Mail Merge as part of Word 2003 & 2007 can be used to print mass personalized letters and send bulk personalized emails at the click of a button.
You can save big money by doing your own email campaigns. There is no need to pay anyone else for doing this for you when you can DIY for FREE.
Most people don’t realize that the software to send personalized bulk emails is ALREADY on their own computer.If you’re in a small business then you should really spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the process.
Doing a mail merge is a very simple 6 step processThe benefits of being able to use mail merge are huge.In the past when you wanted to send letters or emails out to a list of people you had to manually input each name and address separately.This process could literally take hours!With mail merge the whole process can be completed all from just ONE document.
So, if you have 100 or even 10,000+ letters or emails to print or send, they can all be done at once with the click of a mouse.
From a marketing perspective personalized letters and emails are MUCH more well received. People are more likely to read something that is directed at them personally rather than something that looks mass produced.
Small business owners will appreciate the substantial return on investment that personalized correspondence can achieve.Don’t just use the merge fields after Dear, and for your senders address. Advanced users should take full advantage of the functionality of the program.
Use the recipient’s name frequently throughout the body of your content.Insert kids names, hobbies, preferences and any other details that you have on your database to really make your content as personal as you can.
If your content is highly personalized your message will be more effective. The person will remember it and probably appreciate that you took the time to write to them personally.
Letter Writing Tips: Always use a headline. Include one of your merge fields in the headline to GRAB their attention. Including their name or the name of their business in the headline is a good tactic here.
Include a picture of yourself and ALWAYS include a p.s at the bottom. Photos and p.s’s get an awful lot of attention. Sometimes people will read the headline and the p.s. before they read the content of your letter.
Email Writing Tips:ALWAYS use tables! Designing your emails with tables will make your emails more reader friendly as this format closely resembles the format which people are accustomed to.
You can add borders, cell shading and other styling to your table, plus it is easy to layout your content in an organised manner.
About The Author: This article is written by Neville Pettersson. Neville runs a small business marketing company in Christchurch, NZ. He has designed this website as a valuable resource for small business owners to keep in touch with their customers. Visit the website at:
www.mailmergeguide.org/mailmergetutorial
