e marketing

[Luolou]

I am currently trying to do some marketing for our company, and I have a lot to learn! I want to send an email to our past clients (using Outlook) but dont want each of them to know I'm sending the same one to the others. I currently copy all the email addresses from excel and paste them into the email. I put one address into the 'to' section of the email, then the rest into 'BCC' but everyone who is blind copied also gets the email address of the original person in the 'To' section which is causing confusion.
Am I doing something really stupid? (Don't be too honest if I am!!)

 

[simpleitsolutions]

Hi Luolou,

A couple things that you can do, the first and least complex low tech solution is if outlook requires a to address, is use your e-mail address. It means that you'll receive a copy of the e-mail as well but your clients won't get any address's.

Another way to do this, if outlook doesn't require a to address is just put everyone in the BCC field.

Finally you could do a mail merge with word, this would involve keeping an excel spreadsheet with e-mail address's and them merging them in areas in a word template to generate a customised e-mail for each client. Using the mail merg word can automatically send out the e-mails as it generates the letter / file.

I hope that clears things up for you.

Regards

Graham.

 

[david8765]

If there is not many address you could just email them one by one, if there is so many addresses thats not really an option you will probably hit problems anyway getting past spam filters etc

 

[inca training services]

like graham has suggested or perhaps look at www.mailchimp.com easy to use (and there's a free version) and you can design a professional looking email and send it out to as many addresses as you like...max 2000 i think.

 

[Luolou]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will use your quick solution initially Graham, but will aslo look further into mailmerging and mailchimp when I have chance.
Another couple of questions if you dont mind - I tend to ask for a 'read' receipt, do you think this might annoy people if its only a marketing email?
And if the recipient can opt out of sending a read receipt, what's the point of me asking for one?
Sometimes the reply I get says 'read by...' but sometimes I get 'return receipt'. Whats the difference?
(And finally...I take it too personally when someone deletes an email without even bothering to open it - I need to get a thicker skin!)

 

[popunder]

Going back to Outlook - just put all the email addresses into the BCC box, works for me

 

[inca training services]

with mailchimp there is a mandatory unsubscribe button - so recipients who don't want to receive any more newsletters etc can just opt out. you can also track who has opened the message and when. how many times they've opened it, forwarded it, whether they've clicked through to your website etc. it's a really handy marketing tool.

 

[JayChambers]

I agree with the others, Outlook is not the tool for this kind of mailing.

A tool like mail-chimp is designed to take the hassle out of a process like this. With mail-chimp, you can see who has opened your mail, where on the mail they clicked, their location, the time they clicked and more, all without bothering them with delivery receipts.

Hope it helps!

 

[Peppa-Lou]

Ive been using outlook for this type of mailing for a few years now, using the bcc method. Its not the most effective, but until just now I had never heard of Mail Chimp, Im really looking forward to using that.

I get read receipts as it helps me to monitor who has read, not read, or failed. But, I agree with what you are saying, I get really offended when people delete me and really offended when people reply and ask to be deleted, especially when they are very rude about it.

For a small business with little budget its hard to drum up business and emailing is a good way of doing it. Ive been doing this a few years now and I still get offended, dont think I will ever develop a thick skin!

I tried an email marketing company last year - big mistake. Paid my money, they said the emails went out - over 100,000 of them, I sat back and waited and nothing. Not a single enquiry. They refused to give me my money back despite not being able to prove they had actually done anything.

Good luck with it.

 

[BusinessIdeas]

Quick question if you dont mind: does mailchimp send emails through your own smtp?

 

[JayChambers]

Quick question if you dont mind: does mailchimp send emails through your own smtp?

No, through its own servers. You can get software that can use your own SMTP if you wish though.

 

[XanderMarketing]

One of the great benefits of email marketing is that it is measurable. You can see how many people have opened your email and subsequently clicked through. You know who you should follow up and what emails have caught people's attention.

An email marketing system will give you all these stats and more. Outlook won't. They are so cheap nowadays that it doesn't make sense not to use one compared with using Outlook.

Also by using Outlook you are risking getting your domain name blacklisted. You don't want this and an email marketing system would help you avoid it!

 

[Snippa]

I agree with the others that regular email is not the way to go. The only way a person would no if you did the read receipt option is if their email is set up to require a response when it comes up. Some are not set up this way and they'll never know it was required.

The good thing about these companies that offer email options is they track the opens for you. If you plan to do these types of mailings regularly, it's going to be a good idea for you to consider this type of service.

 

[Target]

Loulou, please don't even THINK about doing email marketing with Outlook. It is simply not up to the job.

