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.

You can save big money by doing your own email campaigns. There is no need to pay anyone else for doing this for you when you can DIY for FREE.

Microsoft office software gives you the ability to do the same job for little cost (or NO cost if you’re sending emails!If you’re in a small business then you should really spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the process.

Mail merge using word and outlook is relatively simple.The benefits of being able to use mail merge are huge.In the past when you wanted to send letters or emails out to a list of people you had to manually input each name and address separately.A painstaking procedure at the best of times.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.

For small businesses and small budgets learning to use mail merge will give you the most bang for your buck.Savvy users of mail merge utilize the features of the software to insert merge fields throughout the document.

Insert the recipient’s name throughout the whole document, but don’t over-do it!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

The more personal the better. Your message will more likely be read and more importantly, remembered.

Letter Writing Tips: Insert their business name or first name in the headline of your letter. Make sure your headline clearly states what your letter is about, otherwise it may not get read any further.

Include a picture of yourself and ALWAYS include a p.s at the bottom. Photos and p.s’s get an awful lot of attention. Sometimes people will read the headline and the p.s. before they read the content of your letter.

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.

Style your emails to look and function exactly like a professionally designed HTML template. You can add background colors, shading and borders to your table to suit your branding.

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:

www.mailmergeguide.org

www.mailmergeguide.org/howtomailmerge

www.mailmergeguide.org/mailmergetutorial