Email Marketing Software

[sandra]

Hi all,

I haven't been on here for a while as i've been very busy trying to get my website up and running etc (not long now hopefully). I want to make sure I start off on the right foot and get into the habit of emailling regular customers with offers etc.

I'm not that web savvy so i'm wondering whether you lovely people could point me in the direction of a decent email marketing software system. It would have to be relatively easy to use and preferably some sort of monthly payment. I've seen some that costs hundreds of pounds which would be for me. Be nice for a few of you to point me in the right direction.

Sandra - Wedding Favours

 

[PC]

Sending out spam emails?

Hum..... If I get any form of "direct marking" by email I make sure that my spam filter ditches it and so will many other people.

Email advertising will (i presume) get you nothing.

Thoughts?

 

[TomB]

I guess it depends from the op it sounds like these customers will already have opted in to receive these emails, which means there will probably be a higher chance of them being read.

For my clients i use a piece of software called Campaign Monitor: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/

It really simple to use, provides lots of information about the email, number of times read, forwarded and its pay as you go, each recipient costs $0.01 plus $5 admin fee. the company is based in australia but charge in USD so its very cheap and very reliable software.

They also give you 30 email templates to get you on your way. You can sign up and get send emails to up to 5 people with no charge, so its quite good to play with it like that before you go for the big send out.

let me know if you need any help getting setup with it

Tom

 

[nothing does]

I must warn you that American companies don't adhere to our freedom of info act etc and if you use an American based system your client's/suppliers email addresses could easily end up in the hands of spammers. However UK based companies will not pass on your contact addresses.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi David,

That has spooked me a little. I've used a company called iContact (www.icontact.com) for over a year now on various different projects. The main attraction being the value and the wide arrnage of services like autoresponders and surveys etc. I wasn't aware of there being a potential issue and having sent probaly around 50,000 email combined in the past three months I would have thought we'd become aware of this.

I think the real issue here is that it's very difficult to find a uk based system that does everything you need it to do. Are there any good uk based systems for that matter?

 

[nothing does]

There are but they tend to be expensive. One I have used in the past and is VERY in-depth, giving great click though stats etc is Etelligent. www.etelligent.co.uk

The CMS is great and very flexible but As I said UK companies tend to cost a lot more than the US ones.

 

[stugster]

Sandra,

How many customers are you sending the emails to? There's a free piece of software called ListMessenger Lite that lets you send to a list of 200, or you can upgrade to a Pro version for a small fee.

I'm quite happy to throw it on one of our servers for you if you want


Stu

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

I think etelligent is a great example of how to oversell the service. Straight away when you see anything like this uk based they're talking about a managed service etc. This has certainly got me thinking about how I keep this data going forward. I guess i'll need to do some research

 

[TomB]

I must warn you that American companies don't adhere to our freedom of info act etc and if you use an American based system your client's/suppliers email addresses could easily end up in the hands of spammers. However UK based companies will not pass on your contact addresses.

The company is australian though. I've done some research as i wanted to protect my clients and i'll share as well as it will be of use.

Basically i checked this out:

http://www.dca.gov.uk/ccpd/faqdp.htm#1 and it states:

"12. Does the Act apply to overseas companies and call centres?

The Act prohibits the transfer of personal information from the UK to other countries unless those countries can ensure a similar level of data protection. However, you can consent to your personal information being transferred anywhere in the world. Organisations can also set up contracts with overseas organisations receiving personal information which impose higher standards of protection than there might be under the national law of the receiving country.

Organisations in the UK which have personal information processed overseas on their behalf remain responsible for the security of that information. The UK company is required to ensure that the overseas processing company complies with the UK Data Protection Act."

Seems some else enquired about this to campaign monitor:

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=12

So i'm now not quite sure where i stand,

can anyone make sense of it?

 

[PC]

Why not just use your email client to send out the emails rather than third party software?

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

There's alot more to it than just sending emails. Third party software will allow you to track click throughs and bounces and well as managing unsubscribes etc. There's also the issue of deliverability which third party software should be better at.

 

[Needhelp]

There are many different email marketing services available today. One I have heard good things about is:-

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/

Even if you do use a system which abides by all anti-spam rules you still need to ensure you dont pester customers/members too often otherwise they will ditch you.

 

[Alex777]

e-mail software very interesting

 

[poliq]

Email marketing is essential for many reasons. For example, it is significant because it is extremely versatile. You can make the emails that you send to promote your business so that they suit whatever need that you might have. You can target many diverse social groups and modify the content accordingly. Since the business world is regularly changing, you have to be able to respond instantly to any changes that the marketing experts present

 

[Ziporal Mothis]

Email Marketing Software is a great tool for businesses to reach out to their customers and prospects. It allows for easy segmentation and targeting of customers, as well as tracking and reporting of metrics. It is a great way to build relationships and acquire new customers.

 

[Okdar]

Sending out spam emails?