Email address storage for marketing campaigns.
Discussion
Afternoon all.
A friend of mine runs a small business and likes to send out marketing messages to registered members.
They collect these members' details from 3 main sources.
1. A 'Contact Us' page on the website, where a simple query is sent off via a form, if the member wants to be included in mailshots then they tick a box to indicate that.
2. A dedicated 'sign me up' page. When filled in the user is subscribed to a database. This database is the backend for the program they use to send out the mailshots.
3. She buys information. This isn't so much of a problem as these can be imported into the mailshot program.
Ideally, they'd like a single system which can collect email addresses from people from various forms, emails etc.
Basically they would like a CRM system, but not pay what a CRM is likely to cost given that they would struggle to make the cost of that back in a reasonable amount of time.
The website is done in Joomla, forms are created using Formsite (PH Rec.) and emails are collected manually by them.
So, bit of a brain dump actually now that i've read it. But if anyone understands what i'm trying to do are they able to advise on anything they've used?
Thanks again!
D.
A friend of mine runs a small business and likes to send out marketing messages to registered members.
They collect these members' details from 3 main sources.
1. A 'Contact Us' page on the website, where a simple query is sent off via a form, if the member wants to be included in mailshots then they tick a box to indicate that.
2. A dedicated 'sign me up' page. When filled in the user is subscribed to a database. This database is the backend for the program they use to send out the mailshots.
3. She buys information. This isn't so much of a problem as these can be imported into the mailshot program.
Ideally, they'd like a single system which can collect email addresses from people from various forms, emails etc.
Basically they would like a CRM system, but not pay what a CRM is likely to cost given that they would struggle to make the cost of that back in a reasonable amount of time.
The website is done in Joomla, forms are created using Formsite (PH Rec.) and emails are collected manually by them.
So, bit of a brain dump actually now that i've read it. But if anyone understands what i'm trying to do are they able to advise on anything they've used?
Thanks again!
D.
Davie_GLA said:
Basically they would like a CRM system, but not pay what a CRM is likely to cost given that they would struggle to make the cost of that back in a reasonable amount of time.
SugarCRM is an OpenSource CRM system. There are Mambo plugins for it - not sure if there are any for Joomla (but Joomla is a fork of Mambo, so I'd be surprised if there wasn't).It also has an Outlook plugin too.
Well worth a look.
Edited by TonyRPH on Monday 18th October 17:01
Thanks all. The mailer being used just now is a program by the name of Listmail - but on checking support has now ended and there doesn't look to be any future development.
One thing that would be useful is scheduling of emails based on sequences - listmail does it but it's a little cumbersome.
The primary objective here is to collect addresses so they can be managed easily.
Does anyone have first hand use of SugarCRM? can addresses be set up that when email is received the address can be harvested depending on opt-in?
D.
One thing that would be useful is scheduling of emails based on sequences - listmail does it but it's a little cumbersome.
The primary objective here is to collect addresses so they can be managed easily.
Does anyone have first hand use of SugarCRM? can addresses be set up that when email is received the address can be harvested depending on opt-in?
D.
We used SugarCRM for about 5 months before moving to a far more expensive (and actually inferior) solution.
IIRC it does indeed harvest addresses just like you would expect from any CRM system.
It's about 5 years since I last used it - but I seem to recall that there was also a customer interface as well.
You could also try Salesforce which although not free, may be a viable solution for a small business.
IIRC it does indeed harvest addresses just like you would expect from any CRM system.
It's about 5 years since I last used it - but I seem to recall that there was also a customer interface as well.
You could also try Salesforce which although not free, may be a viable solution for a small business.
Thanks Tony, you say sales force is chargeable, i'm looking at SugarCRM and it's a paid product too - about $360 per year / per user? Which isn't a deal breaker.
I'm skim reading the features but it also seems to allow launching email campaigns from the details you have. This would maybe make ListMail redundant but that may not be a bad thing.
David.
I'm skim reading the features but it also seems to allow launching email campaigns from the details you have. This would maybe make ListMail redundant but that may not be a bad thing.
David.
Davie_GLA said:
Thanks Tony, you say sales force is chargeable, i'm looking at SugarCRM and it's a paid product too - about $360 per year / per user? Which isn't a deal breaker.
I'm skim reading the features but it also seems to allow launching email campaigns from the details you have. This would maybe make ListMail redundant but that may not be a bad thing.
David.
David, there is a (free) Opensource version of SugarCRM as well.I'm skim reading the features but it also seems to allow launching email campaigns from the details you have. This would maybe make ListMail redundant but that may not be a bad thing.
David.
It's called the "Community edition". They also provide Lampstacks to simply installation.
I do know the paid version offers support which can be helpful if you need it for setting it up etc.
Tony.
Edited by TonyRPH on Monday 18th October 20:40
Davie_GLA said:
Just installed SugarCRM - for someone who's never used one it's scary!
Time for some reading up i guess
Yeah, it is a bit scary at first. Once you know how to use it to it's full potential you will realise just how powerful it actually is.Time for some reading up i guess
We use it for all our CRM needs, and it does everything we need, including mobile phone access.
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