Can anyone tell me about email newsletters?

[vacaloca]

I've got a good database of clients who have opted in to receive offers from us but I've never used it, which seems such a waste... Presumably the best thing would be to set up an email newsletter with news and offers, but I don't know how to do this. Do you need special software? Do I need a professional to do it? How do you stop it getting classified as spam (a lot of filters do this when it's sent out to a lot of people at the same time). Has anyone done this before?

Hi there Vacaloca I will mail you with an easy template to follow... as you already have the database you are more than half way there

Thanks Cat! I haven't received an email from you yet, but I'll sit patiently on my hands. I did find something online called MailChimp that provides templates and doesn't charge very much for sending them out. I ended up ringing a local company the other day and they were charging £100 for creating the template and £50 every time I wanted to send a newsletter out, which was a bit over my budget.

Sorry Vacaloca I haven't been on line for a couple of days... Do you have publisher on your PC? What sort of business do you run?

I haven't got Publisher but I have Dreamweaver - not sure if it would be able to read Publisher templates. I rent holiday cottages in Northern Spain, so it would be a newsletter to tell them about what to do in the area in the Autumn, some offers, etc.

Hi Vacaloca (great name!) - I can recommend www.madaboutadmin.co.uk for creating newsletters - from content to design to sending them. A great service. If you do go there, please say it's from a Mumsnet contact. Thanks.