It's a given that e-mail is an excellent way to stay in contact with your prospects and customers, increase sales, and help your business grow. If you're not clear on that then read the article 8 Reasons Your Business Needs an E-mail List before continuing with this article.

But how do you choose the right method of e-mailing for your company? Personally I use an e-mail service provided by iContact but this may not be the best solution for everyone. Therefore, let's go over some of the different ways you can stay connected via e-mail:

1. Use your regular e-mail program (Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, Windows Live, or whatever you currently use to access e-mail) - If you have a small list (less than 100) and don't need to e-mail frequently this is probably the simplest method (and it's free too). What you do is put everyone on your e-mail list into a group (most e-mail services provide for this in some form or another) and then send the e-mail to yourself and bcc everyone in the group. For those not familiar with "bcc," what it does is send a copy of the mail to everyone on the list without letting them see one another's e-mail addresses. This helps keep their contact information private and prevents spam.
   
   

The Pros

The Cons

It's free and very easy to set up. You can use your existing e-mail service so there's virtually no learning curve. Easy to add or delete people from the list.

Most e-mail providers only allow you to send out e-mails to 99 or fewer address at a time so if you have more than that on your list you'll have to break it down into several e-mails Some internet providers only allow a certain number of e-mails to be sent out in a specific time period so your e-mails may not go. There is no automatic subscribe/unsubscribe option so you will have to manually add/delete people from your list as needed. If someone tries to reply to your e-mail and clicks "reply to all" everyone on your list may see their reply. This works differently with different e-mail services but I've seen a few that do this even if you have used "bcc."




2. Use a mail merge program on your computer such as MS Word and Outlook - This is a little more complicated than the method above but if you're pretty good at using your MS Office (or similar) programs then it will work splendidly for you. What you do is keep your e-mail list in a spread sheet or table in a Word document and then use the mail merge function to send individual e-mails to your list via Outlook or a similar program.
   
   

The Pros

The Cons

You control your list and add/delete people as needed and you can also store other information besides their e-mail address (such as name, address, phone number, etc.) You can customize each e-mail using the mail merge feature (so for instance your e-mail can be personally addressed: Dear Mary, Dear John, etc.) You can create master form letters and merge them to e-mail at the appropriate times, changing only certain information. An example of this would be to create a master sale flier and change the sale dates and items on sale. Each e-mail is sent individually so there is no possibility the people on your list will be able to see one another's names.

As with above, some internet providers may limit the number of e-mails you can send in a given time period (this is to prevent spam). Consequently it may take a very long time for all of your e-mail to be sent or some may simply be rejected. As with above, there is no automatic subscribe/unsubscribe option so you will have to manually add/delete people from your list as needed. There is a learning curve to this method so if you're not familiar with Office type programs and mail merges then expect to spend some time figuring it out. I do this regularly for clients so if you need help let me know. Or choose an e-mail method that's easier to implement and use - remember this is all about making your business life easier :)




3. Use a free e-mail service like Yahoo Groups - I did this for a while when I had my first list and it worked fine. Eventually though I decided it was time to upgrade to a more professional service which is when I went with iContact. Note - While I talk about Yahoo Groups here, there are many other companies who offer similar services. I know Google does for sure and there are others as well.
   
   

The Pros

The Cons

It's free and fairly easy to set up. People can subscribe and/or unsubscribe themselves which can save you a lot of time once you have a large mailing list. You can add a sign up form to your website so people can subscribe automatically. You can upload files to the group for people to access. This can save lots of time as you won't manually have to keep e-mailing files people ask you for. You can control who can post to the group and even set it to "newsletter only" if you don't want anyone but you to post (this is how I had it set up when I used this service). Since the e-mail is sent through Yahoo you can avoid limitations your internet provider may place on the amount of e-mail you can send.

It's just not professional. People will receive your newsletter with the Yahoo name all over it as well as advertising. While you may start out with this method, at some point you're going to want to use a service that promotes your brand instead of Yahoo's. This type of mail often gets routed to people's "spam" folders so they may not see your e-mail at all. While you don't need a Yahoo e-mail address to subscribe to the group, Yahoo doesn't make it easy or clear as to how to do that. Consequently people who don't use Yahoo feel pressured to sign up for an account to access your e-mail. Since they may not want to do that you may lose subscribers.




4. Use an e-mail program hosted on your computer or website - This is a program you purchase and then run on either your computer or website which manages your e-mail accounts. Personally, I don't recommend this method to anyone but I wanted to include it so you're aware it's available.
   
   

The Pros

The Cons

They give you total control over your list and e-mail activities. If hosted on your computer they are completely secure as your list isn't on the internet. They give you a much wider number of options. For instance you can: keep multiple lists and send different things to different people schedule e-mails set up auto-responders (very important and we cover this in detail elsewhere) track the response of your list (who opened your e-mails, who went to your website as a result, etc

These can be rather expensive to purchase. I haven't looked into the price lately but I know they used to run into hundreds if not thousands of dollars. They can be tricky to set up and there is a definite learning curve. I am pretty savvy when it comes to computers but even I had major trouble helping several people set these up. So it's definitely not for the novice. They can and do break down and require more maintenance than I like to deal with. If they are hosted on your computer then you may run into those limitations set by your internet provider on the amount of e-mails you can send in a specific time period. In my experience the results are hit and miss. Some people get no e-mail, others get multiple e-mails and some get e-mails that are half way there.




5. Use a subscription e-mail service like iContact or Constant Contact - If you are serious about being successful online then eventually you'll want to subscribe to a service like these. Certainly Constant Contact is very well known but personally I use iContact because I find them easier to use and also because they're less expensive. And we could all use less expensive - especially when starting out.
   
   

The Pros

The Cons

They give you total control over your list and e-mail activities. You can handle multiple lists from one interface. People can subscribe and/or unsubscribe themselves which can save you a lot of time once you have a large mailing list. You can add a sign up form to your website so people can subscribe automatically. You can access reports which tell you who are opening your e-mails. There are lots of e-mail templates to choose from so you can add pizzazz to your mailings. You can also upload graphics and create your own beautiful e-mail templates (there is a learning curve here - I'll be happy to create a template for you). They have auto-responders which are in my opinion the backbone of a solid e-mail marketing campaign and a great way to keep in contact with your list (more on that in another article). You can schedule e-mails for delivery later (in fact I sometimes schedule several e-mails at a time which is a real time saver). They send your e-mails out from their server so you don't have to worry about blowing your own internet provider's limits. They know all about spam e-mail and have very good relationships with internet providers to ensure that your e-mail gets delivered to the intended recipients. While not free they are very reasonably priced and well worth the small investment.

They aren't free - Really, that's the only con I can think of. I highly recommend services such as these, especially iContact as I find it very easy to use and extremely reasonably priced.



So there you have it... my review of different methods of staying in contact with prospects & customers via e-mail. If you're interested in subscribing to a service such as iContact or Constant Contact then you may want to read my article "Choosing the Right E-Mail Service Provider for Your Business" which will help you decide which one is right for you.

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