[RobertWild]

Greetings to the hivemind...

I'm not too sure of how to ask this, as I'm a little unclear as to what the higher-ups are after.

We are currently reviewing our communications systems, as a part of re-vamping pretty much how we do everything () and the powers that be have realised that there is this useful application called "email" (No, I'm not kidding) which we might use to communicate to our alumni more 'effectively' (read: allegedly cheaper than print).

So we are looking to develop essentially an email database, from which we can segment and control our emails, and record who gets what. Sounds like a no-brainer, considering that RE has pretty tight integration with Outlook.

Problem is, organisationally, we use either Eudora (on the older machines) or Thunderbird (On the newer ones (including mine)).

Now, I like TBird, I really do, but it's a pure email client - it can't handle segmentation, apart from creating dozens of address books and lists, so that's no go.

What do people use to manage/segment their email lists if they can't directly run from RE?

Is there some sort of intermediate application that I can port data to via RE that I can readily email from, or has a thing yet to be created?

I think that this will be used to control an e-newsletter or two, as well as segmented, specific communications to particular segments. These could encompass anything from full HTML emails to text emails with attachements, to emails with links for people to follow.

TL;DR Version:

How & what do you do to email stuff to people? Please tell me, I want to plagiarise heavily! BTW, No Outlook!

cheers

Rob

[DavidZ]

Here is a thought. Totally untried and untested. Could you not created a Word merge export from RE, export all documents out and then send them from Word. This assumes that when you use Word to send an email from it will use your email client and not try to use Outlook (I know that is a big assumption).

David

[tim.read]

I'm in the middle of a project using a web based e-mail client called Campaign Comander by Emailvision. We are going to sync our RE data by scheduling an FTP from our RE server, to their site, once a week. Post campaign we'll receive an RE compatible Cons import file back including bounce backs and new website sign up's etc, which we'll use to take people off lists etc. We segment by way of attibutes on Cons and relationship records. The selections are done on the web based front end. This is a good solution for us, but as I say I'm still in the middle of things at the moment so will reserve full judgment until it's finally up and running. Keep in touch if you want know how we progress.

[DrewAllen]

We don't have Outlook either, but we have used the Word "merge to email" functionality to send email blasts using Groupwise. At my last job, we used Gammadyne software to do this. It would take a CSV file and a plain text or HTML file which you could customize with fields from the CSV file. You could then either use your own SMTP server or the Gammadyne internal server to send the emails. It worked very well, but the first time you use it, be prepared for LOTS of bounce backs.

Drew

[andrea.bbbs]

What I have done is query for emails, export them to Access to clean them up a bit, and then copy the table into Word. Then I convert that table to text with semicolon deliminators. I send that Word doc to the folks in the agency who need the lists - they can copy paste them into any email format. I know that is probably the long way around, but I take pride in doing everything a__-backwards (not really). But it looks really complicated and people think I am REELY REELY Smart.

Actually, since I have no support in RE - I have to make stuff up as I go along.

[Shannon Moon]

we have recently faced the same issue and use a 3rd party email provider, where I export my segmented lists from RE and import. So far, so good. Email Marketing Solutions from Constant Contact

[cseebald]

Some info about Constant Contact is available on the forum in the Online Tools category under Websites. Click here to view that entry. There's also a link to sign up for a free 60-day trial.

-