Multiple Emails

[secsee1]

A friend of mine runs a local pub & restaurant and yesterday received an email from another restaurant in the next town, the email was advertising all the events and specials for Jan & Feb, it seems that this email was sent to many people and my friend thought it might be a good idea for his business so can anybody tell me how it's done and is it difficult to set up?

[boxtops]

One way of doing it is to ask his customers if they would like to be on a mailing list, and if so to give him their email addresses. It is a good idea but individuals need to give permission for him to email them - otherwise it's just spam. He then sets up a group emailing list - which is easy to do - and mails out regularly to them. Our local bar does it once a week about coming events etc.

[secsee1]

Thanks for your anawer boxtops, it has been a great help.

[secsee1]

For "anawer" read answer, sorry!!

[Buenchico]

As Boxtops indicates, it's essential to get people to agree to being on a mailing list, otherwise it's ILLEGAL to send them unsolicited emails:
http://www.cognique.co.uk/blog/email-marketing-in-the-uk-legal-and-best-practice/

Using any email client (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird) it's very easy to create mailing groups. Then, instead of entering a single name into the 'Send' field, you simply enter the name of the group and the mail is sent to everyone within that group.

A word of caution though:
Many ISPs limit the number of recipients that you can send a single email message to via their servers. (That's an anti-spamming measure). Some ISPs let you send to 50 or 100 people at time, whereas some have a limit as low as 20 recipients. So your friend might need to split a large number of intended recipients into several groups and then email each group separately in order to prevent the messages being blocked.

One way to collect contact details is to run a competition whereby customers are invited to drop their business cards into a receptacle to qualify for a draw. (A free meal for two or a bottle of bubbly are common prizes for such promotions). Blank cards can be made available for completion by those who've not got business cards and, of course, there needs to be a notice stating that the contact details provided may be used to send out details of promotions.

Chris

[secsee1]

Thanks for your input Buenchico, I Have just phoned my friend and told him what you have both said but somehow I don't think he has thought this through as he is now asking me if there is a FREE download that is available that will allow him to construct & produce a newsletter where he can paste in his pub logo and menus etc. but I honestly don't have a clue, can anybody advise please? he is running WinXP with Gmail for emailing if that makes any difference...

[Buenchico]

If he's using Gmail he might only be using their web-based system. For full flexibility (with creating groups, etc) he needs to be using a proper email client. So, if he's not already done so, he should configure Outlook Express to work with his Gmail account:
http://email.about.com/od/outlookexpressfreemail/qt/Access_Gmail_with_Outlook_Express.htm

He can then create appropriate 'stationery' (which is actually a very simple web page) using Microsoft Word
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word-help/create-a-web-page-HP005222272.aspx
and use it for his emails:
http://www.emailaddressmanager.com/tips/express-stationery.html

Chris

[boxtops]

I agree with Chris, I'd write the newsletter in Word and just attach it to the circular email.