Mail Merge Tutorial
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.
Mail merge virtually eliminates the need to pay monthly subscriptions to email marketing companies or agencies.
Microsoft office software gives you the ability to do the same job for little cost (or NO cost if you’re sending emails!Mail merge is a very valuable tool for small business owners as it gives you the ability to design and publish professional letters and email campaigns.
Doing a mail merge is a very simple 6 step processThe benefits of being able to use mail merge are huge.Previously when you wanted to send out letters or emails to a list you had to compose each one 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.
Personalized letters and emails achieve better response rates than mass produced generic letters and emails.
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.If you have custom fields in your database such as; partners name, children’s names, pet name and birthday, then by all means you should use these fields to their full extent
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.
Photos and BTW remarks work wonders. Always include a picture of yourself so the reader can relate to you. Writing a p.s. after your name is also a good trick as these remarks get high readership.
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:
