Contactology's new feature keeps list owners from having to learn a new interface to create trackable bulk email messages

Durham, NC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/28/2007 -- In a new and potentially revolutionary step, Contactology, a web-based email marketing software company, has developed a way for email marketers to send messages to their contact lists using any email reader.

Normally marketers or communications professionals who are in charge of sending out email to permission-based email lists have to log into a website or use an unfamiliar interface to create their messages. Contactology has taken that step out of the process by allowing email marketers to use their normal email readers to create, schedule and send trackable, bulk email messages.

"We thought, 'wouldn't it be great if email marketers could use the tools they are familiar with to be able to create messages that they send to their contact lists?' With EasyCast, any list owner can create a mass email message and send it out to their lists without having to learn a complicated system or struggle with web-based HTML editors," said Drew Adams, President of Contactology.

The process works like this: Each contact list inside Contactology is given an EasyCast address that looks and operates just like a regular email address. When a list owner is ready to create an bulk email, they simply create the message using the email reader of their choice -- Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail, or anything that can create an email will suffice -- and then send it to that EasyCast email address, which in turn distributes the message to all contacts designated to that list. Any images that are embedded in the email are automatically turned into hosted images, and any attachments are automatically turned into hosted attachments. A confirmation reply is sent to the list owner, confirming the contact list they are sending the message to. From there, the list owner can send, schedule or delete the mailing. No log in is required.

"We wanted to take a lot of the runaround out of the process. Just create your message, send and go," said Adams.

Also, with EasyCast, any messages sent through the system are enabled with open and click-through tracking, so list owners can see exactly who opened the email, how many times they opened it and what the click-through percentage is for each message. EasyCast also handles bounce back and unsubscribe requests seamlessly.

In some ways, this new feature could allow email marketers to skirt around the thorny issues that exist with Outlook 2007 rendering. Outlook 2007 uses Microsoft Word's HTML rendering engine, which does not support many HTML/CSS properties that email marketers have come to rely on. With EasyCast, email marketers can use Outlook 2007 to create the messages, thereby insuring that they will look accurate when received and read in Outlook 2007, as well as other email readers.

EasyCast is especially useful for people who use email lists to send announcement-type emails, such as, a severe weather announcement distributed to a school list. Because no one needs any special training to send to lists, authorized administrative staff can handle sending out the emails to lists of recipients using their current email readers.

To learn how “easy” the EasyCast feature is, just visit http://www.contactology.com and sign up for a trial account or visit http://www.contactology.com/easycast.php to read about how the system works.