If you are looking to take control of your mailing list and you aren’t convinced by web based email campaign services, you have to use a software solution that lets you generate and send mail merge emails by your own. Outlook is the most popular solution for desktop business emails and – since it’s next to impossible to create and manage mass emails using mobile apps – finding a way to send mass emails from Outlook is a natural choice.
There is also the alternative to use a stand-alone mass email product, but its disadvantages are pretty obvious: you have to learn a totally new email design interface, you don’t get to use the Outlook email features, you can not use the Outlook send & receive email engine (you have to configure your own SMTP server and receive the replies somewhere else). And it is usually a more expensive solution.
With Outlook, you can use the Outlook own mail merge engine or you can use a 3rd party Outlook add-in, like Easy Mail Merge for Outlook. While it is slightly cheaper to use the Outlook internal merge engine, it’s also important to be aware of its limitations.
The below chart describes the differences between Easy Mail Merge and the Outlook 2013 built-in mail merge mechanism by focusing on the three most important mail merge aspects:
– mailing list support (where can you import your mailing list fields from?);
– email customization (how much can you personalize your email content?);
– sending the mass emails (what options do you have? Can you avoid anti-spam traps?).
| Key Features | Outlook mail merge | Easy Mail Merge |
|---|---|---|
| Mailing list support | ||
| Outlook Contacts | ||
| Distribution lists | ||
| Excel / CSV files | ||
| MS Exchange address books | ||
| Automatic unsubscribe handler | ||
| Email customization | ||
| HTML source import | ||
| Personalize content with mail merge fields | ||
| Subject line personalization | ||
| Dynamic content created on logical if / else cases | ||
| Mail merge with file attachments | ||
| Mail merge preview | ||
| Email editor | Outlook | Outlook |
| Sending the emails | ||
| Limit emails per hour / day | ||
| Queue messages | ||
| Schedule for later | ||
| Campaign manager | ||
| Email tracking | ||
| Price | Built in Outlook | $39.95life-time license |
Bottom line, if you don’t need advanced email customization features, the Outlook internal mail merge engine will do just fine. However, it also means you would send all emails at once which is likely to get your email account suspended by your email provider. So, if you decide to do with the Outlook built-in mail merge mechanism, be very careful about the number of emails that you are going to send.
If you are looking for a complete solution to compose, personalize, schedule and send mass emails while still relaying on the already familiar Outlook features, then Easy Mail Merge is the right choice.
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