HOW TO: Send a mail merge press release or newsletter
(without Word or Outlook).

You spent months developing and testing your software program or new product, and were confident it was ready for prime-time. You uploaded your product to your website and waited eagerly for customers to download or purchase it, and waited, and waited... and perhaps are still waiting.

'Build it and they will come' may work for Hollywood baseball fields, but not in the real world. This article will focus on how to let your registered users and potential customers know about your new product or service using mail merge - even if you don't have Word or Outlook.

This article also applies to sending personalized newsletters to friends, family and coworkers.

Identify Your Target Audience

Take time upfront to identify the types of people who would be interested in using your product or reading your newsletter. List the kinds of activities that your program would help these audiences perform, and the benefits that your application provides them. This often brings to mind other types of users, and helps later when you create your targeted message.

There are many resources available to help in this endeavor, such as the Software Marketing Resource at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com and the Small Business Software site at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm. These sites contain many useful tips and articles that will start your creative juices flowing, and will help you to put on your marketing hat if you haven't already done so.

Build Your Contact List

Search the Internet for sites, magazines , and forums related to your product. About.com provides listings of sites related to just about any subject, and will help you find contact information that's specific to your product or service. And of course Google is also a valuable resource.

Let's say your newsletter is targeted to real estate owners who are considering purchasing a second home for investment, leisure, or retirement. They may be looking for tools to help them calculate potential costs and profits, or to improve the value of their second home. A Google search for 'buy or sell your home' or 'home improvement software' will return a list of online sites, books, and magazines with a wealth of information to help the do-it-yourselfer learn the ropes before jumping in with both feet, such as Big Hammer's Real Estate the Smart Way.

Build your contact list by copying email addresses from these pages and pasting them into your contact list. A tool like PC iMail will manage your contact lists and use them for sending a personalized mail merge message. If you already have an established contact list in a database or spreadsheet, you can easily import it into PC iMail by exporting the data to a text file in the following tab-delimited format, and then opening the text file in PC iMail: Email_Address First_Name Last_Name

Time Saving Tip: You can save a lot of time by letting PC iMail extract these addresses for you. If you highlight the page and copy its contents, PC iMail will extract the addresses from the clipboard, or you can enter the web url directly.

Create Your Message - and Personalize it!

Personalize your message with mail merge fields, which are place holders for each contact's first and last name. PC iMail will send your message individually to each contact, and will replace the place holders with each contact's first and last name.

PC iMail includes a built-in HTML editor that will allow you to add bold or italicized fonts, web links, and linked images for a dynamic and effective message. If you don't have a company logo or banner for your product, Laughing Bird Software has an excellent logo creator that will create a professional logo in just a few minutes. Text messages are readable by all email programs, but HTML messages allow you to include clickable links to your product and order web pages - making it easy for readers to order your product online or quickly find more detailed product information. HTML messages can also be more effective with embedded images and company logos.

Send Your Message

Respect your contacts and keep their email addresses private. Have you ever received an email from your local church, fund raiser, or support group and had to scroll down past the half page of email addresses the sender included in the To or Cc list? Not only does it add a lot of unnecessary length to the message, it exposes the email addresses of everyone in the group!

Some senders try to use the Bcc field to hide the identities of each user, resulting in a message delivered to everyone@somegroup.com. This is very impersonal and could turn away a potential customer.

PC iMail keeps member identifies private by sending each message individually to each contact, with only their email address in the To list. Recipients will receive a message addresses only to them, and will appreciate the extra care you took to personalize their experience with your company.

Testing 1, 2, 3. Send your message to yourself first to verify that it looks professional and that all links work correctly. Then send to a small number of contacts - maybe 5 or 10 - and wait for their reaction. Sometimes they'll ask questions that you can pro-actively answer in your message, or you'll see ways you can improve your message. Then send to your remaining contacts. Comply with limitations ISPs apply to group mailings. Set up a time delay to control the number of message that are sent in a given time period. For example, many ISPs do not allow more than 5 group mail messages to be sent in any 20 second time period. PC iMail allows you to easily configure a time delay setting.

Process Remove Requests

Let users opt out of future mailings. Even registered users will sometimes no longer wish to receive messages about your product, and will request to be removed from your contact list. Gathering these requests and removing them from your contact list can be very time consuming drudgery if done manually.

PC iMail will automatically process these unsubscribe and remove requests, saving you from the headache of manually removing the addresses from your mailing list. You can even configure it to handle the familiar 'Mail delivery failed' messages you'll receive when email addresses are no longer used or are invalid.

Include unsubscribe instructions at the end of your announcement, such as 'Reply with unsubscribe in the subject of your message to be removed from this mailing list', or provide a link that includes the subject automatically. Set up an Outlook rule that directs these messages to an unsubscribe folder. Microsoft provides easy instructions for quickly setting up an Outlook rule at http://office.microsoft.com. Note: this step does require that you have Outlook installed on your system. Use PC iMail to import addresses from messages in this folder and automatically remove corresponding addresses from your contact list.

Many group mail delivery services will charge on a per-mailing basis, resulting in on-going and costly marketing expenses. PC iMail will pay for itself after only a single mailing with its low fixed cost, and will give you full control over your message content, style, and delivery. You'll experience the convenience of sending your mailing whenever you wish, and the ability to make immediate changes on the fly to your messages without having to contact a third party company.

I hope this has been an informative and helpful article for you, and please send any questions or comments you may have to me personally.

Rick Palmer | President | ProSoft Apps
http://www.prosoftapps.com