to live stream from Google Meet to YouTube so customers can reach a bigger audience
  • Professional layouts and multi-send for email newsletters, campaigns and announcements
  • Better appointment booking with customizable reminders, durations and exceptions
  • Improvements to secure video conferencing over Google Meet, with immersive backgrounds, improved sound and lighting, and the ability to bring meetings directly into the flow of work by integrating Meet with Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

And soon, customers will have the ability to add e-signatures directly to Google Docs. They’ll be able to quickly execute agreements from the familiar interface of Docs, without having to switch tabs or apps. See the full list of new and coming-soon features.

With this expansion of Google Workspace Individual, solo business owners in Europe can run, grow and protect their businesses with apps they’re already familiar with. This means more time helping customers and less time scheduling, emailing and updating calendars. In the months ahead, we’ll continue to bring Workspace Individual to an expanding list of countries.

Sign up today with a 14-day trial

Sign up for Google Workspace Individual today with a 14-day trial, or learn more about Google Workspace Individual on our website. If you’re not a business owner but still want premium capabilities for personal use, Google Workspace premium is also now available with Google One 2TB+ plans[5a49a0], which include expanded cloud storage, advanced Photos editing features and more.

New Google Workspace features to help solo business owners

Over the past few years, we’ve seen more people forging their own path and turning their personal passions into businesses. These individual business owners, sometimes called “solopreneurs,” wear many hats as they run and grow their businesses: salesperson, marketer, accountant, the list goes on.

That’s why one year ago, we launched Google Workspace Individual as a new offering to help these solo business owners grow their businesses with the familiar apps they’re likely already using in their personal life. We’ve heard from customers that Google Workspace Individual helps them focus their time on doing what they love — like meeting with customers and designing personalized services — and less time on recurring tasks like scheduling appointments and sending emails. Since launch, we’ve delivered a number of improvements to provide even more value to customers, and today we’re announcing what’s coming next – electronic signatures right within Google Docs.

Coming soon: Easily sign important documents right in Google Docs

Whether you’re an event planner or digital creator, it can be a challenge to stay on top of contracts and customer agreements that need to be signed as you’re constantly context switching and jumping between different apps to get work done. That’s why we’re natively integrating eSignature in Google Docs, so you can quickly execute agreements from the familiar interface of Docs without having to switch tabs or apps.

Animation of the process of inserting electronic signature fields in Google Docs

Coming soon: Easily request electronic signatures directly in Google Docs

eSignature in Google Docs will take advantage of the same secure-by-design infrastructure and built-in protections Google uses to help secure your information and safeguard your privacy. Let’s take a look at how eSignature can help you create agreements:

  • Collaborate in documents: Collaborate on changes directly in Google Docs with comments and suggestions — no need to export the file to send a draft contract over email.
  • Add fields to documents: Within the familiar Google Docs interface, you can easily drag and drop signature and date fields in branded documents you create.
  • Request a signature: Once you resolve all comments and suggestions, requesting a signature is as easy as sharing a file in Drive.
  • Add signatures: When ready to sign, the signee can easily add their signature, no downloads needed. Once the signature is added, a completed PDF contract is emailed to both parties.
  • Monitor and track progress: Quickly see the status of pending signatures and easily find completed, signed contracts.
  • Create copies of contracts: For signature workflows that need to be repeated regularly, you can streamline the process by creating copies of existing contracts and then modifying as needed.

eSignature in Google Docs is coming soon in Beta to Google Workspace Individual users and is the latest in a series of improvements we’ve announced for the subscription in the past year. If you’re already using a dedicated eSignature solution, Google Workspace integrates with a number of leading providers. Learn more about how these eSignature and other integrations can help you optimize your workspace on our blog post.

ICYMI: Google Workspace Individual updates from this past year

Email marketing updates for engaging campaigns

For any business, it’s vital to connect with customers and prospects, both on a one-to-one basis and at a large scale. Google Workspace Individual makes it easy to do both, so you can easily send communications like monthly newsletters and also offer items like scheduled consultations.

Animation of the process of creating and sending customized marketing emails from Gmail

Create and send customized marketing emails from Gmail

To help you reach many customers at once, last year we added a way to run simple email campaigns directly in Gmail. We started first by providing professionally designed templates that you can customize with your own branding and images in just a few clicks. Then earlier this year, we added multi-send, which allows you to deliver individual emails to a large number of recipients with a unique unsubscribe link for each recipient. With the combination of these improvements, it’s easy to make communications as targeted as you like, because you can create multiple email mailing lists within Google Contacts for different audiences and easily tailor the message to each audience. Gmail layouts and multi-send are generally available in Google Workspace Individual today.

Appointment scheduling updates for easier bookings

For scheduling in-person appointments or virtual meetings, Google Calendar helps streamline the appointment scheduling process and avoid back-and-forth communication to find a time that works. Since launching, we’ve made a number of enhancements that improve the experience for both the business owner and scheduler, including the ability to:

  • Help prevent no-shows by customizing the timing of reminder emails and having users verify their email before booking for added security.
  • Reflect your operational needs by setting flexible appointment durations, adding buffer time between appointments and limiting the number of bookings per day.
  • Easily update your availability with one-off exceptions like regional holidays and customizable start and end dates.
Animation of creating a shareable appointment schedule that clients can use to book appointments online by setting your availability and appointment offerings directly in Google Calendar.

Get your own professional booking page that stays up to date

Customized appointment scheduling with the above features are generally available in Google Workspace Individual today, on the web and your mobile device.

Google Meet updates for your customer and partner calls

Once an appointment is on the books and it’s time to connect, Google Meet provides an easy way for you to deepen customer and partner relationships through secure video meetings. Helpful features in Meet ensure you can be clearly seen and heard. Noise cancellation removes background distractions like barking dogs, while low-light mode automatically adjusts your video in poorly lit settings. Here are a few notable Meet announcements from this past year:

  • Mimic taking your call from a real-life cafe or condo with immersive backgrounds.
  • Filter out the echoes in spaces with hard surfaces so that you can have conference-room audio quality whether you’re in a basement, a kitchen, or a big empty room.
  • Clearly see participants on a call while you’re presenting or multi-tasking with picture-in-picture on Chrome browsers.
  • Review your forecast or business proposal with meetings directly in Docs, Sheets and Slides.
Animation of joining a Google Meet video call directly from Google Docs.

Quickly join a Google Meet call from Google Docs, Sheets and Slides

Sign up today to take advantage of promotional pricing

Save 20% until October 2022[3bdee8]when you sign up for Google Workspace Individual today or learn more about Google Workspace Individual on our website.