Question

Email blast? 300+ recipients....where to start?

Asked by: guitar_333

We would like to send out a solicited e-mail blast to a little over 300 people.

We dont have an exchange server or SQL database or anything (offsite pop3 email hosting) - so we will have to do this via a third party, right?

The e-mail blast is nothing too complicated or fancy, just a update sent to some regular patrons of our restaurant.

If someone can inform me how this works so I can relay this info, it would be great!

 Is there software used for doing email blasts or do we have to find a third party?

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-06-01 at 09:58:01ID24453978
Tags

email marketing blast

Topics

Internet Marketing

,

Marketing Software

Participating Experts
3
Points
250
Comments
7

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. email blasts delays
    We have a system which does email blasts. The system is developed in ASP.NET and MSSQL Server. This system reads the SQL Server for jobs and then does the blast. But these blasts are taking a lot of time to delivered. Any ideas why this delay is occuring?
  2. Email Blast with yahoo account
    A client of mine has a Yahoo account with 7000 contacts, and he wants to do an Email Blast for marketing purposes. His yahoo account is just the general one that yahoo offers for free. Can he do an email blast of 7000 contacts through yahoo, or does he have to use something...
  3. Exchange POP3 connector routing of mail blasts
    The exchange server gets mail from a catchall address with the ISP by using a POP3 connector. It then routes email to exchange users based on the address in the TO: or the CC:. All is working well except mail sent to the catchall that doesn't have a user's email address in ...
  4. Hi quality email blasts
    Hi, I need to learn everything I can about creating and sending great-looking email blasts, with active hyperlinks, and maybe some tasteful flash. I know you can't just add jpegs because I've tried that and they always look awful. Thanks! John

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: techzterPosted on 2009-06-01 at 10:04:38ID: 24519513

There are plenty of third party offers out there for a mass mail campaign. Here is one as an example.
http://search.constantcontact.com/index.jsp


You could run it yourself but it would take a little technical skilll to setup the mail server and a software to handle the mail list. Do you have any experience with Linux? If so you could use a program such as Majordomo, or Mailman to handle the list.

 

by: techzterPosted on 2009-06-01 at 10:07:15ID: 24519539

I guess I just overlooked your simplest option. If this is only a list of a few hundred people you may just be able to create a distribution list within your mail client and use your mail server to send them. It would depend on the restrictions on the server this would be the easiest and most cost effective way.

 

by: guitar_333Posted on 2009-06-01 at 10:23:05ID: 24519688

Thanks for the reply.

Is there any good software on the windows platform we could use? We don't have an exchange server yet but will very soon - does that make any difference?

 

by: techzterPosted on 2009-06-01 at 10:56:04ID: 24520016

I don't have a recommendation for a Windows based mail list software. I am sure that they are available, just not an area that I have experience. Once you get the Exchange server you should be all set since you will have control of the server parameters. You will just be able to create a distribution list and blast the messages out.

The only reason I could think that you would still want the software after getting exchange would be for the ease of management. The mailing list softwares allow users to opt in, and more importantly opt out whenever they would like. You don't need to manage the list yourself. Many of them also can build in the feature to create an archive of previous mailings that you can allow to be accessed and searchable.

 

by: techzterPosted on 2009-06-01 at 11:04:32ID: 24520092

After a little digging this software looks pretty good for a Windows platform. I haven't used it before but I think that I may download the evaluation copy and see what it is like. I know that I am generally more comfortable administrating Windows boxes.

http://www.lsoft.com/download/listserv.asp

 

by: GraphixerPosted on 2009-06-01 at 13:19:16ID: 24521360

I use some Windows desktop email software called GroupMail for small distributions.  It's much more flexible than something like Outlook, and might be less expensive to manage as than an ongoing service.  It might work well for you if you don't want to configure server software like Listserv.

Cheers!

 

by: shalomcPosted on 2009-06-11 at 09:35:30ID: 24604232

I used to send such small campaigns with Microsoft Word built-in mail merge tool.
Ingredients:
A PC with internet connection
An email program - preferably outlook or outlook express
MS Word
A list of recipients - excel, or a text file, or even have them in the address book of outlook

Create a new word document with the mail message you want to send.
From the menu, select Tools, Letters and mailings, Mail merge
Follow the wizard :)

I suggest that you send a test campaign to a small test sample list first.

ShalomC

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...