Bulk Emailer: Home » Mass email sending

Mass email sending category

Group emailing with group mailer software

Mass email sending and Mailing list manager.

Mailing group management is a key feature for every group mailing software used for email marketing.

A group email is sent entering the customer data into the group mailer database. When our email database is filled with our customers informations, we can send a group emailing to the selected mailing list group.

The software SendBlaster integrates a group email management section that sends html, txt or hybrid emails to selected email groups. The group email sending can be done also by filtering the mailing list into meaningful mail groups.

Sending aureated group mails can be dangerous for our clean sender status, since stylish emails full of HTML code and images are often considered spam by the common anti-spam filters (here’s a guide for sending group emails without spam).

If we want to send a group email to our entire mailing list we just check and mark all the group email addresses with green sign:

New Mailing groups with mailing software

If we want to sub-group emails into SendBlaster group mail sender software we have to select a database mailing list inside “manage lists” section.

Now we drag a column header into the mailing group sort area (upper part). This action will group your emails by the “product”.

Group emailing sub-group with mailing software

Now we can send group emails to the selected group.

Sending group emails can be very easy if we have an email database of our customers. A email group database can be built from scratch, entering one by one every email address into our email groups. If you already have a customers database your can import your email groups into sendblaster with the import .csv routine.

We can also add a new email group with the mailing list manager panel. Lets select the new list icon:

new mailing list group with mailing software

Email merge software tutorial for newsletter personalization

How to send personalized emails and Mass email sending.

Email merge means sending personalized emails. Every email marketer knows that the main thing in sending bulk emails is the email personalization, as well as sending only bulk emails that contain useful information for the mailing list subscribers.

Examples of email merge

Dear User -> Dear Samantha
Hello Customer -> Hello Mr. Smith

Email merge, often called mail merge, is a common email marketing practice since it has been proved that personalized emails with merged informations are much more appealing than anonymous emails. Merged emails also help in building a relationship with your email audience.

Email merge is done by inserting into the email body, some “tags” that will be removed by the emailing software and substituted with the final email text within merged emails sending.

The email merge software for email marketing SendBlaster has a complete email merge easy to use suite with integrated tags and customized tags support.

With email merge feature your database data will fill your email automatically.

if this is your database:

email merge database info

these will be your customized emails after the email merging:

customized and personalized merged emails

The Software for email merge SendBlaster takes all the tags into the email template you have prepared and sends customized emails to your entire contact list.

Tags customization for email merge

Included into the software for newsletter merging SendBlaster you find 15 ready to use tags for common email merging needs. You will always need to put your recipients name inside the email body and even inside the email subject. You may also want to refer to your business products or events without editing each email one by one.

Email merge is mandatory when we work on large email marketing database of customers.

Example of tags customization inside software for email merge SendBlaster

The default for custom email merge field N°15 is AGE. If you do not plan to use the AGE informations inside your customers database, and may want to display the product your customers bought and you want to send newsletter for, this is how to set a custom Tag field for email merging purposes:

  • go to Fields and Appearance section inside the Email merging Software SendBlaster. You will se all the allowed fields for email merging with their label.
  • Enter inside field 15 the text: product

In your email database list you should write for each customer the Product name they have bought (you can also automatize the new database records with website optin modules with custom fields)

Let’s suppose you are running a furniture shop, and each customer has a field of interest because they are resellers.
This is how your customers database will show:

Email Name Surname Product product-offer
fred@furniture.com Frederik Peters Office chairs starting from 59$
emma@dot.com Emma Forrest Sofa starting from 259$
kyle@restaurant.com Kenny Leary kitchen tables starting from 1259$

The automatic email merge engine will display the database value where you will put the merging field tag.

Example:

Dear #name#,
This is your #month# newsletter on #product# updates

email merge tags use example

personalized sent email will become:

Dear Frederik,
This is your August newsletter on Office chairs updates

email merge final result into inbox, with personalized email

Conclusions

This email merge tutorial uses Email Merge Software SendBlaster to personalize automatically each sent email.

Troubleshooting network problems

Mass email sending.

This tutorial will guide you to troubleshooting the most common configuration errors (on your Pc or local network) which may prevent SendBlaster (as well as any other group mailing software) from sending any message. It is important to understand that this will help only in those situations when you cannot send even a single message: this is a strong indicator that there is a network configuration problem (otherwise at least some messages would be sent).

