Microsoft Outlook is a poor tool for eMail marketing

If you want to accomplish anything more than sending out eVites for a wedding or birthday party then you should be looking beyond Outlook as your marketing solution. As attractive as Outlook with an add-on such as Microsoft’s Business Contact Manager might be, it simply does not meet the primary needs of any email campaign. Why? Because email marketing is NOT about the info you send out. It’s about the info you get back. If you can’t track that data, know what is working and what is not and use it to plan future strategies then why are you doing it in the first place?

In a technical sense, I can simply state that any list over 50 names is too much for Outlook to deal with but, the bigger picture regards how valuable your list is to you. Business is all about relationships and if you’ve made the effort to build solid relationships don’t risk them by not investing a small amount of effort to service them effectively. In order to service any list correctly proper reporting and list management tools are critical.

Your list must be easy to get on and off and it must meet regulations such as CAN-SPAM and Bill C-27. Email Service Providers (ESPs) offer these tools and an array of reporting information to help you build out your marketing strategies. Are you going to reinvent the wheel or just call a taxi?

Remember, this is NOT just a list of names. These are your clients! You’ve invested years establishing a good relationship with them and likely a sizable budget. Why cheap out now? Especially when you have a plethora of affordable options for any size of company listed right here at theemailguide.com!

It’s not so much what you put into email marketing but, what you get out of it which makes it valuable and if you want anything out of it at all you’ll need the reporting tools to mine the data effectively. Decide what data is gold to you then use our guide to indentify the most cost effective solution available.

Think we are being hard on MS Outlook? It’s not really about any specific email client. Outlook does what it does very well as do a number of other email clients out there. It’s simply a question of using the right tool for the right job and while you can use a screwdriver as a hammer, why would you want to?

However, perhaps you think Outlook is both a handy screwdriver and hammer or perhaps you have something else to share and I want to read it! Post your comments.