Take a look at the following threads which contain some comments from me that might be of interest to you:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=125391
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=145633

Don't ignore the legal issues around data collection and email marketing either. PM me if you'd like more info on these subjects.

Cheers

George

 

[Mailing Manager]

Hi,

For all of those that replied and have either used Mail Chimp in the past or are now considering using them based on the recommendations, why not give a UK-based company a try. We offer exactly the same type of service and we are competitively priced.

I would be happy to offer any advice on email marketing, similarly I would have welcome any general email marketing questions you may have if you are dipping your toe into this area of marketing.

Regards
Tim Wilson
Mailing Manager

 

[BusinessIdeas]

Hiya Tim (Mailing Manager) I think that some of the attraction of mailchimp seems to be that it is free for ever if you are sending a small amount of emails. Do you sell lists as well? I havent used any of these services but I will almost certainly be looking at a marketing campaign in the near future - Gina

 

[Mailing Manager]

Hi Gina,

Thanks for your message. We don't sell data lists and we, as a company, do not encourage it either. Our company policy is that any company coming to us, looking to use our system, must have a self-generated, permission-based list. We do not allow any purchased, rented or harvested lists on our sustem. By doing this we ensure that our IP addresses that our customer send from remain whitelisted which improves email deliverability.

Even though Mail Chimp offer a free service for small list users, they also insist on advertising on your campaign which means that your customer\subscriber will see this too. We believe that your campaigns should be used for you, solely, to communicate with your customers. We do not interfere with the creation, management, sending and monitoring of your campaigns. We are on hand for advice and support should you need it but that is all the involvement we have.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Tim

 

[Silky]

We use Constant Contact which I suspect is similar to MailChimp. Easy to use, easy to create your own design template and good feedback.

I tried an email marketing company last year - big mistake. Paid my money, they said the emails went out - over 100,000 of them, I sat back and waited and nothing. Not a single enquiry. They refused to give me my money back despite not being able to prove they had actually done anything.

Good luck with it.

Been there too Peppa, although we refused to pay as we had evidence the list wasn't to our specification. A nasty affair all in all and although the company we chose was particularly useless and had lied to us about their client base, it's put us off going down this route again. We use email marketing successfully, but only using our own mailing list built up from customers and subscribers.

Silky

 

[Target]

Using your own opted-in database is absolutely the way to go with email marketing. Identifying how you go about building that database is the key to success. It will usually involve blatant bribery of some sort - entry to a competition or prize draw, free advice or information, a discount, etc.

There's so much scope for creativity here. We have a client who offered a week's holiday in a woodland lodge in Scotland. He was name-checked by Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert), and generated hundreds of entries in 3 days. The same e-newsletter contained another piece that resulted in an interview on GMTV and a piece in USA Today.

 

[Peppa-Lou]

Sorry you went through that too. Im guessing that alot of people have. There is no way I would do it again. Ive been ripped off by so many companies over the last year with trying different avenues of advertising. It has put me off so much which is a shame as Im sure there are genuine companys out there who can really help you, but I just dont believe any of them anymore!

 

[Mark Pocock]

If these people are your past customers why don't
you send them a letter throught the mail?

If you're not emailing these people regularly then they
won't place any importance on your message.



cheers

Mark

 

[emailblaster]

Hi Loulou

As per the other posts, Outlook isn't really an ideal way to broadcast, as well as the other reasons mentioned you can't see any stats regarding who received or opened your transmission. Making it impossible to gauge how effective your message is as a marketing communication.

We offer a self managed email marketing system: www.mailmanageruk.co.uk it is free to try and free to set up. Why not give it a try and see how you get on with it, you can really quickly create and send professional looking email newsletters to your database.

you will also have access to a full analytics suite, allowing you to view who received your communication and what they did with it!. It is self managed and completely transparent.

We are U.K based and nice people to deal with!.

Please contact me if you need anything.

Kind regards

Jamie

 

[LeeatMerlin]

We have just started sengin Bulk Emails out to our clients and we use sendblaster (google it) its very easy to use, and you can import templates from HTML files and so on, you may have allready decided on one your going with, but if not then id suggest taking a look at sendblaster it works for me.

Lee

Merlin Software Ltd
Merlinsoft .co.uk

 

[cindu]

For Better Solutions use any of the web based email marketing service providers such as email-m dot com

 

[emailexpert]

JayChambers and others are right this is not the way to do things (using Outlook).

You are much better of using a service designed to do this, and if its only a few hundred contacts MailChimp will let you do it for free. You can also try www.whichesp.com to find a huge selection of others who offer a similar service.

You need to ensure you give them the option to unsubscribe, and this feature is managed with many online providers. It is more professional and if you are a small business with a small list it is often completely free.