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Email newsletters can be extremely effective, or disappointingly disastrous. It all depends on how you use them.
The first step is to determine whether you should manage your contact list yourself, or if you should use a professional mail server. If your contact list consists of a few hundred people or so then you can likely take care of it on your own. However, if your list is larger, say 500 or 1000 contacts or more, then it pays to hire a professional server. That way you don’t have to deal with incorrect addresses and it takes the hassle out of managing unsubscribers.
There are some important things to know about sending out a newsletter by email. First of all, put all the addresses in the “BCC” (blind carbon copy) field of your email program. This sends the newsletter to each address without divulging the other addresses on the list. If you use the “To” field or the “CC” (carbon copy) field, then every recipient will not only get your newsletter, but your entire contact list as well. Not only does that look tacky and reek of “spam,” but it also can contribute to the spread of viruses that feed on email addresses on a hard drive.
Second, with all the addresses in the BCC field, you have to put something else in the “To” field. Some address their newsletters to “unidentified addressee” or something else impersonal like that. Others use their own name. But neither of these options is very professional. Instead try using a special email address that identifies the sender and the newsletter with your domain name (If you don’t have your own domain name you can get one for cheap at any number of domain registrars online). Something like “subscribers@mydomain.com” or “clients@mycompany.com” works nicely.
The nice thing about using this type of address is that it doesn’t even have to be a real address. If it’s not a real address it will just be sent back to you while all the other addresses in the BCC field will be sent merrily on their way. And each client will receive a newsletter from you with your special “clients@mycompany.com” address in the “To” field. Perfect!
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