Email/Mail Merge/ Database Software

by 6 replies
8
Hi,

A friend is after database type software that does the following -

1. Creates a database with email, name, address and category
2. Ability to create an email campaign that emails a group of people based on category
3. Ability to create a campaign with mail merge or printout of labels with name/address based on category
4. Ability to see at a glance which campaign went out and to who and when.

For example - say one of my categories is Dentist, we'd need the ability to send an email to everyone in the dentist category or send out a mailing to all the dentists. And then at a future date and see exactly who got what...

Does that already exist as some kind of software? If not can it be done with a mix of excel, word, access or outlook.. or is there an add-on for Outlook or Thunderbird?

Or can someone code this for me? And if so how much would it cost?

Cheers

Max
#programming #database #email or mail #merge or #software
  • Mailloop - I'm pretty sure. Spendy though, and probably outdated.

    Look at ACT - it can do some cool stuff with merging lists and mailing.
  • If you're interested in coding it yourself, have a look at FileMaker Pro. It's database software for everyday users. A lot of what you're asking for can be accomplished quite easily by yourself, to share with your friend. And it's not that expensive either.
  • I would recommend Interspire. It cost $499, but it is worth that money of it's stability and features what it can be done with that software. It is self hosted solution.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi,

      Thanks for the answers so far. I'll look into them. As for Interspire. Does that have the ability to print out mailing lists? The ability to do the printing is 50% of our requirements for the software. I looked at the Interspire site and dont see any mention of printing. Are you sure it does that?

      Cheers

      Max
  • Don't let the printing feature be a hang-up for you. If the information is in the database, it is a very simple job for any programmer to access the info and create a printable report.

    On a different note, if you intend to due a lot of e-mailing, don't overlook the importance of mail server management and configuration. You can have the fanciest mailing software money can buy, but if your self-hosted email server can't send the emails, or more importantly, they aren't accepted for delivery then it's not much good.

    It may be wise to at least consider some third-party email services like MailChimp (which I know will let you segment/categorize your lists). I'm not sure if you could use them for managing physical mailing info, though.

    -Ryan
  • Hi,

    Thanks for the great resource and tips here. I am wondering if we can do a mail merge using Thunderbird and MS excel. I am trying to learn and wondering if there is any good resource there?

    Thanks,
    John
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