Newsletters and Email Marketing

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Old 03-13-2008
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Narre Warren, Victoria, Australia
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Question Any ideas on what to use for fancy email for Grand Opening annoucement
Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could use to create a fancy email with some glittering effects and flexible formatting? Preferably a freebie.

I'm preparing an Grand Opening announcement to send to family, friends and some small business owners that we know. I am hoping this Introductory email could then be sent on to people that they know who may be able to use our services.

I've being playing with the free "Toddle" for newsletters but the 5 optional syles don't give enough flexibility to change the format, fonts, font colours or picture sizes.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. (I don't know if it matters but I can use either Hotmail or GMail to send the email.)
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Old 03-13-2008
Delady's Avatar
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Location: Chicago, IL (USA)
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Default Re: Any ideas on what to use for fancy email for Grand Opening annoucement
I used Constant Contact for my Launch Email. You can get it for FREE for 60 days and it includes a "forward to friends" feature! Although I am deciding to use iContact for future mailings, Constant Contact was very user friendly and easy to learn.

Let us know what you decide to use!
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Old 03-13-2008
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Company name: Modern Marketing Support
 
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Location: Ontario, Canada
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Default Re: Any ideas on what to use for fancy email for Grand Opening annoucement
Constant Contact is great. They have some nice templates. Some of them are a bit tricky but once you get the hang of it they look good. You can customize them according to colour and you can upload photos. It might be worth a try. And it is free to send to 100 addresses (I think its 100)
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Old 03-16-2008
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Narre Warren, Victoria, Australia
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Default Re: Any ideas on what to use for fancy email for Grand Opening annoucement
Lahesha and Shari,

Thank you for suggeting Constant Contant, I appreciate your help.

The formating has a lot more options than the other applications I had tried and, with a bit more work, I'm sure I can customise the email to exactly what I want. I hadn't even thought of a "Refer to Friend" feature, but it is perfect.
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Old 03-29-2008
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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Default Re: Any ideas on what to use for fancy email for Grand Opening annoucement
You could also try www.mailchimp.com I use Constant Contact for one of my clients, but I use mailchimp for my business. It's not as user friendly as Constant Contact, but it allows you more flexibility with your design. You have to know a little bit about html emails to begin with, but you can pretty much create any design you want. They also have a 30 day free trial that you can send out to 100 contacts.

As I mentioned in another post, the nice thing about this service is that you can sign up for a month to month membership. If you have no emails to send in a certain month, you don't have to use it or pay for it that month. Much better for small businesses so you're not stuck in a contract.

The other thing I really like is that you don't have to have mailchimp listed anywhere on the email. That way you could offer email newsletters to your clients and it doesn't look like it's coming from some service, it looks like a completely original design. You can have multiple lists set up, so you can have one for your business and then separate lists for each of your clients.

Another service you can offer your clients - and an additional revenue stream! Plus, there's very little you have to do to manage the lists. If someone wants to unsubscribe and uses the link in the emails, mailchimp takes it off automatically. Believe me when I say that's a huge timesaver. I've done html email newsletter blasts on my own and had to manage a 1000 person database. It takes alot of time to search through all your contacts to take someone off the list, or to check to make sure someone has already unsubscribed before you put them back on the list.
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Old 04-01-2008
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Narre Warren, Victoria, Australia
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Default Re: Any ideas on what to use for fancy email for Grand Opening annoucement
Wow Eve, Mailchip looks very impressive. Thank you for the recommendation and detailed description of the service offering. I'll definately give Mailchip a try when the next opportunity arises.
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Old 04-01-2008
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 387
Default Re: Any ideas on what to use for fancy email for Grand Opening annoucement
I really like their service, but I think what impressed me the most were all the resources. I like that it's not just some service that does all the work for you- they really want to teach you about email marketing and make you a responsible e-marketer.

That being said, it does take a little time to learn how to set up your first email. It's not as user friendly as some of the others, but it allows you more design flexibility. If you have any questions about it, feel free to post them and I'll try to help!

Have a good night!
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