ASKMR. INTERNET
Michael Russer answers your Internet marketing questions.
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and consultant. He's dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. You'll see his column on REALTOR® Magazine Online every month and in the magazine quarterly. Got a question for Mr. Internet? Send it to help@askmrinternet.com.
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Yes, You Can Personalize Group E-mails
DEAR MR. INTERNET:
What's the best way to personalize E-mail messages when sending the same message to groups of people?
Andy Norton, CRS
RE/MAX--Distinctive Real Estate
McLean, Va.
DEAR ANDY:
Did you ever receive an E-mail in which the senders did their best to make it sound as if you were the only one they were writing to, but forgot to hide all the other recipient E-mail addresses? I bet it made you feel real "special", didn't it?
E-mail is the most powerful and direct online tool you have at your disposal. Its power becomes even greater the more you personalize and tailor the message for each recipient. The easiest way to send personalized E-mail to a group is to put all but one of the addresses in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field. That way each recipient will sees their own address, but not the others. Although this helps, it can hardly be called personal.
Ideally, each message should begin with the first name of each recipient and even include additional person-specific information in the body of the message. The best way to set up and send this kind of message is with E-mail merge software--the online equivalent of word processing mailmerge.
A number of programs offer this capability. However, the one I use is called WorldMerge from ColoradoSoft. In addition to being powerful and easy to use, it's also quite reasonable--retailing for about $39.95.* To demonstrate how to complete an E-mail merge, I'll use a WorldMerge example:
1. Set up Your E-mail Data File
This is a list of your recipients, which should include E-mail address, first name, last name, and any other pertinent fields of information. Putting them into an Excel spreadsheet is a quick and convenient way of storing this data
WorldMerge will also use MS Access and Text Delimited files, which define records with fields. Each line of the text file is a "record" and the fields are separated by some delimiter character, such as a comma. For example "Michael","Russer" represents a record of my name with the first and last names in different fields.
Put your own information into the first record, to test your E-mail merge before sending out the entire list.
2. Create a New Mail Merge Project
Launch WorldMerge, choose "New Project", and follow the prompts from the new project Wizard. The Wizard will ask you to identify the E-mail data file you want to use (the one you just set up) and which field represents the recipient's E-mail address. This part is important, otherwise the program won't send the messages to the right addresses.
3. Compose the E-mail Message
Compose the E-mail text using placeholders for the fields of information that will change with each recipient. Keep each line to no more than 72 characters to avoid unintended line breaks in recipients' messages and be sure to include your signature at the end of the message. (For my September 1998 column on E-mail signatures, click here.)
4. Test the Merge
Make sure only your record is selected and send a merged E-mail to yourself to see if it comes back looking the way you intended.
5. Send the Messages
To send the merge, select all the recipients in the data file as active. WorldMerge will compose a new message for each recipient, substituting the field placeholders with the respective content, and then send the message. With a normal dial-up connection, expect to send 400 to 600 personalized E-mails per hour. That sure beats typing them all.
If you want to get fancy, WorldMerge allows you to send HTML mail (Web pages embedded in the message) and even different E-mail attachments for each recipient.
Keep in mind, though, that sending personalized messages doesn't exempt you from spam laws. If you send unsolicited E-mail, personalized or otherwise, make sure your actions comply with laws and regulations in the states each of the recipients reside. Otherwise some of your recipients may take your message too personally--and not in the way you intended.
*If you purchase WorldMerge from ColoradoSoft and mention that you heard about it from Mr. Internet, you'll pay $29.95, 25 percent off the regular price. ColoradoSoft will donate another $3 to the Children's Miracle Network. Russer, RUSSER Communications, and its staff receive no compensation of any kind from third party vendors for mentioning their products or services. Any incentives that we would've earned are given back to you, the real estate professionals.
