SHARE YOUR IDEAS

I've received some nice "thank you"s (a couple even with nice gifts) from ACCs who use this service. It is quite nice and looks professional.

I'd be interested in working with them to create an integration into ACT!, but haven't been able to find a contact who can tell me if it's even possible. As I don't think they link to any local db (not even Outlook), they may not have an interface to allow this (correct me if I'm wrong).

Either way, it's something you need to take up with them rather than Sage

Regards,

Mike Lazarus

I signed up as the SendOutCards distributor in February 2005 as a result of one of my clients asked me to transfer her ACT! contacts into send out cards. When I asked her why she would want to do that she gave me a demo account and I fell in love with the system.

I have been asked by other ACT! consultants and customers of mine about an add-on that would link ACT! with send out cards many times over the years. A few years ago I talked with Stan Smith about creating an add-on that would link ACT! with send out cards. Stan like the product and he signed up as they SendOutCards distributor at that time. He says that we should contact the company and get permission to link to their database. So I set out to do that.

I talked to a friend of mine who was on the board of advisors for SendOutCards distributors and she discussed this possibility with the owner of the company, Cody Bateman. He did not express any interest in allowing anybody to access their database.

Keeping in mind the corporate philosophy at SendOutCards is to promote the sending of heartfelt messages when people are prompted to do so.

SendOutCards is not designed to be a mass marketing tool.

When you receive a greeting card, it comes with the expectation that someone is thinking about you enough to say something directly to you and that it is a gift from someone to you and not a piece of direct marketing.

Most direct marketing ends up in the trash can before it has even opened. At a cost of about $1 US per card that could be very expensive, especially if you have enclosed a $50 American Express gift card in your greeting card. (Just joking)

For direct mail marketing I believe the best option would be the postcards that are available through Act add-ons or Swift Page e-mail.

I'm sorry, I tend to get a little preachy when I start talking about SendOutCards. More to the point I have found that Address Grabber Business Does this very well. If someone sends me an e-mail that contains their contact information I highlight the signature block send it to my act using address grabber and almost in the same moment I open the web browser and create a new record in the SendOutCards database. I have set up my send out cards database to send out four cards per year with a campaign (either a customer or prospect campaign) which includes a card that goes out mid-November instead of holiday cards. I also set up each contact to get a birthday card. (If I have their birthday)

It is Swift page e-mail for e-mail marketing which it does very well in I intend to use the postcard program we have at our disposal already because I like the bigger postcards and I will reserve the send out cards postcards for meeting reminders and things like that that are more personally targeted.

I hope this answers your question and I would love to address any of your concerns all you have to do is e-mail me at Bob@bobhanley.com or call me at 206-985-0902 (home office or 206-227-1313 my cell phone. I'm available to show you how to use the program at no cost to you I have helped several other ACT! Consultants over the years.