I first
started developing my own email marketing list back in
1997 with the launch of my first site, The Magic Portal.
Initially, I used Outlook Express to edit and send my
occasional newsletters, but that soon grew difficult to
manage as my lists grew in size. Additionally, I learned
that email personalization was critical to getting your
email opened, and Outlook doesn't allow you to do any
personalization.
After doing
some research, I learned from Marlon Sanders about
Infacta's Group
Mail which is now (as of October 24, 2005) in
Version 5. The fact that this tool has outlasted the
competition says huge things about it. Most of the other
favored tools by other marketers have died on the vine and
either are no longer supported or have not been enhanced
in years. All the more reason why anyone thinking about
investing in a tool to manage their online marketing
should look at Group
Mail first.
This latest
version has a much improved user interface. It's crisp and
clean and uncluttered, and it uses a Microsoft-like
navigation bar on the left side of the screen. As you
click on the items, the menu expands and contracts
accordingly to reveal additional menu options. You can
also click on links in the central screen, and even right
click for additional options. This means you don't have to
hunt for commands and features, enabling you to breeze
through your marketing campaigns.
Of course, Group
Mail handles announcements,
subscribe/unsubscribe requests, merging to personalize
every email with contact information (i.e.:
"Dear John ..."), integrated spell checker, send
rich-text or plain text messages (or both) with multiple
attachments, email address verification.
The developers
at Infacta are always adding and refining the tool's
functions and features. With this latest launch, you can
also blast messages via SMS. The plug-in architecture
makes this program limitless. The plug-ins are free to
registered users and they enhance the abilities of the
program 1000%. There is practically nothing you can not do
with it.
I particularly
like their new Scheduler module. With it, you can either
send an email message to a list at a time and day of your
own choosing, or schedule the Subscriber option to process
recent subscribe/unsubscribe requests. For a while, Mail
Loop was the only other product to offer this type of
scheduling and automation, but with the release of Version
5, Group
Mail pretty leaves its competitors in the
dust.
One of the
their latest additions, is the ability to track the
results of your campaigns -- opens, click-throughs, etc.
This is a special service designed for Group
Mail users and requires a separate account,
but it seems to be priced reasonably, and I'd encourage
anyone considering Group
Mail to also consider this option. It's hard
to know how well your campaigns are doing without this
type of click-through statistics.
If you are
thinking of upgrading from an older version of Group
Mail as I did, know that the upgrade is
effortless. The installation of Version 5 detects
pre-existing, older versions and offers to import the
existing lists into the new database. This works
flawlessly for my 7000+ different email addresses across
dozens of small lists (I try to use very targeted
marketing).
We love this
tool. You can even download a free version to get a feel
for the tool before you make the final investment. I'm
betting, though, that you will buy it immediately upon
visiting their site. It's that good. For more information,
click here.
