The Bulk E.mailer Project for the NSPCC

The NSPCC uses email as an integral part of their supporter management system. Keeping in regular contact with supporters is vital, e.mailshot volumes are high and even higher volumes are anticipated in the future as more people request email contact.

The software they were using, however, had a number of specific problems.

• No automatic monitoring process to track the progress of the e.mailshot.
  
• Email sending/scheduling was often problematic, with sends interrupted or stopped completely for no apparent reason, requiring regular operator intervention
  
• No automatic alert system to inform the operator of e.mailshot completion
  
• The software was not integrated with their supporter system resulting in duplication of effort and the necessity for time-consuming manual checks
  
• Completing the e.mailshot took days, with extremely poor email send speed performance
  
• There was no automatic facility for collating, analysing or evaluating the success of the e.mailshot, the validity of email addresses, bounced emails, or responses.
  
• No auto-determination facility enabling the required high standard of email presentation in the appropriate format for the recipient, i.e. HTML or plain text

In order to use email as a more effective marketing and communications/supporter management tool, the NSPCC approached Active Media Business Solutions, who were already working on a number of other key projects with the charity.

The intelligent solution designed by Active Media resolved the problems with:

• Full integration into the charity's AS/400 supporter management system and direct NSPCC SMTP server connection
  
• Auto-determining (auto-sniffing) the intrinsic functionality of the recipient's email client and presenting the email in the appropriate format, i.e. HTML or plain text
  
• The robustness to send the e.mailshot without operator interruption at a rate of up to 18,000 emails per hour.
• An easy-to-use e.wizard for creating, saving and organising the e.mailshot quickly
• A system for checking syntactical correctness and email address validity prior to sending
  
• The ability to import email text/graphics from an external application/HTML editor or create it in the e.mailer and add unlimited attachments
  
• The ability to source, extract and merge data from off-the-shelf databases and database applications
  
• The option to de-duplicate email addresses prior to sending
  
• A send history log for each email address, including server receipts
  
• A full "real time" monitoring process to track the progress of the e.mailshot
• A logging and processing system for undelivered and bounced emails
• A system to prevent mailing list removal requests from being mailed
  
• The logging, collating and processing of statistical send and response data. The logged information can be imported into a spreadsheet application for further analysis
  
• An SMS message and status report that is sent automatically to the operator's mobile phone once the e.mailshot is completed.
  

Now, anyone in the organisation can request an e.mailshot, which can be sent to 65,000 people in under 4 hours. The NSPCC can track technical performance and use the statistical data to evaluate their campaigns and manage their lists.

The e.mail administrator is happy, the marketing department is happy and the charity supporters and volunteers are happy.