Email Marketing
Why use an Addon?
ACT! is a great customer relationship management tool and although you can send mass emails straight from ACT!, there are limitations. This is why we recommend using a third-party email marketing addon for ACT!. The addon that we use and recommend is Swiftpage - the number one integrated email marketing solution for ACT! worldwide.
Reasons to use a Third-Party Addon for email marketing...
System Resources
When ACT! preforms a mail merge, it must merge each contact’s information into your selected template. In addition, the recipient’s e-mail address appears individually in the address line rather than being lumped together with all the other recipients in the “BCC” (blind carbon copy) address line. Finally, ACT! places a date and time-stamped record of your transmittal on the contact’s history tab. That’s a lot of work which is why we recommend a limit of around 100 emails per transmission.
Send Limit Restrictions
Even if you get through the sent stage, your ISP may block your emails due to their send limit restrictions put in place to prevent spamming. You know you are not spamming, but the ISP assumes that you are and can block your emails from reaching their destination.
SPAM Compliant
Unlike ISPs, ESPs (email service provides) such as Swiftpage have full-time staff dedicated to making good with the ISP’s that control the email you are sending. It is their job to make sure they know that what you are sending is OK. If you get blacklisted without using a 3rd party, it can take as much as a few days before your IP address will be allowed to deliver mail to that ISP.
Emails sent through Swiftpage have an automatic Opt-Out link allowing recipients the option to opt-out of your mail list. If you accidently send to them again, Swiftpage will block the email. Also, Swiftpage will only send to the one email address in each send. So if you happen to have duplicate contacts in your list, the contact will only receive the email once. If you read the part about building loyalty with your customers, you will really value these services!
Tracking
Ever wished you knew when a recipient opened the email you just sent them or what link they clicked on? Swiftpage provides robust analysis tools that tell you who opened, clicked, bounced, suppressed, opted out, forwarded and more. If you want the data to make more informed business decisions, you need a third party addon.
