Despite the much-discussed problems that have arisen lately with email advocacy, mass messages and email newsletters are still a critical tool for most campaigns and organizations. We use them to educate supporters, spur them to take action when needed, and to raise money. MySpace and similar sites notwithstanding, email is still the best means we have of building and maintaining relationships with online supporters.
So, how to decide which mass email tool or provider is best for your group? Idealware has a great article that covers the basics of mass email communications, inluding the both the essential features and the nice-to-have extras. It covers just about every topic that organizations should consider, from list management to message formatting to after-action reporting, and it doesn’t lose sight of the fact that the content matters more than the tools used to send it. Once you read this, you’ll know the questions to ask the vendors.
Also, Idealware and N-Ten are hosting an online seminar tomorrow about choosing an e-newsletter tool, though it’ll cost you — $60 for N-Ten members and $100 for non-members.
– cpd