Email Manager

[Mike Lamb]

I apologize if this has been discussed but my TIJ search didn't get me anything.

I'm going to start a quarterly newsletter, or some such thing, and need suggestions on managing the email part of it. I'm looking at about 500 email addresses from past customers.

I know TIJ and lots of sites already do this but likely on a scale much larger than mine, if that matters. Any help is appreciated.

[andrew01]

I think this is the right place for getting some suggestion about the email sending software, so can you tell me about any software which would send more than 200 emails at a time, Actually I want such software for doing email marketing. thanks in advance.

[MMustola]

Use can try this.

http://mailchimp.com/?pid=GAW&source=we ... MgodQzoAHQ

[kurt]

I wonder about the efficacy of email vs. Facebook for this specific thing.

[rkenney]

If you use Outlook, Easy Mail Merge (about 40 bucks) works well.

Most if not all newsletters are HTML, so creating that is entirely a different topic.

Easy mail merge allows you to create lists from contacts, CSV files, etc. It can send in batches that don't alert your ISP that you're a spammer.

Consider using a free email account to send your newsletter. Unless you specifically had people opt in from a direct mail marketing campaign you may have many delegate your newsletter to the spam folder; at which point regular email from you is no longer received unless they go looking for it not a result you can track.

Consider adding a read request, can give you some idea of who, at least, opened your Newsletter.

Federal law requires you to post an opt out message on your email. When you remove people from your mailing lists its discouraging, but the numbers do help you assess marketing 'fails.'

Bottom line is its all about numbers. No matter how insightful, informative, or helpful you think your newsletter is, many won't have the time or inclination to read it.

[kurt]

No matter how insightful, informative, or helpful you think your newsletter is, many won't have the time or inclination to read it.

That's why I asked. I've gotten the same way about unsolicited email as I have about telephone solicitation. It seems social media at least gets you in front of people that are receptive.

So, it's not about HTML as a separate topic so much as it's about who's reading this stuff?

[rkenney]

Word press is the way to go.

Readers 'opt in' by searching for a particular topic, so they are already interested. You need to use appropriate title tags and search terms to make this effective.

There are many formatting tools available so you can give it the look you want. Include your web address for backlinks and to steer people (who are already interested) to your page. Topics can be anything you can pick up on the internet, they even have tools to help with this and google will even email you a daily news brief for any topic you choose.

Add your social media 'follow me' links.

Only down side is demographics. Its audience can't be targeted any more specifically than interest.

[John Kogel]

Most of us have a pretty small 'demograph' to hit, home buyers within a 50 mile radius of our house. It is a challenge to hit that with the world wide web. But traffic to your website is good SEO, so it can help that way.