The steps to solve the problem are different depending on which delivery method (Direct Send or Smtp) you are experiencing problems with, therefore we give separate instructions. But first we have to issue a very important

Security Warning

In the following tutorial, we suggest disabling your firewall and antivirus as a temporary measure only, in order to quickly troubleshoot your problems or at least find out where they come from. But the appropriate final strategy is to properly configure your security tools instead of disabling them. This may be a time-consuming operation, but it is really needed to keep your system protected. Knowing how to configure your security tools is essential unless you have an administrator which does the job for you.

That said, let’s see how to make things work.

Direct Send

For each recipient, an MX query is sent to your DNS server in order to resolve its mail server address (based on the e-mail address domain, the part that follows the “@” sign). Then, SendBlaster connects to the mail server and delivers the message.

The query is made through port 53, while the message is delivered through port 25. Any firewall or antivirus which blocks one of these ports will prevent successful delivery.

Troubleshooting

You should completely disable firewall and antivirus, do a test mailing, then re-enable them and configure them properly (allow use of ports 53 and 25).

  1. Temporarily disable your firewall, or configure it so that it allows SendBlaster to connect to the Internet without any restrictions.
  2. Temporarily disable your antivirus. Disabling mail checking is not enough when you use Direct Send: since direct delivery is used not only by legitimate tools as SendBlaster, but also by some worms for propagating themselves, some antiviruses do not allow direct delivery and block MX queries on port 53. This protection is called “Internet worm protection” or something similar, and it’s totally separate from outgoing mail protection. For this reason, it is important that you completely disable your antivirus instead of simply stopping outgoing mail checking. (Some antiviruses cannot be stopped, even manually by user, unless they are uninstalled: if this is your case, we strongly suggest that you switch to a better antivirus.)

If your Pc is connecting to the Internet through a gateway on the local network, you should repeat these steps on the gateway too.

If you still cannot send, there may be some problem on DNS autonatic recognition and you may have to manually enter your DNS address:

In SendBlaster “Send” form, manually enter your DNS server IP address (ask your Internet Service Provider if you don’t know its address).

If these steps don’t help, your Internet Service Provider is likely to be blocking direct delivery (port 53, 25 or both): this is a policy adopted by some large providers as AOL, and unfortunately there is nothing you can do about (well, you can change provider…).

Smtp

Messages are relayed to an Smtp server, a dedicated service which will later deliver them to their final destination: the recipients’ mail servers. This is usually faster as the Smtp server is (or at least should be) quicker and always available. Port 25 is normally used, but your Smtp server may require using a different port.

Trobleshooting

You should completely disable your firewall (to be re-enabled and properly configured later) and configure the antivirus so that it does not check outgoing mail.

  1. Temporarily disable your firewall, or configure it so that it allows SendBlaster to connect to the Internet without any restrictions.
  2. In you antivirus program, disable outgoing mail checking (if you’re not sure how to do this, completely stop the antivirus as a temporary workaround)

If your Pc is connecting to the Internet through a gateway on the local network, you should repeat these steps on the gateway too.

Make sure you entered the correct Smtp server address in SendBlaster “Send” form. The Smtp address may need to include a port specification (format is “servername:port”), as some Smtp services run on a “custom” port (while default is 25).

There is no “guessing” here: things will work only if you enter the correct parameters, as they were given to you by your provider. If you are unsure about something (server address, port, username and password if needed), ask your provider instead of just trying (it would most certainly not work).

Please note that, unless you subscribed a dedicated Smtp service, you have to use your Internet Service Provider’s Smtp server: using any other Smtp server will not work. If you connect to the Internet through different providers, you may have to change the Smtp configuration in order to match the connection you are currently using.

Now, try to send a very small mailing at low speed (use “Slow” profile on SendBlaster): if you did everything properly (firewall and antivirus disabled, both on local PC and on the gateway, and correct settings for the Smtp server), you are very likely to be successful.

If you receive a “connection refused”, “message refused” or similar error (any error which sounds like “the Smtp server is there but doesn’t want to talk to you”), that means that the Smtp server address is right, but you are not authorized to use it: either you need authentication or you are using some other ISP’s Smtp server. The good news is that the network configuration is likely to be ok, so you just should check your settings more accurately (ask your ISP if you are unsure about authentication issues).

