A friend of mine is in real-estate, and has a list of people that he sends an opt-in newsletter, basically outlining a few available properties, with links to the full detail on the website.

Now he wants to try and personalise these emails a bit more in the hope that it may bring a better response from the reader, IE. Hi Josh, below is this weeks hot properties that have been determined to meet your criteria, then have kinda customised content, IE. Paddington Properties, 500 - 750k.

Anyone have any tips on achieving something like this?

Danke

Employ a boat person to write each email individually?

i think you would get a better response at whirlpool

We use Campaign Enterprise to do this.

$query = "select * from email_campaign";

while (fetch results) {

$contstruct_mail = str_replace("%NAME", $row->campaign_firstname." ".$row->campaign_lastname);

$newquery = "select * from properties where suburb = '".$row->campaign_suburb."'";

print results from ^ that query here

print "regards, whatever"

}

^ lazy pseudo code

I do small contracts like this all the time, if hes got his info in a database it's only a few hours work for me = a few hundred bucks for him

i use expedite to do my bulk email outs:

you can do full personalising of the html with whtaver variables you want:

nice and easy;

https://www.messagereach.com/cgi-bin/me/htmlproducer?getform=login&tabgen=yes

or i could just knock up a perl script to do it for you for a small fee;

I was hoping these emails included personalised tips about how to bulk up.

Anyone have any tips on achieving something like this?

Well, obviously you'll need:

1) a list of subscribers
2) a list of data that you have
3) a mapping of what subscribers are interested in what data
4) a system to read off that mapping and then mail each subscriber their relevant data.

It'll all depend on how he's storing the data and how you can retrieve it and manipulate it. Is it in an access database, mysql, etc, etc.

I've developed quite a lot of e-newsletters and mail-outs, and I have a secret for you: it's bulls***, it doesn't work, stop making me build them. Anyone worth a damn doesn't even see that garbage in their email client, and frankly it effects the reputation of our email servers, as clients like to import lists full of email addresses for people who did not agree to receive these emails.

spook - interested, website 404'd ?

thermite - I don't care whether they work or not, that's not my concern or yours, I've been asked to find out some way to do it

billy - lol

teq - only place contacts are stored atm is in outlook, where would you go from here?

Tic - Ta will investigate

tit/jedi die

haha, so true;

even though we had all kinds of disclaimers saying "do not reply to this" we'd get back hi-larious responses:

one client was a golf course, and a less than hi-larious response was from a wife saying her husband was dead and pleading with us to stop sending her emails:

if she cant be bothered to click on the unsubscribe link (they really work), shes gonna have to keep getting emails;

last edited by Spook at 14:26:40 21/Apr/09

I used getresponse and aweber, both extrememly s*** services - I don't want to f***ing have a double opt in, hahahahahahaha.

Wait, you don't even know how to set it up? I thought you were looking for tips like "don't use the color red as it sends a message to users not to click on the email".

I would totally advise against creating your own software unless you plan to spend 3 months on design and usability and testing. One of the biggest things clients want is WYSIWYG editors compatible with outlook/hotmail/gmail/thunderbird so it's largely a case of restricting what they can do, but still trying to keep it impressive.

I usually make newsletters with the CMS that I have built the website in. This allows me to include the latest links/headlines/products/news/events/posts from the website automatically in addition to newsletter content.

My advice is to just get a $30 a month subscription with some business that does exactly this - they will be responsible for maintaining the system and supporting the clients. Vision6.com.au is one that comes to mind. (No I do not work for them)

Another is plick.com

I don't care whether they work or not, that's not my concern or yours, I've been asked to find out some way to do it

If you're hosting/providing the service yourself, you should indeed be concerned about potential misuse of your service. You should also be honest with your client and tell them that certain email clients will not render HTML, and some will render it in a different way, as that could come back on you too.

last edited by thermite at 14:34:43 21/Apr/09

I used xpedite's email services about 2 years ago when I used to work for a mailhouse. I wouldn't have thought it'd really what the OP was after (more suited to the hardcore spammer and not the most user friendly). May have changed significantly since then.

You could try http://plick.com. Owned by my cousin in law. Seems to have a free 60 day trial. Haven't used it or played around with it at all though.

oooh, which mailhouse danthepirate?

teq - only place contacts are stored atm is in outlook, where would you go from here?

the pub ..

I'm sure theres an easy way to export them, probably to MS-SQL or access etc
all you need to do is store them in SQL somewhere, makes it 100% easier for someone to come in and knock up the code which sends the emails

Security mail. I left about the time they changed the name to Sema.

Now I help make ConnX.

mach 5 mailer is probably the cheapest, easiest to use solution

with malcom ross and co, excellent;

connx is an excellent product;

i was very sad when we left it for peoplesoft;

Not sure if this is exactly what you're after (could be).

http://cannonballcommunications.com/

Some awesome pointers

Thanks thus far

wo wo wo slowdown champs!

Spook you used to work for Sema? that's where i'm at now! (and looking at moving on soon). Malcolm Ross is now my commercial manager and he's a bloody legend.

danthepirate, what departement did you work in? i was there just prior to getting rebranded to Sema. Chances are i've actually come across you...

p.s. for email blasts i use Vemail.