Re: [SAGE] politely sending emails to huge lists of recipients

[Tom Limoncelli <tal@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Marco Marongiu<brontolinux@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi Tom
>
> Thanks for replying. Unfortunately, paying an external provider for this
> service is something that $EMPLOYER can't definitely afford. So we need
> a tool for that, to use it internally.
>
> No chance? :-(

Can't afford $15/month?  Certainly this is recouped if you spend an
hour or two a week on this.
        http://www.constantcontact.com/pricing/pricing-plans.jsp
There is a free trial.

This sounds like when I was at my previous employer and they asked if
I could develop a web-based system to take surveys.  I nearly said,
"yes" because, well, I know perl, I know CGI, and I could do it.
However, I was smart enough to say "no, but surveymonkey.com will do
it for cheap."  Best of all it was self-service and the HR person was
able to do it entirely without me.  If I had said I could write such a
program, it would have been days of back-and-forth changes which would
have driven me crazy.  Instead, she was happy to be empowered to do it
herself.  In fact, doing it herself without any help became a feather
in her cap.

The lesson I learned is that "can I do it?" includes "do I want to do
it?".  If I can do something but don't want to, the answer is, "No, I
don't know how" not "I know how but don't want to".  The first makes
you look like you know your limits.  The latter sounds like you are
just being difficult.

I'm not saying that you should lie to you boss, but I would totally
endorse if you spoke to him/her and explained, "Gosh, Sir, I asked on
SAGE-members and it turns out it isn't as easy as we thought.  In
fact, they said it can't be done. AOL and Hotmail have some very
strict policies that are difficult to adhere to, they don't tell you
the whole story and you have to keep close watch on each batch of
email to see what didn't get through and modify our strategy.  The
anti-spam people are crazy.  They track what people are spending and
start blocking people all the time.  It is better to let the
salespeople do their own mailings and re-mail to people that bounce.
They know their customers best."

After he pushes back, say "Oh, there's a company that has a
relationship with AOL, Hotmail, and the anti-spam people.  They do the
mailings for you and assure delivery.  They're $15/month and have a
free trial."

Tom

P.S. I know I sound like a commercial for CC, but I have no affiliation with it.