Review: SwiftPage Facilitates Mass E-Mail From Your Outlook Desktop

It would seem logical that since your contact list resides in Microsoft Outlook, and that you can create email within Outlook, that you should be able to send email to your entire contact list directly from Outlook. But if you've ever tried sending individualized emails to a large number of Outlook contacts, you know the dream is a lot better than the reality. The system just isn't designed to send large numbers of emails, and your ISP won't be happy about your trying it, either.

Most organizations faced with sending large quantities of email have resorted to using external applications or online services. This usually means they need to maintain their subscription lists separately from their Outlook contacts. This separation may be appropriate for organizations whose newsletter recipients are different from their normal business correspondents, but can mean extra work when those lists are largely the same.

SwiftPage is a combination application and online service that lets you maintain your contact list in Outlook and use it to send newsletters and marketing email using the service's specialized facilities. The service handles all the complexities of merging variables, tracking subscriptions, and processing unsubscribe requests and bounces. Its servers also facilitate the actual transmission of the emails.

In addition to Outlook, SwiftPage integrates with a variety of CRM applications including ACT!, SalesLogix, QuickBooks, FIleMaker Pro, MS Excel, and MS Access. If you don't need to integrate with an application you can simply run SwiftPage as a standalone application from your Windows desktop, or from a browser if you are a Mac user.

1 of 3