Mail Shot Tool (SB, JW VTL 2008)
| This project enabled the mass mailing of promotional emails, with content that varied according to the details of the business being contacted. Recipients clicking on links in the mail could be individually tracked in real-time and reported on. Previous solutions to the problem of how to send out bulk mail had run into problems with tightened Outlook security. Responses to emails, such as 'unsubscribing' had to be handled manually, which was time consuming and error prone.
With this solution, the user takes an email list spreadsheet (legally required to be opt-in addresses), they then compose an html formatted email template. Wherever they want a field from the spreadsheet to appear in the email they type a place holder, e.g. "Dear ---forename--- ---surname---". These will be populated when the mails are sent, as with mail merges.
The user then pushes a button in outlook. They are then prompted: Which email template do they wish to use? Which number mailshot is this? How many mails do they wish to send? The emails are then sent.
Each mail has a link to the website. When the website receives these hits it stores the identity, time and response of the hit. These responses can be viewed live online so that 'hot' leads can be pursued immediately. Afterwards the database of responses can be fed back into the spreadsheet to flag all the 'unsubscribes'.
This project was notable for the fact that it used virtually the whole of the Microsoft Office suite. Outlook VBA loaded an Excel spreadsheet list, merged the results into an email created in Word and sent the emails. Responses came back to an ASP page created in FrontPage which then stored the results in an Access database. (At no stage in the project was PowerPoint required). To find out how we could make a project like this help your business, call +44 (0)1949 21 21 21 (show full list)
| 5 | Access, Excel, Word, Outlook, ASP | (M) |
