Review: Mailloop 5.0

Mailloop 5.0: Business Automation Software
The Internet Marketing Center/Mailloop Software
1123 Fir Ave
Blaine, WA 98230

US $397

sales@mailloop.com
www.marketingtips.com/mailloop/t.x/15267/

Mailloop is a popular e-mail automation program marketed effectively by Corey Rudl through a broad list of affiliates (of which I am one). The program allows you to set up multiple newsletters and autoresponders, extract data from form-generated e-mails, handle bounces, subs, and unsubs, and manipulate lists in a number of ways.

The program is made up of three major components: (1) List Processor, (2) Outgoing Email Processor, and (3) Incoming Email Processor.

List Processor

The list processor allows you to perform various kinds of functions on text file e-mail lists -- sort by any field, removed duplicates, clean up improperly formatted lines in the mailing list, verify the existence of domains (removing invalid domains), split large lists into smaller units, combine smaller lists into a larger list, exclude specified e-mail addresses or domains from future e-mails, etc.

Databases vs. Lists

I'm in the process of promoting my Doctor Ebiz® Internet Marketing Seminar in five US cities this winter and spring (www.wilsonweb.com/seminar), so I decided to send out an e-mail to the California residents in my contact and customer list. Over the past two or three years I've added hundreds and hundreds of names of friends, business contacts, clients, and vendors to this database, carefully noting e-mail address as well as physical addresses.

Unfortunately, Mailloop can't work directly with sophisticated databases -- that is, organized lists of data records that are managed by specialized database management programs such as Microsoft Access, FoxPro, or FileMaker Pro. Instead, Mailloop requires that you export data from your database which is then imported into Mailloop for processing and e-mailing. This means that if one of the e-mails happens to bounce, or you get an e-mail from one of your mailings indicating a new address, there is no way to automatically update the original database. You would need to take the bounce information from a file generated by Mailloop and then manually go into your database to make changes to your permanent records. It would be much preferable if Mailloop would work with your existing database files using an ODBC driver, rather than forcing you to export, import, and manually update.

Mailloop works with data that is formatted as quote and comma delimited text files. I found that it took a bit of editing to export my files from MS Access or Excel in the required format. I can export these programs to CSV files, but this format doesn't contain quotes around every field. So I ended up exporting tab-delimited text files. Then I opened the file in MS Word, named the fields in the first line, and did a search-and-replace to insert "," for every tab, etc. It took me a while to get it just right.

Another implication of Mailloop's lack of database support is the record selection features. E-mail list handling programs that work with modern databases (as opposed to text files) are able to use Standard Query Language (SQL) to select a deliberate set of records. Let me give you an example. I wanted to select all the records with "CA" in the state field and an actual e-mail address, but exclude my church contacts. An SQL request would be:

SELECT Contacts.FirstName, Contacts.LastName, Contacts.BusinessState, Contacts.EmailAddress, Contacts.Categories

FROM Contacts

WHERE (((Contacts.BusinessState)="CA") AND ((Contacts.EmailAddress)>"") AND ([Categories] Not Like "*Church*"));

That looks pretty complex, but using an Access Query you can do most of this by menus and simple commands -- all without destroying the integrity of the original database.

Mailloop's filter, on the other hand, works one selection at a time, with each new selection whittling down the size of the list further and further until only the desired selections remain. I started with about 1600 records but the final list -- a subset of my contact and customer database -- is now just over 200. I'm no longer working with the original database.

Outgoing Email Processor

I was disappointed with the second module, the Outgoing Email Processor. You have to select either text or HTML e-mails. There is no way to send out text and HTML in multi-part MIME as the better programs allow you to do. Nor is there any internal editor. You must prepare your message with a word processor or HTML editor and then paste it into the box.

When you get ready to send your e-mails there is no test mode. I had to set up a separate list of 2 or 3 test e-mail addresses. When I had everything right, then I switched over to my main list. Nor is there any preview window that shows you how the e-mail looks before you send it out. Nor does Mailloop help you catch e-mail merge mistakes.

