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Web General
Using E-mail to Your Advantage
Developing Mailing Lists
Autoresponders
Autoresponder Services
Avoiding Autoresponders
Effective Mass E-mailing
Listserv
Summary
– 14 –
Mail Delivery Systems
Electronic mail (e-mail)—a system whereby a computer user can exchange messages and files with other computer users (or groups of users) via a communications network—is one of the most popular uses of the Internet. This facet of the Net was one of the first applied uses and continues to be a powerful communications tool.
Using E-mail to Your Advantage
By collecting viewers' names and e-mail addresses (in addition to other information) at your site, you can develop an e-mail mailing list. You can also develop this list by requesting this information on service calls, product registration postcards, sales calls, via online forms, and so on. Basically, think of an e-mail address the same way you do a phone number—as necessary information.
Why would you want to do this? To save money and trees (among other things). How do you do that? By converting much of your existing direct mail and print campaigns to an e-mail campaign. There are many advantages to using e-mail over print, some of which are
Saving on print, bindery, postage, fulfillment and other costs
Saving trees J
Nearly instant delivery (as opposed to that of the postal service, which has become known as "snail mail")
The ability to update information quickly and with minimal cost
Developing Mailing Lists
So the first step in developing your own e-mail list is to get the viewer to fill out an online form. You could do this by simply asking viewers to fill out your online form to be added to your mailing list. But if you want to develop a large list, you need to entice the viewers a bit more. They may need some "What's in it for me?" incentive. Some options that work are
Offering free information not available on your site
Offering to answer questions (and really answering them!)
Having some kind of contest or free offer as Disney has done in Figure 14.1.
Figure 14.1. The viewer needs a "What's in it for me?" incentive.
So, are you ready? Let's do it!
The goal of this project is to provide a form to collect information for use in our mailing list. For taking the time to do this, we will reward viewers with free information. After the viewers fill out the online form and click the Submit button, we want an HTML page to load, letting them know we received their form and thanking them for their time. In addition, we want our information to be e-mailed to them automatically. We also want the information they provide to be sent to our own e-mail box.
There are four separate files we must create for this form system:
The HTML form itself
The CGI script with which to decode it
The text information to be mailed to the viewer
The HTML redirect page
The code for the HTML form is shown in Listing 14.1.
Listing 14.1. The code for our HTML form.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 3.0//EN" "html.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Feedback Form</TITLE>
<!-- Author: Kim and Brad Hampton -->
</HEAD>
<BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="425AFF" VLINK="0018C4" ALINK="FFFFFF">
<H1>Please fill out this form to receive your free information</H1>
<P>
<FORM ACTION="/cgi-bin/formmail.pl" METHOD=POST>
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" name="recipient" value="hampton@ha.net">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="subject" VALUE="Free Information">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="redirect" VALUE="http://www.ha.net/thanks.htm">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="replyfile" VALUE="info.txt">
<DT>Your Name:
<DD><input type=text name="realname" size=30>
<DT>Your E-mail Address:
<DD><input type=text name="e-mail" size=30>
<DT>Your Company Name:
<DD><input type=text name="Company" size=30>
<DT>Your Phone:
<DD><input type=text name="Phone" size=30>
<DT>Mailing Address:
<DD><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="address" size=30>
<DT>City:
<DD><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="city" size=30>
<DT>State:
<DD><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="state" size=2>
<DT>Zip Code:
<DD><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="zip" size=10>
<DT>Country (if other than US):
<DD><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="country" size=20>
<DT>Any comments, questions, or suggestions?:
<DD><TEXTAREA name="comments" cols=27 rows=4></TEXTAREA>
<P>
</DL></I>
<DT><DD><input type=submit value="Send This Form">
<input type=reset value="Start Over">
<P>
</FORM>
<HR>
Please note: Although it is most unlikely that you will experience any problems responding to this form,
certain non-standard browsers will not respond properly. If you experience any difficulties, (or if you
are not using a forms-capable browser) you may e-mail your response to this form to: <a href="mailto:hampton@ha.net">hampton@ha.net</A>.
</BODY>
</HTML>
All of this code should look pretty familiar (if it doesn't, refer to Chapter 11, "Integrating HTML with CGI"). There are just a couple new commands.
The first is
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="subject" VALUE="Free Information">
This just means the subject of the e-mail sent to us will read "Free Information."
The next,
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="replyfile" VALUE="info.txt">,
is saying to send the file "info.txt" to the viewer as a reply to this form.
Now we need the CGI script that will decode this form. We'll again use formmail.pl, the same script discussed in Chapter 11 (included on your CD-ROM).
Next we need the information that will be mailed to the viewer. Since our information is pretty small, we will make this an attached TXT file. If our file was large, we might need to offer the information in a different format (or several different formats), since files will often be divided (or even bounced) by an e-mail program or server if they are too large.
