Personalize Your Email by Adding
Piggy-back Software to Outlook

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to send out personalized email from Outlook? That means instead of sending email to a group of people with the same greeting using 'BCC' (Blind Carbon Copy) you can address each individual with their name and have their email address displayed on the top of the email.

It would give the impression that each message was individually crafted. You can send out personalised email using the Microsoft Office software, but it is a long winded exercise. In this story we review the eMailMerge software which piggy-backs on the Outlook program.

The simple-to-use eMailMerge utility adds two extra buttons to your Outlook mail template to assist the mail merge process. Your email message is completed in the usual manner but instead of sending the same greeting with the carbon copy feature, you leave a blank space. By placing the cursor in the usual greeting location you can now nominate your recipients name by clicking one of the mail merge utility’s buttons. (First name or full name etc)

Now you can continue with the mail merge process and select a group of recipients and the software automatically adds each individual name and address to each message. The mail is now stored in the outbox ready for sending.

You may be wondering how mail is addressed to your contacts without a name. Sometimes you may have only an email address as a contact. There is provision in the software to add a common name if there is no contact name in your list.

For example you could nominate the greeting of “Guys” in the software so it comes out as “Hi Guys” in each individual email without a first name in the contacts.

How do you get your hands on this useful software? If you go to site: www.addins4outlook.com you can download a free version which you can trial. The free version is good for a demo only, as you are limited to five recipients at a time with advertising included in the message.

Pay $US40 for a license key and you can start personalising your email from lists in your “Contacts” folders and get rid of the advertising. This is easy to use software and you are up and running in a couple of hours. If you do strike problems have a look at the FAQ section of the website as it will clear up any troubles you may strike.

What do the marketing experts say about personalized email? Email which is personally addressed is far more likely to be read and assimilated than generic email that has “Undisclosed Recipients” in the address box. If you are using email for marketing you will get triple the response rate. Using personalized email in every day communication with your customers will enhance your company’s image and invite feedback.

What Should You Be Using for Email: Outlook or Outlook Express?

The best way to classify this email software is like this: you use Outlook Express at home and Outlook at the office. Outlook Express is a basic email program while Outlook is more sophisticated and has extra bells and whistles.

The rationale is: at home you use the Outlook Express for basic email communication while at the Office you use Outlook for other tasks as well as email. Outlook comes as a component of Microsoft Office package while Outlook Express comes as part of Windows. Therefore there is an extra cost in getting up-and-running with Outlook.

What are the bells and whistles available with the Outlook software? You get the advantages of multiple address books; a fully integrated calendar; a tasks-folder with the ability to track jobs through to completion; a notes folder or the electronic equivalent of paper sticky notes.

So Outlook is designed for more than just sending and receiving email. If you have lots of people you correspond with, you can accurately classify them into multiple folders for phoning, faxing and emailing. Also you can keep tabs on all your projects with a pop-up reminder system incorporated into an electronic diary.