Mass Mailing

[Jaser247]

Hello all,

I have a client using FM4 on OS9. She has a client database with the usual info, name, address, email, ect... She would like to be able to some how email everyone in her DB when she has an up coming event. How can this be done? Can someone walk me through the basic setup of this if it's possible?

Thanks,

Jaser

[Reed]

Does FM4 have the send mail script step? If so, you can just write a looping script that sends the message and moves to the next client on each loop iteration. You do need a mail program that is supported under that version and OS. I'd guess that Eudora or Outlook express or Claris Emailer would work. If you don't want to deal with using mail programs you could get a plugin like SMTPit that will interact directly with the mail server.

Or if every recipient can receive the same email body, you could just export the emails DB as a comma-delimited text file and paste them into any email program into the BCC field.

[Steve T.]

Hi, Jaser! Reed's right on, but if you stay in FileMaker, the messages can be personalized for each recipient using data from their records. If you only have e-mail addresses, I'd do as Reed suggests and just export the addresses as a .txt file. Usually, I then open the .txt file in a text editor and change all (P) paragraph marks to ", " (comma + space character) before pasting on the BCC: line. Some e-mail clients don't need that conversion step, though.

BTW, using the BCC: is important or all the recipients will see all the addresses... which is bad for at least 2 reasons.. 1, they see who else gets it and can copy/paste the addresses if they want, and 2, the actual message may get buried below the e-mail address list if there are a lot of them.

--ST

[Leb i Sol]

BCC= gate to spam

CC= only 1 main To:user is visible

u could setup 1 account on your server

eg. [email protected]

then simply delete/file away this email that u sent to your self ...while everyone else that gets it will see eg.

______________________________

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Blah Blah

______________________________

All the best!

[Steve T.]

RE: BCC= gate to spam ; CC= only 1 main To:user is visible

Hi, Leb! Long time since we've been in the same thread! Good to read ya!

Please explain a little if you get the chance... I don't understand....

I thought...

BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) does not show addresses and something like " Recipient List Suppressed:;" gets put in the TO: line... How is this related to SPAM?

CC (Carbon Copy); I always see all CC: addresses and TO: addresses on e-mail messages, regardlesss of quantity of addresses or other headers.

Thanxalot!

--ST

[Will]

Re: BCC = Spam

I think Leb is implying some email servers or client-side spam filters will automatically mark a message that has only BCC recipients as Spam - this may be true but in my limited testing I have not seen it. I do know that if you are using Outlook 2000 and only list recipients in the BCC field then all the recipeints can see all other recipients anyway - to prevent this you must place at least one address in the To: field and then put all the rest in the BCC. I usually put my address in to field.

Depending on how much feedback she wants on her email marketing strategy, you could recommend an email program that will track if the client opens the message and also if the client clicks on any hyperlinks in the message - Campaign by arialsoft is one package and there are also hosted solutions.

Will

[Leb i Sol]

Hello Steve & Gang!

been barried into work...so no love on FMforums

I really have to stop posting when I am 1/2 asleep :

CC =spam

What I ment to say is some "users" will strip this field and use it to build their own "maliing lists" and then spam you...where u find yourslef getting emilas from people u never meet....

perhaps u never met the person or sgned up for anything but your common "budy" was lazy one day and mass-mailed you a joke...AND stuck everyones name into CC box.....

Will....after re-reading your post...I can say this much...I am happy ur not a user on my network!

" you could recommend an email program that will track if the client opens the message "

AKA- SPYWARE...LOL

so, Steve I blive ur right this is not related to "spam" per say...but more of "revealing emails".

so my suggestion is:

_______________________

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Blah Blah

BCC: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected]

_____________________________

where [email protected] address can be your 2nd email address....so u can keep copies of "what u send out" and if your customers will see:

_______________________

Ffrom:[email protected]

To:[email protected]

Subject: Blah Blah

,,,

this will make them wonder why this email is not sent TO:[email protected]

but most people will consider themselces "your customers" anyhow so it is OK that it doesnt relfect "their" email address...also, your client doesnt have to process/(connect-login-virus scan-send) each msg individually but rather have a server distribute it on "server side"

the only problem is that u cant really "personlize the content"

afterall, this is a cheep way out and doesnt require any plugins :

take care!

[Steve T.]

Ah, I see... Thanx for the info, both of you.

Will : I didn't know that about Outlook... seems silly to me to show blind cc:'s but that's good to know. Some folks at my campus wanted to send confidential messages but did not trust BCC:. Now I know why.

Leb: I hear ya... I'm deep in PHP/MySQL world this summer and miss some of the ease of FM stuff.

Jaser: If you go with Reed's SEND MAIL script, have your default e-mail app open and running when you execute the script. If you want to use a specific e-mail client (I recommend Eudora 4 or newer), I think you can choose the system's default e-mail app (and default web browser) from the OS9 "Internet" control panel.

--ST

[Eclipse]

There's also an amazing plugin for FM ver 4.0 and higher made by CNS called SMTP-IT. We use it on our databases to email members. It's relatively cheap and it's abilities are almost limitless. We're even able to putt customized data from various member's records and incorporate it into their outgoing emails. It sends mail directly from filemaker, so there's no need to have 500 composed messages on your screen that have to be manually sent or queued, etc...

You can check it out at http://www.cnsplug-ins.com/products.htm?product=SMTPit

Hope it helps

[mindtpi99]

Here's part of a script I use that may help you understand how to do it - SMTP It is also very good, but you can probably do what you want to do without it if you aren't doing anything too complex;

Enter Find Mode

Perform Find

[ Replace Found Set ]

Go to Record/Request/Page

[ First ]

Loop

Exit Loop If [ Status(CurrentFoundCount) = 0 ]

Set Field [ materialemailsent, Status(CurrentDate) ]

Send Mail [ To: repemail, CC: