Sending a Newsletter: Tips for Choosing the Best Format

[Princess]

How do you guys send out your newsletter? As a attachment or in the body of email?

 

[PampChefJoy]

I send mine through Yahoo groups, embedded in the email itself, not as an attachment. I have serious doubts that most people will open an attachment... some fear viruses, others are on dial up and don't have the bandwidth capability, and some just don't want to bother clicking. I have all the info within the email itself.

 

[Princess]

What do you do in Yahoo groups? or what is it?

 

[PampChefJoy]

Yahoo groups is a way to manage a mailing list. Once everyone is added into my mailing list, I only have to send the newsletter once to one address (in my case, [email protected]) instead of individually BCC'ing everyone.

I have written a tutorial that explains how to set up your own Yahoo group, how to add members, etc. It can be found at http://www.tastytidbits.net/creategroup.doc

More general info about Yahoo groups can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com

 

[Princess]

thanks alot

 

[DebbieJ]

I just send mine in the body of an email using Outlook. I put all my PC addresses in distribution lists and then it's very easy.

 

[PampChefJoy]

Oh yeah, I should add that I use Outlook too.

 

[KellyTheChef]

I use Outlook and make groups that contain my PC addresses. Since there is a limit to 99 addresses per group, I have more than one group. Then, when I am sending my newsletter, I BCC "Pampered Chef Customers Group 1", then another one to "Pampered Chef Customers Group 2", etc.

BTW, I use Tasty Tidbits for my newsletter...www.tastytidbits.net
Use my name as a reference if you buy from her!

 

[KellyTheChef]

Duh....I didn't answer your question!
I send it out in the body of an email. I feel the same way as others do about the attachment, most people won't open an attachment for fear of a virus!

 

[jenniferlynne]

I use Outlook and make groups that contain my PC addresses. Since there is a limit to 99 addresses per group, I have more than one group. Then, when I am sending my newsletter, I BCC "Pampered Chef Customers Group 1", then another one to "Pampered Chef Customers Group 2", etc.

BTW, I use Tasty Tidbits for my newsletter...www.tastytidbits.net
Use my name as a reference if you buy from her!

What kind of feedback do you get from your customers with this newsletter? How much does it cost?

 

[chefmelody]

I use Outlook and make groups that contain my PC addresses. Since there is a limit to 99 addresses per group, I have more than one group. Then, when I am sending my newsletter, I BCC "Pampered Chef Customers Group 1", then another one to "Pampered Chef Customers Group 2", etc.

I heard it mentioned at a cluster meeting that you can only send to 25 email addresses at a time, otherwise you risk being labeled as a spammer. Do you know if there's truth to this? I've just started out, so my email list is less than 25 right now, but still, it'd be nice to know.

 

[DebbieJ]

I heard it mentioned at a cluster meeting that you can only send to 25 email addresses at a time, otherwise you risk being labeled as a spammer. Do you know if there's truth to this? I've just started out, so my email list is less than 25 right now, but still, it'd be nice to know.

Yes, this is true. I'm not sure on the specifics, but I've had it happen to me. It bounced back and said something about too many recipients. So now I have 7 PC distribution lists going in Outlook and it just keeps growing! I send my newsletter to each list, one at a time.

 

[rwesterpchef]

If you're using a free email account, you are more limited to the number of emails, and the number of recipients on an email, that you can send at a time per hour.
If you are a paid subscriber of an email account, you are not as limited to the number of recipients (I thinks it's about 100). The only thing is that each email accounts have a filter in which it judges whether or not it is spam, often based on the number of recipients sent to.

 

[DebbieJ]

Good point, Rita. My most common bounces are from hotmail.

I am thinking about setting up a group via Yahoo to manage my email list.

 

[[email protected]]

Yahoo GroupsI'm not exactly computer savvy, so the idea of of a group yahoo account scares me. I got as far as creating a name for my group email and then stopped at entering email addresses.

Joy, I'm using your directions on setting this up and stopped at the part about entering 10 email addresses and then with the introductory message and the hello message. I'm just a little confused about when you send those out. Call me stupid, but I want to make sure I'm not sending all my customers a bunch of emails they don't need and I don't want them calling me pissed off. Can you help?

Thanks!

 

[PampChefJoy]

I'm not exactly computer savvy, so the idea of of a group yahoo account scares me. I got as far as creating a name for my group email and then stopped at entering email addresses.

Joy, I'm using your directions on setting this up and stopped at the part about entering 10 email addresses and then with the introductory message and the hello message. I'm just a little confused about when you send those out. Call me stupid, but I want to make sure I'm not sending all my customers a bunch of emails they don't need and I don't want them calling me pissed off. Can you help?

Thanks!

Your customers won't receive anything from Yahoo other than what you send out. As far as the hello message, it makes more sense to do it when you are adding customers after a show. If you are initially setting up your yahoo group and adding your list, you may want to send a blanket email out to everyone letting them know that they should expect a welcome email coming from Yahoo groups... You won't be sending "a bunch" of emails to your customers -- Yahoo only sends out 1, maybe 2, confirmation emails when a new member joins.

 

[DeeisPampered]

I personally use yahoo, but I am finding that a lot of my customers are not reading it because it comes from yahoo. They said they are more inclined to read it if it comes from me directly as AOL. The problem is that AOL has labeled my PC account as a spamer and now I am not able to send more than a few emails at a time before they shut my mail account down. I don't know how they do it, but they do. (I didn't know there was a limit to the number of address you could send at once and I am over 200 now.)

Does outlook go out as an attachment? And how do I use Outlook if I have AOL. I know it is here on the computer, but I have never used it. Just wondering how it works.

I love this site! There is such a wealth of information!

God Bless,
Dee

 

[showmehow2]

Does outlook go out as an attachment? And how do I use Outlook if I have AOL. I know it is here on the computer, but I have never used it. Just wondering how it works.

Unfortunately, AOL uses their own e-mail interface and you aren't able to pull it into Outlook. At least as far as I know. I have one account that comes through Outlook (which I MUCH prefer) and also have an AOL account which doesn't. AOL's mail interface, to me, is cumbersome.

You can send things through as either an attachment or in the body of the e-mail. Depends on what you want to do. Personally, I prefer doing it in the body of the e-mail. That way you can be pretty confident that most people will be able to read it.

 

[PampChefJoy]

You can use Gmail with Outlook/Outlook Express and Gmail is a free email service. I use it for my personal emails and my Tasty Tidbits business account and for the "most" part, don't have issues with receiving mail.

 

[pamperedchristine]

How do you use gmail with outlook? I subscribe to byrequest for my newsletters, but gmail won't forward along the pictures! I haven't been able to send out the last 2 months because of this

Any help would be great!

 

[PampChefJoy]

How do you use gmail with outlook? I subscribe to byrequest for my newsletters, but gmail won't forward along the pictures! I haven't been able to send out the last 2 months because of this

Any help would be great!

You go into your options on GMail and you should be able to select "pop mail". There will be a link to pop up instructions on how to configure your Outlook. Yes, Gmail on the web is really not good with images -- my subscribers have problems with it too. The good news is that gmail does not charge for pop/outlook access!