View source for How do I send bulk email messages?

== Summary ==
You can send an email message to multiple customers using the bulk messaging feature in Platinum.

== More Information ==
You may send a single email message to many recipients easily by choosing to send it as a bulk message.

=== Sending a bulk email message ===
* Click on '''Messages''' on the menu bar at the top of the screen.
* Click on '''Email''' on the drop down menu.

{{Warning|text='''Installation''' - If the '''Email''' option does not appear this means you are not set up yet to send Email messages on your system. {{SupportContact}} to get this feature installed.}} 

* Tick the box labelled {{DataPrompt|Bulk}}.

You will then be required to select how you would like Platinum to find the email addresses to send the message to; there are three options. The number of email addresses found for each method is shown in the column {{DataPrompt|Message count}}.

; Text file
: This will send the message to email addresses found in a text file called  {{FilePath|email.txt}} in your Platinum data folder (usually {{FilePath|SXCo1}}). You could create this file from the Report Generator, one email address per line, or it may appear after a previous incomplete bulk message job.

; Marked accounts
: This will send the message to customers who have an email address ''and'' have the {{DataValue|Email}} attribute set (except those who have the {{DataValue|Email exclusion}} or {{DataValue|Message exclusion}} attributes set).

; All customers
: This will send the message to ''all'' customers who have an email address (except those who have the {{DataValue|Email exclusion}} or {{DataValue|Message exclusion}} attributes set).

; All prospects
: This will send the message to ''all'' prospects who have an email address. This is available only if you have the {{SP}} module installed.

=== What is the tidy up option? ===
You may choose to turn {{DataPrompt|Tidy}} on and off when sending messages from the text file or from marked accounts.

; Text file
: If a tick is placed in this box, email addresses will be deleted from the text file as the message is sent to each address.

; Marked accounts
: If a tick is placed in this box, the {{DataValue|Email}} attribute will be removed from the customers as the message is sent to each address.

=== Sending the message ===
When you have typed your message and chosen your source of email addresses, click {{Button|Send}}. Platinum will now send the message to each email address in turn.

{{Note|text=You will need to check with your mail provide as they may impose a limit to the number of emails you can send out in a period of time. Below is a sample of the most popular web based email providers limit.

;Hotmail
:No more than 100<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> recipients per day.
:Outgoing messages sent via Hotmail can not exceed 10Mb<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> per email (including attachments).

;Yahoo
:No more than 100<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> emails or recipients per hour.
:Max 10Mb<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> per message for the free Yahoo Mail Service, or 20Mb<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> per message for Yahoo! Mail Plus.

;Lycos
:Max 25<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> recipients per message and max 250<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> emails per day.

;AOL
:No more than 100<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> recipients per message or 500<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> recipients per connection<Nowiki>*</Nowiki>.
:Max 16mb<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> per message.

;BT
:This limit is 4,096<Nowiki>*</Nowiki> bytes or four kilobytes for the recipients in total.

'''If you go over their limit the emails may not get sent and you could be black listed by your provider.'''
<Nowiki>*</Nowiki><font size="1"><i> These figures were correct at time of writing the article, you will need to check with the relevant provider for their current limit prior to sending a bulk email.</i></font>
}}

== See also ==
* [[How do I Exclude Customers from Bulk Mailing?]]
* [[How do I Exclude Vehicles from Bulk Mailing?]]
* [[How do I use the Retention Centre?]]
* [[How do I Send an Email from Platinum?]]
* [[How do I send bulk SMS messages?]]
* [[How do I include images in emails?]]

{{KB_Tags|Bulk emails, Bulk messages}}
{{FAQ}}