Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Sending Emails

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Theatrestation
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Joined: 11/10/05
Location: United States
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Posts: 65

Topic: Sending Emails
Posted: 1/25/07 at 1:14am

Does anyone know of a program that allows you to send many emails at once without them going to people's bulk folders?

I'm not looking for a program where people sign up online. These are all people, though, who have freely given us their addresses on paper. I would want to also be able to hide everone's addresses from the other recipients.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Susan

http://www.castbuilding.com
http://www.theatrestation.com

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Mike Polo
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Community Theater Green Room

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Location: United States
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Posts: 286

Posted: 1/25/07 at 7:15am

Susan,

In order to send the emails without have all the addresses show up, you can create an email distribution list in Outlook (I'm not sure how other email programs handle such lists). You can also check with your ISP or hosting provider and find out what listserv tools are available to you. A listserv can cut down on maintenance by allowing people to sign up for the email list themselves via email. There are some other tools out there, but it depends on how complicated you want to get.

Mike Polo
Community Theater Green Room
http://www.communitytheater.org

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Theatrestation
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Posted: 1/25/07 at 9:37am

Hi, Thanks for the help!

A lot of the people at our theatre are people that read emails, send emails, write their emails down at a show, but wouldn't necessarily go and sign up to receive their email. This is why I am looking for something where I can fill in everyone's email address for them. My concern is by sending what is essentially a "bulk mailing" some isp's may mark it as spam.

http://www.castbuilding.com
http://www.theatrestation.com

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Mike Polo
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Community Theater Green Room

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Location: United States
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Posts: 286

Posted: 1/25/07 at 1:04pm

ISPs check for spam based on the sender. If you send it from your email address (and that would be how a listserv is set up), you should have a problem.

Mike Polo
Community Theater Green Room
http://www.communitytheater.org

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75director
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Joined: 8/19/05
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Posts: 122

Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:03pm

A few months ago we started using a company called Constant Contact for our e-newsletter service. It has a lot of features including being able to manually enter someone's email address or letting them sign up online. They then can controll their account on line. Say, God forbid, they want to stop getting your email they can just click an link in the email and unsubscribe. Also when you send an email it gets thru most of the spam blockers. Infact I've had people tell me that they get the e-newsletter fine but my personal emails sent just to them go in their bulk folders. Go figure.

I also like this company because it lets you track if your email was opened and if they clicked on links in the message. Also unlike several other companies that offer this type of service they charge you based on the number addresss in your database, not how many emails you send a month. They are also relatively cheap, for our list which has about 200 addresses it's only $153 for an entire year.

Their web site is www.constantcontact.com

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dboris
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Posted: 1/25/07 at 4:08pm

I do the bulk e-mail for my theater and also work in Information Technology for a living so I have a lot of exposure to SPAM issues.

First there is no way to totally prevent an e-mail from being classified as bulk e-mail or SPAM. Your e-mails are going to go through a wide variety of SPAM filters, those of ISPs, corporate filters (a lot of my customers use their work addresses), and personal spam filters. Each filter will have different rules for how to classify SPAM, so inevitably some e-mails are going to get incorrectly classified.

Another thing to be aware of if that some ISPs limit how much e-mail you can send in a short period of time.

Finally, the most important thing to do to be a “good” bulk mailer is to give people an easy way to un-subscribe. At the bottom of each e-mail you send you should provide instructions on how to un-subscribe, even if it’s just an e-mail address they an send to, to request this.

Dan

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POB14
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Posted: 1/26/07 at 9:51am

I'm a big fan of Yahoo! Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/

Easy to join and to opt out; you can get digests or individual emails; and also gives you some file-hosting and calendaring functions. Oh, yeah, and it's FREE!

The simplest way to get around spam filters is to ask people to add you to their "allowed" list.

