Mail merge but better

June 3, 2020 9:43 AM

I currently use Mail Merge Toolkit and love it. It does exactly what I need it to: customize subject line and lots of fields in the message, add attachments, cc and bcc people, etc. However, we've been flagged for spamming and are having a hard time getting the issue resolved. I know constant contact can't customize subject lines, which makes it a no-go immediately. Are there any other services that would do what I need? Paid or unpaid is fine.

While my org does send far too many emails, the ones we got flagged for were legitimate business use emails, providing people log in instructions etc. for our virtual convention. Not relevant to the question, but I don't want to get a bunch of "don't spam people" answers. I just need to know what service might work for us. Thanks!

posted by misanthropicsarah to Work & Money (4 answers total)

When you say “customize subject lines”, do you mean add data points to the subject line, like “Here are your virtual event instructions, $name!”? If yes, then MailChimp does what you’re looking for; they call them “Merge Tags”.
posted by okayokayigive at 10:21 AM on June 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've never used MailChimp (let alone with Mail Merge Toolkit) but it does appear to suppor features that appear to allow you to personalize each message to each recipient.

Outside of services like these, there are big, commercial bulk email senders such as SendGrid that will be able to handle you sending as much mail as you would like. That's not to say that the recipients of your email might consider them spam but there isn't a lot you can do about that.
posted by mmascolino at 10:22 AM on June 3, 2020

Response by poster: yes, add data points. in mail merge lingo, there's a merge field in the subject line to customize it with, say, an order number. and then multiple merge fields within the body for other things that need to be communicated. some messages may have 10+ merge fields within the body of the message.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:38 PM on June 3, 2020

While my org does send far too many emails, the ones we got flagged for were legitimate business use emails, providing people log in instructions etc. for our virtual convention.

Do you still provide opt-out links, physical address and other information required by the CAN-SPAM act in these emails?
posted by Aleyn at 2:10 PM on June 3, 2020