Mass Email Software>>>>>>>>?

[Chesta]

I'm looking to send an email out to thousands of email addresses on a semi-regular basis, and was wondering if anybody has any experiences in this sort of thing (not spam, genuine marketing applications). There's many products available for this, but I can't tell what is good/bad etc from all the hype from the companies selling, so I thought maybe some fellow PHers could shed some light>>>>>>>>>>?

[ultimapaul]

So long as my address is not in there ....... good luck to you!

[Chesta]

No problem, respect to all PH- it will be aimed at a researched targetted market anyway, most are existing customers & the database is ready. We want to introduce a new product every month for the market, and without using snail-mail, this is the easiest route, maybe. That's the reason, so no worries for any PH users (which will get me slapped by Ted anyway!)

[Don]

You want to write your own, mate. Takes about two days and it will be cheaper and better because you can make it do whatever you want.

Honestly. We gave up on the commercial stuff and did our own because the packaged software was inflexible and a bit crap....

[CarZee]

You can do it with an Access database, VBScript, ADO, CDONTS and an HTML interface. Dead simple if you can grasp the basics of cobbling together a web based app (ahem ).

Ps The best mass mailer is one that doesn't send anything to me

[FourWheelDrift]

Group Mail Pro (www.infacta.com). You can send 1000 identical emails each with an individual "to" salutation instead of a group name or your own name in the To and all of the others in the BCC field eg. each recipient will think they are the only person who has been sent the email.

[PetrolTed]

I had a look at this one which seemed pretty good.

www.gammadyne.com/mmail.htm

[JonRB]

FourWheelDrift said:each recipient will think they are the only person who has been sent the email.

But only if they are completely brain dead and can't spot a spam when they see one.

I'm strongly of the opinion that the only acceptable mass-mailing medium is an opt-in mailing list / newsletter. Anything generated by mass mailing programs such as this, no matter how well intentioned, is so close to spam as to be virtually indistinguishable.

[pdv6]

JonRB said: Anything generated by mass mailing programs such as this, no matter how well intentioned, is so close to spam as to be virtually indistinguishable.

Have to agree.
Chesta, please also see the new requlations regarding this sort of thing

[Superflid]

Notice how they even manage to slip in an anti-car message at the end............

[Chesta]

All the people on our (Access-based) Database are either past clients, or have requested information from us. We have already contacted each person (which took absolutely ages!), asking if they want to be added to our mailing list for regular news about offers, shows & new products. Some replied saying no, and have been un-subscribed from the list as per their request. So the database now consists of people that have shown a genuine interest in our products. We want to use the software to increase the customer's awareness of our new announcements, and we consider this to be a genuine usage and marketing tool to grow our business.
We are just like the next man, and hate to receive spam, and probably the quickest route to drive customers away would be to send unsolicited emails, so bearing this in mind, it makes absolutely no sense to do this, especially given that our target audience is like-minded car/ bike enthusiast etc types......in fact many customers on the database are from the older generation, so snail-mail is used for these people that do not have email/net access.
Hopefully you guys all agree with our policy regarding this.....please keep the replies & opinions coming, and the info given is great, thanks PHers!

[mattl]

You could try www.orbis-software.com we use their software to send out our news letters automatically, it also does a load more automation and alerting, the software enables you to connect to any ODBC database and you can insert fields just like a mail merge so each mail will go out on a personal basis.

[smifffy]

go to www.quiksoftcorp.com/

You'll find loads of easy com/.net/ASP based stuff there will full destructions and examples - pretty cheap too.

[bigtone]

I use another product from this company, which is a top piece of kit, but they do a mailer as well. I've never used it, but it throws another product into the pot at least:

www.mach5.com/products/mailer/index.php

[jondokic]

If you include a 'Please remove me from your bulk mails' reply option then I think your mails will fall into the category of marketing rather than junk, based on your list inclusion criteria. I object to email ads (even from previous suppliers) where I have to 'phone/fax/write to avoid receiving further spam, but I'd still rather receive email than fax ads.

[PetrolTed]

Has anyone got any experience of an email component that would allow me to process bouncing emails? The process I've written to pick up addresses that no longer works is a bit clunky and probably isn't catching all of them. That means I continue to send to dead mailboxes.

[plotloss]

jondokic said: If you include a 'Please remove me from your bulk mails' reply option then I think your mails will fall into the category of marketing rather than junk, based on your list inclusion criteria. I object to email ads (even from previous suppliers) where I have to 'phone/fax/write to avoid receiving further spam, but I'd still rather receive email than fax ads.

Something to be aware of Jon, if you get mails from obvious spamming firms inviting you too see Britney Spears nude etc, if there is an unsubscribe option in the email for gods sake dont follow it!

This is the only way they know they have a properly live address and your record on their system will be sold to many other mail lists hence increasing the problem.

Matt.

[alunr]

PetrolTed said: Has anyone got any experience of an email component that would allow me to process bouncing emails? The process I've written to pick up addresses that no longer works is a bit clunky and probably isn't catching all of them. That means I continue to send to dead mailboxes.

No I dont know much about ths but a useful feature they use at ?tek-tips.com? is when you login you get a window saying they couldn't contact you by email lasttime they tried so you don't get removed just put on hold...


>> Edited by alunr on Tuesday 4th March 11:08

[PetrolTed]

Yep, it's the mechanism by which I determine that I can't get hold of you that I wanted some pointers on. I trawl through rejection messages but my parser is too crude.

[jondokic]

plotloss said: Something to be aware of Jon, if you get mails from obvious spamming firms inviting you too see Britney Spears nude etc, if there is an unsubscribe option in the email for gods sake dont follow it!

This is the only way they know they have a properly live address and your record on their system will be sold to many other mail lists hence increasing the problem.

I made the mistake of doing this once (when spam wasn't such a daily irritant) and the link launched a cascade of 'Thai ladyboys want to see you cum' pop-ups. How do women know to come into your office with a coffee at precisely these moments ? The look on my secretary's face was priceless Nowadays she'd probably sue me for sexual harrasment