The HTML redirect page is just a simple HTML page thanking the viewer for filling out the form (refer to Chapter 11 to see the code for this page).
And here's how it works: The viewer clicks on the feedback link from the home page and arrives at our HTML form. They fill out the form (Figure 14.2) and click the Send The Form button.
Figure 14.2. How a viewer fills out this form example.
The form is submitted, and the viewer jumps to the thank you page (See Figure 10.6 in Chapter 11). At the same time, the informational text file we promised is forwarded to the viewer's e-mail box.
By now the form contents have arrived in our e-mail box. We can at this point manually cut and paste the information into a database (or some kind of text file) or we could import these responses directly into a database for use as sales leads. (For information on how to do this, see Chapter 13, "Databases and Searches.")
Autoresponders
In our form example we set up the system to automatically send the viewer a specific e-mail. This function can also be achieved by an autoresponder (often referred to as a mailbot). An autoresponder is a software program that distributes files or information in response to requests sent via e-mail.
Autoresponder Services
There are many ISP and specialized companies that provide autoresponder services (such as in Figure 14.3)—your ISP may be one of them. These services are usually inexpensive and will save you lots of time. A list of some of these companies is provided at
http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/Computers/Software/Communications_and_Networking
/Electronic_Mail/Autoresponders/
Figure 14.3. An autoresponder service.
Avoiding Autoresponders
Now, if you're thinking "All this autoresponding sounds neat, but I don't think I need it," you're probably right. If you only receive a small amount of e-mail requesting information, you could easily just send the information manually. This not only simplifies things (for a limited amount of requests), but it also forces you to read through your responses more thoroughly and quickly, which your viewers will appreciate, and allows you to add a personal touch.
It's this simple:
A viewer sends you a request for information via e-mail (it's a good idea to ask that they put the file or information they are requesting in the subject line), or through your online form.
You view the information and save it somewhere.
You find the file they requested.
You reply to the sender with your information in the body of the e-mail, or as an attached file.
Now you have all those e-mail addresses! What you do with them is up to you, but we suggest setting up a mass mailing. Some simple ways to do this are discussed in the next section.
Effective Mass E-mailing
You are probably familiar with mass mailing. This is when you send the same information to an entire list of people. Mass e-mailing does the same thing, but does so with the speed and efficiency of e-mail. One example of the advantage mass e-mail has over direct mail is in the case of a catalog.
Suppose you had a list of, oh, let's say widget users. Traditionally, you might send a business reply card to these people, offering them a free catalog (as sending each person a catalog right off would be too expensive). You incur the printing, mailing, and return mail costs for the cards, and then must print and ship the catalog to those that request it.
Now, if you do this all electronically, you can simply send an e-mail to each person on your list, giving them the URL of your new catalog site. You can probably imagine the cost savings.
Note
Just as with regular mail, recipients are annoyed at having to sift through e-mail that is of no use to them. The first rule of e-mail mass mailing is only send out useful information. (Just because you have the e-mail addresses of people who bought your widgets, don't send them information on llama rearing—they'll start to delete e-mail from you without even reading it.)
How do you send a mass e-mailing? There are at least two options: a listserver and an ordinary e-mail program (Eudora, MS mail, and so on). The option you choose depends mostly upon the size of your list. If you have a small distribution list, you can avoid using a listserver and can skip to the Quick and Dirty Guide in this chapter, "Cheapskate Mail Delivery." If your list is large, however, a listserver is your best bet.
The three main practical differences between these approaches are as follows:
When an e-mail program sends out a mass e-mailing, it sends to each e-mail address separately. If your list is large, or the file you are sending is large, this could mean the program spends hours online sending the mailing—although you can usually automate the process so that you can begin the process before you leave the office for the night, and it automatically disconnects when it's finished.
When an e-mail arrives that has been sent as a mass mailing from a plain old e-mail program, the To: line displays the addresses of everyone the mailing was sent to. However, when a mass e-mailing is sent from a listserver, the To: line only displays the individual's address.
Some listservers are set up so that a reply to the message will go back to the listserver. In some cases, this may mean that each person on your list will receive the response. Obviously, you'll want to make sure this isn't the case.
Listserv
Listserv is an automated mailing list distribution system originally designed for the BITNET/EARN network. Listserv sends a list of e-mail addresses to something called a "mail exploder" (part of an electronic mail delivery system that enables the delivery of a message to a list of addresses). The mail exploder works like this: You send messages to a single address, and the mail exploder takes care of delivering the message to each of the individual mailboxes in the list you've provided.
