Did You Know You Can Easily Merge Your Newsletter to Your Email Contacts?

[Jules711]

Did you know if you have Outlook 2003 and Office 2003 or better, you can merge to an email? This means that you can type ONE email in Word and merge it to your entire PC Newsletter list. Since each email is sent separately, no more splitting them into a bunch of different groups b/c you can only send 10, 20, or 50 at a time. Also, this allows you to personalize it as well. Hi, "customer"! Of course, you have to have your contacts set up with first and last names.

Since each email is sent separately, it SHOULD go through okay. Regardless, I love the personalization especially.

1. Type email as you want it to send.
2. Click Tools, Letters & Mailing, Mail Merge
3. Choose Email Messages at the right, next
4. Click whatever option you like and next
5. Select from Outlook Contacts, Choose Contacts Folder, Outlook, select the correct folder (to make it easy, you will want to create a separate folder for your newsletter recipients), next
6. If you already created your newsletter, just add the greeting line where you want it (you can change it so it's first name, remove the Dear for your own wording and remove the Sir or Madam for no first name entries...whatever works for you).
7. I suggest previewing it. Click on the ABC in the middle of the tool bar to go between "Greeting Line" and what actually will send. , NEXT
8. Merge Electronic Mail, Add subject line, OK (THIS SENDS so only do this if you are ready to send the email).

Hope this helps someone.

 

[PampChefJoy]

Just as an FYI... some email providers / ISPs will allow you to send only so many messages per day.... to prevent spam from originating from them. I tried sending individual newsletters via my gmail account and got cut off after so many. They said I had to wait 24 hours before my restriction was lifted. I also read the fine print on my ISP (Frontier) and it said that I was limited unless I wanted to switch to a "business" account.

I have around 500+ recipients though... if you don't have that many, the mail merge will probably work okay. Worse case scenario is that you have to send it over several days.

 

[pamperedbecky]

....got cut off after so many. They said I had to wait 24 hours before my restriction was lifted. I also read the fine print on my ISP (Frontier) and it said that I was limited unless I wanted to switch to a "business" account.

That's exactly how it is with my Comcast account. It stinks!! I just usually plan that it'll take two days to send my newsletters out to everyone on my list. What really stinks is when I reach my limit, then can't even send ONE email out, such as an email reply to something really important. Oh well. This is why I've considered doing Constant Contact, but have never gotten around to it.

 

[Jules711]

I still like the personalization part and NOT being addressed to me or undisclosed vs them. I don't have that problem with my provider, but very good points!

 

[tpchefrebecca]

That's exactly how it is with my Comcast account. It stinks!! I just usually plan that it'll take two days to send my newsletters out to everyone on my list. What really stinks is when I reach my limit, then can't even send ONE email out, such as an email reply to something really important. Oh well. This is why I've considered doing Constant Contact, but have never gotten around to it.

How do you know when you are restricted? Do they send you an email? I haven't gotten a warning yet, but would probably freak out if I did.

 

[pkd09]

I will be the first to admit how computer illiterate I am. The good thing is that once I know HOW to do something I am OK. So...Jules I followed your instructions but nothing in the contacts. I then thought "do an export from PP". Still nothing. What am I doing wrong?

 

[beepampered]

After you export your contacts from PP, you still have to import them into Outlook. So go to Outlook, then to the File menu, then select Import & Export. Follow the prompts to import your data (you will have to know where you saved your Pampered Partner information). Once the information is there, you can send your newsletter.

You will have to update your contacts when you get new ones in Pampered Partner.

The above directions were great for sending my first personalized export. Thanks Jules!

 

[Jules711]

Thanks Bee for explaining it. I didn't have to do the PP thing since I just automatically put them in Outlook. I'm glad it worked for you. I hadn't realized that the update versions could KEEP formatting so I was VERY excited!!

 

[PamperedChefDebi]

OK, I tried the mail merge in Outlook this month but it's a real headache. And I'm STILL getting ALOT of nondelivered due to spam characteristics. I have over 400 contacts so I thought this would be great. Then, some timeout because it's such a slow process.

Does ANYONE have any better ideas? I used to send my e-mail in small groups at a time but it still kicks back as spam for some and I was getting so few responses to my newsletters (and I'm always offering something free) that I think many of them were getting caught by spam filters if they did make it past the ISP.

Are there any other options besides paying a service to send them?

 

[ChltNCRenee]

You could sign up for a Yahoo group.... I am planning on trying that and will let you know how it works out for me....

 

[chefann]

I used a yahoo group for a while. It was nice to send them out without worrying about bounce-back. But please be aware that it is technically against the web guidelines with PC.

https://www.pamperedchef.com/repsonly/public_comm/recipe_success_ad_guidelines.html > "Internet/Web: Additional Guidelines"

You may set up a chat room or e-mail newsgroup ONLY to communicate solely with other Pampered Chef® Consultants about the business. Please do not mention, advertise or promote your Pampered Chef® business on any chat rooms, other than those created for communicating with other Consultants.

 

[melindag]

I've been using yahoogroups for my newsletter since 2002. Here's what I like about it:
1: I only have to send one email and it currently goes out to 180 people.
2. It doesn't put everyone's email address out there for everyone to see - so I like the privacy.
3. I have had the occassional computer crash at home, or email system problem, and I have been able to go to the public library and still get my newsletter out to everyone!
4. I am able to use the files section to build a library of reference for my members - I have a host folder that holds host documents, outside order forms, monthly specials, etc. I have folders for recipes,kitchen tips, product uses, etc.
5. Its Opt In, Opt Out - I usually invite people to join at my shows and if they provide their email address to me on the door prize slip, I take that as a YES they want to join my mailing list. I always acknowledge that when I close out their order, and take a moment to explain to them how yahoogroups works, what they can expect to see as far as an email coming saying "you've been added", and how the subscribe/unsubscribe process works. I have had very few people unsubscribe over the years.
6. I promote this as my "preferred customer club" and offer special promotions throughout the year only to this group of people.
7. I usually only send 1 email a month to them, I promise to not bombard them with messages and that promise is something I take seriously. Usually in july, I let them know I will send a mid-month release with announcements from conference.
8. Its very, very easy for me to use yahoogoups. In the beginning I used to create my own newsletter, and I tried a variety of different methods (publisher, word, text right in the body of an email, etc). I used to invest lots of time into the "creation" of my newsletter, it was something that kind of consumed me! Currently I use Tasty Tidbits, and will never go back!
9. I also set up my yahoogroups address in my Customer connection area of my personal website....occassionally I will send them one of the template emails from there. Not too often, though, I'm not real crazy about those templates.

that's all I can think of for the moment, but I'm sure there are about a dozen other reasons I could come up with to use yahoogroups. It doesn't cost anything, and for me is very time efficient.

Melinda

 

[etteluap70PC]

so you post the NL that you get from Tasty Tidbits on your Yahoo site. Then send a msg from there once a month to all contacts to come see whats new?

 

[melindag]

i edit/add my personal info and forward it. There are tons of consultants who do this through yahoogroups.....many Directors and above.

 

[PamperedChefDebi]

The way I understood it, if you lock it down so NO ONE can use it as a bulletin board or public forum or whatever, you are still in compliance with the spirit of the rule.

And I was going to do this but you can only add 10 names a day. I have so many names, it will take over a month to add them all and that doesn't count all the new ones I'll be getting in the meantime. That alone will totally confuse me!