If you are receiving an “incorrect IP or service unavailable” error, it means that you either did not enter the Smtp server name correctly, or there still is some problem on the network. At this point, after an additional check of the server address, you could try to completely disable your antivirus if you didn’t do it yet; or you may require further assistance from your network administrator.

More Hints on better email sending

Mass email sending.

This is a follow-up to the popular “Hints on better sending” article.
If a large part of your email messages are not delivered, chances are they are being deleted by antispam filters by mistake.
Here is a list of guidelines you should always follow when creating your email messages.

  1. If you’re using HTML emails, include a text part in the email as well, for recipients (and anti-spam checkers), and keep that text as close to the HTML copy as possible. The closer they’re related, the less likely your email will be seen as spam.
  2. Keep your message’s layout as simple as possible. Avoid complex formatting (yes, it will make it look better, but less people will receive it).
  3. Pay particular attention to your mailing’s subject: never use exclamation point (!), CAPITALIZATION, and words as “free”, “guaranteed”, and gappy text (t h i s i s g a p p y t e x t)
  4. Avoid generic salutation formulas as “Dear User”; it is even better to avoid salutation at all.
  5. If you’re using HTML emails, use high quality HTML emails. Don’t use tools which generate horrendous HTML (example: MS Word). They often leave signs behind (like empty tags, eg: ) which are generally found in spam. Unbalanced tags and invalid tags will also flag an email as spam. If you use a title, make sure the title is meaningful — the default titles generated by HTML tools are often used as spamsign.
  6. Don’t insert active components (javascript, ActiveX, plug-ins) in your message. If you need rich media content, just link to a media-rich page on your web site.
  7. Don’t insert too much graphic in your message. The less images you use the better you’ll message will get through.
  8. Avoid attaching files; use links to files hosted on a web server instead.
  9. Use email composition and mailing tools that work correctly. Well constructed emails (technically correct) can be readily identified as not-spam. Emails with missing mime sections, invalid or missing message-ids, invalid or missing date headers, subject or other headers with unescaped unicode, etc., are frequently signs of spam.
  10. Avoid useless or needless encodings. Don’t use base-64 encoded text unless you need to.
  11. Don’t include a disclaimer that your email isn’t spam. Don’t claim compliance with some legal criteria, especially one which is not actually law in your country. Only spam needs to claim compliance: non-spam is supposed to already be in compliance.
  12. Use normal conversational language, be sure not to use excessive spacing and or capitalization on your subject.
  13. Do not use “cute” spellings, Don’t S.P.A.C.E out your words, don’t put str@nge |etters 0r characters into your emails.
  14. If you’re using HTML emails, do not use invisible web-bugs to track your emails. If you must track your emails and whether they’re read, use visible graphics as part of your email, not invisible graphics.
  15. Don’t include gratuitous references to spam subjects. Don’t talk about rolex watches, sexually oriented activities or drugs, or debt treatment, unless those topics directly relate to your email. And if they do, limit your email to one topic at a time. An email which mentions rolex watches, Viagra, porn, and debt all in one email will very possibly hit several rules that flag it as spam, even if everything else is clear.
  16. Don’t use tools used by spammers (i.e., advertised in spam).
  17. Use a well performing, well administered and trusted SMTP server. Most undeliverable mails come from poor SMTP services, which often lead to being blacklisted: make sure your SMTP service’s staff is ready to help if you are blacklisted by mistake.
  18. Make sure your privacy policy, including enforcement, and including query contact information, is easily found and clearly stated on your web site. It’s good to include this information (where to find this policy, contact information), in your emails. Again, people who need to find out whether you’re spammer will often look for that information: this will help you in staying out of blacklists.
  19. Be careful where you advertise, and be careful which advertisements you carry. If you advertise with companies that send out spam, your domains will be flagged as being related to spam. If you carry advertisements for those who spam, your domains will be flagged as being related to spam.
  20. Be careful which domains/companies you allow to advertise in your emails (if any). Allowing spammers to advertise will get your emails flagged by the URI blacklists. On the other hand, don’t advertise your domains with spammers — having your domain name listed in their spams can also get you flagged by some URI blacklists.

Free email spam rating software

Article text based on material from:

Spam Assassin

EmailLabs

Bulk email software: Home » Mass email sending
« Previous Entries
Close
E-mail It