When I prepared my message I forgot the exact name of my merge field. In one line I called it [FirstName] and in another line I referred to it as [First]. Mailloop didn't stop and tell me I had a mistake as does Gammadyne Mailer. I just have to rely on good eyes reading the test e-mails very carefully.

I am also concerned that Mailloop doesn't allow you to save a common project configuration so that you can go back a week or two later for the next mailing. Mailloop takes one list at a time, but configurations are not saved as they are in the Incoming Email Processor module.

In its favor, Mailloop does send out e-mails fast, using as many multi-threaded channels as you like. You can designate separate locations for the successful and the unsuccessful e-mail logfiles. You can set up Mailloop to send e-mails either through your ISP's SMTP mailserver, or have Mailloop bypass your ISP and send e-mails directly to the recipient. Unlike some programs, Mailloop does allow you to put merge fields into the subject line. I put the recipient's first name and city in the subject line to increase the chances of the e-mail being read.

A window displays a running log of what is happening, and you can pause at any time. Error recovery is manual -- you read the log to see which e-mail you stopped on, and resume from there by deleting the e-mail addresses already sent.

Incoming Email Processor

Mailloop has a pretty nifty Incoming Email Processor module that checks whichever POP e-mail boxes you designate. Mailloop can work with several newsletters, each of which is using the same POP e-mail address. For each newsletter the module looks for commands to subscribe or unsubscribe, and adds to or removes from the lists in question. Each newsletter can be set up with multiple filters. The module scans each e-mail looking for keywords in its various filters. If it spots a keyword, then it performs the function associated with that keyword. For example, if it spots the word REMOVE in the subject line, it knows to remove the e-mail address from the list.

This can be quite powerful. Let's say you set up an online HTML form that sends formatted e-mail to your POP e-mail box. A person might check a box to receive more info, which would place the keywords "Product 5192" in the body of the e-mail message. When the incoming module spots the phrase "Product 5192" it automatically autoresponds with a specific e-mail message containing more information. With multiple filters you can set up your processor to provide a great deal of information upon demand.

At the same time, the program extracts the e-mail address, and perhaps the name, address, city, state, postal code, and telephone number, and places those in your text file list for future friendly phone follow-up.

Now all this takes a bit of getting used to. Mailloop doesn't force you to learn a programming language, but requires careful attention to the syntax of the filter words, and isn't automatic or complete.

Incoming Email Processor can be set to run in the background, checking your e-mail box every few minutes and responding immediately with the proper action, information, or subscription command. Your computer doesn't have to be connected to the Internet at all times. It can be programmed to log on, receive and send e-mail, and then log off automatically.

Help Files

Mailloop's help support is mixed. You can download a PDF version of the manual or view it online in HTML format. There are no context-sensitive windows like many programs have. The online manual lacks a search feature, so if you're looking for a particular item that isn't immediately obvious, you have to manually scroll through every page to find it.

I was quite impressed by the video files available to learn Mailloop. Since I have DSL, it didn't take long to download 60 MB of files. I unzipped them, installed a plug-in to read the format, and was then able to listen to the narrator describe the functions while I watched them be carried out in the demo application. The video follows the manual rather closely, but is quite useful for those who learn better from hearing and watching rather than reading.

In addition to the online manual, you can contact tech support via live chat. However, this requires downloading a small Java application (which didn't install correctly on my browser, for some reason). Another alternative is e-mail support. Phone support is available from a 900-number for $1.99 per minute.

Bottom Line

If your main use for an e-mail list handling program is to send e-mails to large lists or maintain some e-mail newsletter lists, Mailloop has many attractive features, especially if you have a fast connection to the Internet. If you want to set up a series of e-mail autoresponders that harvest information for future e-mailings, Mailloop is excellent. But if you are seeking to e-mail to a customer list that is maintained in a separate database or spreadsheet, you'll be frustrated with Mailloop.