One of the biggest headaches with conducting bulk mail campaigns before the advent of the internet were the logistical hassles involved. No one doubted the effectiveness of the campaigns, but typing out the letters, putting them in envelopes, addressing each one, putting on the stamps, segregating them into zip codes and standing in line at the post office involved huge amounts of time and effort.

The internet and email have changed all that. Modern marketers no longer think of using the post – it’s just not effort, time or cost effective. Direct marketing today uses email which is faster, cheaper and more reliable. The fact that it is also more convenient for the recipient to open and read just ads to the power of this marketing medium.

To meet this requirement, bulk mail software came into being. This is software that is specially designed for bulk sending of marketing, promotional or any other large volume emails. These have become immensely popular with companies involved in internet marketing because:

• There are no monthly fees to be paid to any third party or agent
• The technology has been proven to be extremely reliable
• Most bulk mail software is easy to install and use
• One person sitting at a computer can create and send off mails to hundreds of people in a matter of hours.

There are various bulk mail software programs available and while each is different, most offer these common features:

• The ability to create targeted mailing lists
• Automatic detection of non functional emails
• Automatically handles requests for removal of names from the mailing list
• The ability to compose and send personalized emails
• Special composing features directed bulk mail operations
• The ability to work with existing email programs like Outlook.

Besides these, bulk mail software programs have their own special features so you will need to understand clearly what your requirements are to allow you to choose the software that is best for you. Are you planning to send out regular newsletters to your customers or are you thinking of going in for direct marketing of your products and services? Or perhaps you want to use bulk mail for special product promotions? There is bulk mail software that is designed to focus on any or all of these and other requirements. You just need to know what is best for you.

For example, if you plan to only send out simple text based informative emails, basic bulk mail software will meet your needs. But if you need to include graphics and flash animation or even sound, you will need a bulk mail software program that will support the features and enable you send these kinds of emails.

One thing you should look for in the program you choose is list building and automatic list maintenance. Other important features include sending test mails, automatic removal of non functional mail addresses from the list and complete documentation and online support.

Having the right bulk mail software is the key to running an email campaign successfully.