If you are interested in using a listserver, your first stop should be at your virtual host (if you have one). Many hosts offer use of their listserver, and provide this service free of charge or for a small additional fee. If you have no luck, there are many companies, like the one shown in Figure 14.4, that offer this service for a fee—a couple that we have found are Internet Tools Inc. (http://www.internet-tools.com/it_html/mail_list.html) and L-Soft International, Inc. (http://www.lsoft.com/ease-head.html).
Figure 14.4. A listserv service.
Setting up a mass mailing using a listserver can also be a do-it-yourself project, and there is already good information available at
http://www.earn.net/lug/notice.html.
Quick and Dirty Guide: Cheapskate Mail Delivery
One option for sending out a mass e-mailing is to use the same e-mail program you always use. Many e-mail programs have this capability, two of the more popular being Eudora Light and Microsoft Exchange. This is a simple option if your mailing list is short.
So let's get started. The goal for this project is to send an e-mail to a list of 20 recipients, informing them that we are having a sale on an item for which they have previously requested information (widgets). First, you must choose the e-mail program you would like to use for this project. Read on if you plan to use Eudora Light; skip ahead to "Using MS Exchange for Mass E-mailing" if you plan to use Microsoft Exchange.
Using Eudora Light for Mass E-mailing
Eudora Light (freeware) is available at Eudora's home site (http://www.eudora.com) as well as various shareware software sites. Eudora also makes an advanced version called Eudora Pro, which is not freeware. For this project we employ Eudora Light because it is so widely used. Its home page is shown in Figure 14.5.
Figure 14.5. The Eudora home site.
Open Eudora Light.
Hit Ctrl+L to open the Nicknames dialog box.
Click the New button to open the New Nickname dialog box.
Type the name of the mailing group you wish to create. (In our example we name this "widget" to signify that the mail group consists of viewers who have previously requested information on widgets—but you probably guessed that.) Select "Put it on the recipient list," and click OK.
Your nickname will appear in the Nickname box, and your cursor will appear in the Address(es) box.
Enter a recipient's real name (in quotes), and that person's e-mail address in brackets, like this: "John Doe" <jdoe@mydomain.com>. Repeat until all your addresses are entered (Figure 14.6).
Figure 14.6. The Nickname dialog box.
Once you have entered all your addresses, click To:, which will open a new message box addressed to your mailing list.
Type the subject of your message, in our example it's sale on widgets.
If you want to attach a file to the e-mail, you can do this by pressing Ctrl+H and selecting the file to attach.
Type your e-mail message (Figure 14.7).
Figure 14.7. Typing in a message.
Connect to the Internet and click Send to send your mailing.
When the e-mail arrives at all those addresses, it will look something like Figure 14.8 (yes, we are viewing this through Notepad, and no, we didn't really send this mailing to all those fake addresses).
Figure 14.8. A mockup of how this e-mail would arrive.
You'll notice that the To: line includes not only the address of this recipient, but of all the recipients on our mailing list. This is one of the reasons we don't recommend this method when sending to a large mailing list.
Using Microsoft Exchange for Mass E-mailing
Open Microsoft Exchange.
Press Control+Shift+B to open the Address Book window.
In the File drop-down menu, choose New Entry to open the New Entry dialog box.
Choose Internet Mail Address and click OK.
Fill in the display name (the person's real name) and e-mail address (you can also fill out the additional information if you would like to keep more contact information here), and click OK (Figure 14.9).
Figure 14.9. Filling in a real name and e-mail address.
Repeat Steps 3 through 5 to enter all of your recipients.
Close the Address Book.
In the Microsoft Exchange Compose drop-down menu, choose New Message to compose a new message.
Type the subject of your message in the subject line (in our example, it's Sale on Widgets).
Type the body of your e-mail. (If you want to attach a file to this e-mailing, choose File[el] from the Insert drop-down menu, and select the file.) (See Figure 14.10.)
Figure 14.10. Typing the e-mail and clicking the To: button.
Click the To button, which will reopen your Address Book.
Select a recipient from the list and click the To button. This entry will then appear in the recipient list.
Repeat Step 12 until all the desired recipients appear in the recipient list, and click OK.
Click the Send button, which will place this message in your outbox.
When you're ready, go online and send.
The e-mail will then arrive at all those e-mail addresses. (Note: When the viewer receives this e-mail, the To: line may display everyone on your recipient list—which is one of the reasons why we do not recommend this method for large mailing lists).
Summary
In this chapter you have
Discovered how e-mail can be used to your advantage
Learned how to develop an e-mail mailing list
Learned about autoresponders
Discussed mass e-mailing and how it can be achieved using Listserv, Eudora, or Microsoft exchange.
In this chapter, we've addressed a way to open communication to new customers. In the next chapter, "Customer Service Online," we discuss communication with existing customers.
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