POB
Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard

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dboris
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Posted: 1/31/07 at 10:25am

Here is a good article on how to be a "good" bulk mailer:

Seven Ways to be Mistaken for a Spammer

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=115768&WT.svl=news1_3

Dan

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Other Topics
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Producing Theater :Other Topics

Author	Message
Theatrestation Star Joined: 11/10/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 65	Topic: Sending Emails Posted: 1/25/07 at 1:14am
	Does anyone know of a program that allows you to send many emails at once without them going to people's bulk folders? I'm not looking for a program where people sign up online. These are all people, though, who have freely given us their addresses on paper. I would want to also be able to hide everone's addresses from the other recipients. Any ideas? Thanks, Susan
	http://www.castbuilding.com http://www.theatrestation.com

	IP Logged

Mike Polo Admin Group Community Theater Green Room Joined: 2/01/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 286	Posted: 1/25/07 at 7:15am
	Susan, In order to send the emails without have all the addresses show up, you can create an email distribution list in Outlook (I'm not sure how other email programs handle such lists). You can also check with your ISP or hosting provider and find out what listserv tools are available to you. A listserv can cut down on maintenance by allowing people to sign up for the email list themselves via email. There are some other tools out there, but it depends on how complicated you want to get.
	Mike Polo Community Theater Green Room http://www.communitytheater.org
	IP Logged

Theatrestation Star Joined: 11/10/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 65	Posted: 1/25/07 at 9:37am
	Hi, Thanks for the help! A lot of the people at our theatre are people that read emails, send emails, write their emails down at a show, but wouldn't necessarily go and sign up to receive their email. This is why I am looking for something where I can fill in everyone's email address for them. My concern is by sending what is essentially a "bulk mailing" some isp's may mark it as spam.
	http://www.castbuilding.com http://www.theatrestation.com
	IP Logged

Mike Polo Admin Group Community Theater Green Room Joined: 2/01/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 286	Posted: 1/25/07 at 1:04pm
	ISPs check for spam based on the sender. If you send it from your email address (and that would be how a listserv is set up), you should have a problem.
	Mike Polo Community Theater Green Room http://www.communitytheater.org
	IP Logged

75director Celebrity Joined: 8/19/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 122	Posted: 1/25/07 at 2:03pm
	A few months ago we started using a company called Constant Contact for our e-newsletter service. It has a lot of features including being able to manually enter someone's email address or letting them sign up online. They then can controll their account on line. Say, God forbid, they want to stop getting your email they can just click an link in the email and unsubscribe. Also when you send an email it gets thru most of the spam blockers. Infact I've had people tell me that they get the e-newsletter fine but my personal emails sent just to them go in their bulk folders. Go figure. I also like this company because it lets you track if your email was opened and if they clicked on links in the message. Also unlike several other companies that offer this type of service they charge you based on the number addresss in your database, not how many emails you send a month. They are also relatively cheap, for our list which has about 200 addresses it's only $153 for an entire year. Their web site is www.constantcontact.com
	IP Logged

dboris Celebrity Joined: 2/10/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 124	Posted: 1/25/07 at 4:08pm
	I do the bulk e-mail for my theater and also work in Information Technology for a living so I have a lot of exposure to SPAM issues. First there is no way to totally prevent an e-mail from being classified as bulk e-mail or SPAM. Your e-mails are going to go through a wide variety of SPAM filters, those of ISPs, corporate filters (a lot of my customers use their work addresses), and personal spam filters. Each filter will have different rules for how to classify SPAM, so inevitably some e-mails are going to get incorrectly classified. Another thing to be aware of if that some ISPs limit how much e-mail you can send in a short period of time. Finally, the most important thing to do to be a “good” bulk mailer is to give people an easy way to un-subscribe. At the bottom of each e-mail you send you should provide instructions on how to un-subscribe, even if it’s just an e-mail address they an send to, to request this. Dan
	IP Logged

POB14 Celebrity Joined: 7/01/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 349	Posted: 1/26/07 at 9:51am
	I'm a big fan of Yahoo! Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/ Easy to join and to opt out; you can get digests or individual emails; and also gives you some file-hosting and calendaring functions. Oh, yeah, and it's FREE! The simplest way to get around spam filters is to ask people to add you to their "allowed" list.
	POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard
	IP Logged

dboris Celebrity Joined: 2/10/04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 124	Posted: 1/31/07 at 10:25am
	Here is a good article on how to be a "good" bulk mailer: Seven Ways to be Mistaken for a Spammer http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=115768&WT.svl=news1_3 Dan
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Topic: Sending Emails( Topic Closed)