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I'm trying to figure out the best way of sending out an email campaign to alert potential customers about my desktop software application for fostering agencies and organizations.

I have looked at Mail Chimp and that seems easy enough to use and is free for the amount of emails I want to send (approx 200) and I have all the email addresses ready. But that isn't my problem.

My real concern is structuring the email in such a way that I make the content interesting enough to read (content writing is not a strong area of expertise for me) and don't alienate potential customers with a naff campaign that either nobody understands or is worded in a manner that's deemed pushy or too focused on sales. Of course the long term objective is to generate sales, but at the minute I'm more interested in getting people talking about the application and interested enough to want to know more.

As well as alerting customers to my product, another aim of the campaign is to enlist the help of some fostering professionals who can help me with the application. Ideally, I would be looking for someone who is interested in contributing ideas and suggestions without there being a formal process around it. The application is 35% complete, so I can't sell it right now, but my aim is to create a following that will eventually lead to sales when the product is finished. How do I persuade people to be interested in my application enough to want to participate? People who contribute to this website do it freely and passionately. That is what I want to achieve, but it has to be targeted to people who know the fostering profession.

How do I proceed with this?

Do I just write the email and keep changing it until I am happy? Do I enlist a third party to check over the content and give feedback (anyone care to offer!)? Do I send it out to all my potential customers or select a portion of them? Does the content need to be more focused on enlisting support from readers or should it be more focussed on features.

I know it may sound odd, but if I could sum up the reaction I'm after once the email drops in their in-box, it would be something like "Wow, that looks like a cool application, I can see it's not finished and has a way to go, but it sure would be fun to get involved."

What are the potential pitfalls that I may face and what advice do people have to offer?

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In order for you to have a successful email campaign, you need to understand your list subscribers first. Where did they sign up for your list? What are their backgrounds (developers, bloggers, reporters or just potential users)? Also, I am assuming that these users signed up for your emails. By splitting your 200 email addresses up, you will be able to craft different messages for the different groups as what they want to hear from you or about your product will be different.

Before you start, you need to draw a timeline for your email marketing campaign. For example, it could be from now until one month after the launch.

I read that your application is only 35% complete. Most might think that it is still not the right time to promote it. However, for me, this is the best time to create the much needed anticipation for your application. You can send out emails to your subscribers to remind them about their pain or problems that they face and let them know an application is coming and it will solve whatever related problems that they have.

For this, you can also find news all around the Internet that are related to the problems that your application will be solving and let your newsletter subscribers know that a solution is coming. Once your software is usable by testers, make sure that you collect feedback from them. This will not only help the development team out but positive feedback can also be included as part of your email campaign to create anticipation.

The next step will be where your segmenting benefits you. If you have segmented your email addresses earlier, you will now be able to identify which group of people will be potential power users of your site (contribute freely and willingly) and which of them have an audience that you can leverage if they agree to get the word out for your software. For an application to be successful, you need both groups and I would advise you to create rapport with these people PERSONALLY. You may or may not need to pitch your product before it launches but you NEED to know them and best, seek their suggestions and feedback about your idea. They would love to help and it gives you a base for a personal conversation too. Remember, it's all about them.

Last but not least, don't sell too hard.

Sorry if this response is kinda long. :-) Feel free to contact me at http://www.wayneliew.com if you need more help.

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The people I will be targeting never signed up, they don't even know I exist! I have a list of agencies and emails and in the words of Seth Godin, I'm going to interrupt them with my email. Whilst this my seem like spam to some, I'm targeting my customers specifically and I don't know how to do this without sending an email directly and unrequested. – Adrian Jan 6 at 3:39
Forgot to mention in the original email. The application is a desktop application, not a website. – Adrian Jan 6 at 3:44

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