tanTALK - View Single Post - EMAILING TO CLIENTS.....WHAT PROGRAM IS BEST??????

wildfire · 11-19-2005, 04:51 AM

While I agree with Tommy's assessment of the negative aspects of email via BCC, I guess I would disagree with its importance in this context. The fact is that the spam filtering process is on the recipient's email server end and not on the sender's end, so there is little more you can do to guarantee you email's arrival than what has already been discussed. However, most email services do not completely purge the suspected spam message or should give the recipient the opportunity to determine if it is indeed spam before it is marked as spam and then the sender is sort of 'black-listed' for future emails. The responsibility lies with the recipient to periodically review their Inbox and evaluate who is sending them the email. It is really no different than thumbing through the stacks of postal mail we all get every day... bill, bill, ad, ad, ad, ad, bill, ad, ad, ad, late birthday card, ad... we make a quick pass through and unload much of it into the trash can without even opening it because it's obvious junk mail. Emails can be handled the same way - do you recognize the sender's name? Does the Subject Line sound pertinent to you specifically or generic and addressed to a wide audience? These are things you as the sender need to take into consideration as you prepare your email before you send it.

The BCC field is invaluable if your email is more mass-marketed than personal because it will make the email appear to each recipient individualized and exclude the email addressses of the other recipients. This is a dead giveaway to me when I receive emails that the sender simply blasted that bad boy off to everyone in his or her address book and I can see all of their names and email addresses - as can they see mine. Next thing I know, I am receiving like junk from them. Sometimes its harmless - jokes, funny photos, mildly-interesting news articles - but nothing I solicited to receive and obviously nothing I can opt out of now that my email address is publicly-known.

If you elect to extract from your client list a group of email addresses and then send each one a personalized email, that would seem to take an inordinate amount of your time. I think this was Tommy's point, that you want to find a program that can access your client list and not only extract the email addresses but also insert pertinent personal information that will address each client individually. For example, if you were going to follow-up on clients who have not been in within the last month, you would want the email software to address them by first name (which it would retrieve from the client database) and announce their last visit date (which it would also retrieve from the client database). It could also be included to remind them of their package balance or their membership expiration date (again, the client database). This is all part of the miracle of technology, however you will need to have a practical understanding of how to apply it or it will not be useful to you at all.

To get back to your original post, I don't think I could recommend one single program to you, simply because I have not evaluated enough of them to know the full range of what is available. There are inexpensive and simple solutions such as EZ Batch Mail and there are much more expensive and complicated ones. Be aware that with features and options is where the price usually increases. Depending on your salon software, some of them have a solution in place or available that can already access your client data to provide many of these benefits discussed in this thread.

Be aware also that the program you choose will likely not be the limiting factor to your ability to send 10 or 10,000 emails. This will more likely be a limitation imposed by your email service. If you are using a free mail service like Yahoo or Hotmail, I can pretty much guarantee there is a pretty low limit like 100 email recipients or so. They do this for two reasons, one is to reduce the likelihood that a spammer will try to setup a free email and do their dirty work and the other is because it is a free service they want to use this as a revenue source so they will want to offer you a paid commercial email service to release the limitation. If your email is hosted through a company that is also hosting your website for example, then it may just be a matter of asking for a higher limit or it may incur a mildly higher monthly expense for the web-and-email hosting package they are already offering to you.

I hope this helps you know what to look for even if it didn't give specific products to evaluate. If I come across any decent products out there to meet this need I will certainly re-visit this post and provide details.

Peace out!

11-19-2005, 04:51 AM	#8 (permalink)
wildfire Waiting Confirmation Join Date: Jun 16 2005 Posts: 15 Rep Power: 0	While I agree with Tommy's assessment of the negative aspects of email via BCC, I guess I would disagree with its importance in this context. The fact is that the spam filtering process is on the recipient's email server end and not on the sender's end, so there is little more you can do to guarantee you email's arrival than what has already been discussed. However, most email services do not completely purge the suspected spam message or should give the recipient the opportunity to determine if it is indeed spam before it is marked as spam and then the sender is sort of 'black-listed' for future emails. The responsibility lies with the recipient to periodically review their Inbox and evaluate who is sending them the email. It is really no different than thumbing through the stacks of postal mail we all get every day... bill, bill, ad, ad, ad, ad, bill, ad, ad, ad, late birthday card, ad... we make a quick pass through and unload much of it into the trash can without even opening it because it's obvious junk mail. Emails can be handled the same way - do you recognize the sender's name? Does the Subject Line sound pertinent to you specifically or generic and addressed to a wide audience? These are things you as the sender need to take into consideration as you prepare your email before you send it. The BCC field is invaluable if your email is more mass-marketed than personal because it will make the email appear to each recipient individualized and exclude the email addressses of the other recipients. This is a dead giveaway to me when I receive emails that the sender simply blasted that bad boy off to everyone in his or her address book and I can see all of their names and email addresses - as can they see mine. Next thing I know, I am receiving like junk from them. Sometimes its harmless - jokes, funny photos, mildly-interesting news articles - but nothing I solicited to receive and obviously nothing I can opt out of now that my email address is publicly-known. If you elect to extract from your client list a group of email addresses and then send each one a personalized email, that would seem to take an inordinate amount of your time. I think this was Tommy's point, that you want to find a program that can access your client list and not only extract the email addresses but also insert pertinent personal information that will address each client individually. For example, if you were going to follow-up on clients who have not been in within the last month, you would want the email software to address them by first name (which it would retrieve from the client database) and announce their last visit date (which it would also retrieve from the client database). It could also be included to remind them of their package balance or their membership expiration date (again, the client database). This is all part of the miracle of technology, however you will need to have a practical understanding of how to apply it or it will not be useful to you at all. To get back to your original post, I don't think I could recommend one single program to you, simply because I have not evaluated enough of them to know the full range of what is available. There are inexpensive and simple solutions such as EZ Batch Mail and there are much more expensive and complicated ones. Be aware that with features and options is where the price usually increases. Depending on your salon software, some of them have a solution in place or available that can already access your client data to provide many of these benefits discussed in this thread. Be aware also that the program you choose will likely not be the limiting factor to your ability to send 10 or 10,000 emails. This will more likely be a limitation imposed by your email service. If you are using a free mail service like Yahoo or Hotmail, I can pretty much guarantee there is a pretty low limit like 100 email recipients or so. They do this for two reasons, one is to reduce the likelihood that a spammer will try to setup a free email and do their dirty work and the other is because it is a free service they want to use this as a revenue source so they will want to offer you a paid commercial email service to release the limitation. If your email is hosted through a company that is also hosting your website for example, then it may just be a matter of asking for a higher limit or it may incur a mildly higher monthly expense for the web-and-email hosting package they are already offering to you. I hope this helps you know what to look for even if it didn't give specific products to evaluate. If I come across any decent products out there to meet this need I will certainly re-visit this post and provide details. Peace out!