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Salestream Software has launched an upgraded version of its e-mail 
marketing add-in for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Outlook. PoliteMail 2.0 allows users to craft 1to1 marketing messages instead of generic e-mails. Its major selling point is that users don't have to leave Outlook to use PoliteMail.
Additionally, the new version of the software has enhanced tracking and reporting features, including a function that indicates whether an e-mail is being forwarded by recipients.
This new application is compatible with the older version of Outlook as well as the new release, founder and CEO Michael DesRochers told CRM Buyer.
PoliteMail is still the only marketing add-in developed for the Outlook environment, he added.
Tracking and Templates
"There are many Internet based e-mail marketing applications on the market," DesRochers told CRM Buyer. "But they all require you to leave Outlook." Sending mass e-mails from Outlook is not a good option either, he continued, since the tool to do so is BCC (blind carbon copy), a designation that usually ushers the e-mail straight into the recipient's spam folder.
Features in PoliteMail allow users to create, send and track personalized e-mail broadcasts to customers, prospects, industry partners or coworkers from within the Outlook application through the user's mail server. The application also offers tracking features, as well as hundreds of templates and the tools to build new templates.
Other functions of the application:
- Shared contact and mailing list management, with or without Microsoft Exchange Server;
- E-mail response-tracking that allows users to see who is opening messages and attachments, clicking links, visiting Web sites and forwarding messages;
- E-mail analytics that measure marketing results, with automatic segmentation based on recipient behavior;
- Automatic CAN-SPAM compliance with Opt-in/Opt-out and undeliverable management;
- Smart Attachments, a feature that allows users to include file attachments that can be tracked in e-mail marketing messages and campaigns.
The standard edition for single users starts at US$99 and includes 1,000 free send credits. Users are charged one send credit per tracked e-mail. Without tracking, the user isn't charged a credit. The professional version is $279 and includes 10,000 free send credits. Multi-user packages are also available.
Supplementing On-Demand
E-mail marketing has been under siege over the last few years, both from spammers that have overwhelmed in-boxes and legitimate marketers that cannot resist the lure of such cheap -- compared to traditional direct mail -- communication with prospects.
Anything marketers can do to make e-mail stand out in such a hostile environment is a welcome tool, DesRochers said.
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