I have a e-mail contact group of 53 people that I need to send the same e-mail to. How do I hide their addresses so they all won’t see each others e-mail? It’s basically a privacy concern. I use Windows Mail.
Put all the address in the BCC feild. This is a blind carbon copy. They’ll see your address and theirs, and that’s it.
Fraudulent misrepresentations and schemes to defraud which use the United States mail to further that fraudulent conduct, can be prosecuted as mail fraud. Also, another commonly used federal law to prosecute misrepresentations and frauds is the statute known as “wire fraud.”
The United States Attorney Office will seek an Indictment (a charging document formally charging the person with a crime) for mail fraud when the prosecution believes it has evidence of any fraud scheme that uses the mail systems to make that fraud scheme function. There is no specific requirement for the type of fraudulent scheme that has to be alleged by the U.S. Attorney Office, only that there is some kind of fraud or misrepresentation wherein the U.S. mails or commercial carriers are used to mail an item related to the scheme, such as a check, a contract, an application for credit, property valuations, etc. Originally, the mail fraud statute required some type of use of the U.S. mail; now, the statute requires the use of either the U.S. mail or any mail carrier in an attempt to carry out the fraud.
The United States Attorney Office will also seek an Indictment alleging wire fraud when it believes that the evidence will support any type of scheme to defraud that uses interstate wire communications further the fraud scheme. Wire communications utilized by persons who were engaged in a scheme to defraud are often the following: wire transfers of monies to or from a financial institution; electronic mail (e-mail) communications; facsimile (FAX) transmissions; and radio or television communications.
The United States Code contains federal crimes that are prosecuted by the Department of Justice or its field offices, the United States Attorney Offices, in respective districts in the different states. Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341, is titled Frauds and Swindles, and it is commonly referred to as the mail fraud statute. Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1341 reads as follows (in summary)…
MAIL FRAUD
Whoever
1) having devised, or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud,
or
2) for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, or to sell, dispose of, loan
3) something of value or some item and
4) places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter
5) any item to be delivered by interstate carrier
shall be fined or imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both.
WIRE FRAUD
The violation of wire fraud is also a commonly used criminal law used to prosecute people for committing fraud while using wire communications that travel interstate or internationally.
Under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1014, it is a federal crime to commit fraud using a wire communication that travels in interstate or foreign commerce. 18 U.S.C. 1343 reads as follows
Fraud by Wire, Radio or Television (Wire Fraud) -
Whoever
1) having devised, or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or
2) for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises
3) transmits, or causes to be transmitted, by wire, radio or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce,
4) any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds
5) for the purpose of executing the scheme or artifice
shall be or imprisoned for more than 20 years, or both.
Most entrepreneurs have, at some point, considered mail order
and, indeed, it can be very lucrative.
But there is a way of making it even more lucrative by
restricting your operations to one of the most lucrative parts
ever.
Mailing out mail shots can be big business.
A big business that can be yours if you decide to sell through
the post in this fascinating way!
A mailing business couldn’t be simpler.
All you do is select a suitable product - you can start with
just one.
Then produce an effective, high impact mailing to sell it.
Post off the mailings and just wait for the orders to flood it!
All the best of mail order without the frustration and
difficulty of preparing press ads that general mail order
dealers have.
The sheer success of mailing is based on a simple unwritten law.
Basically, you can find a minimum response rate for your product
- in other words, a guarantee that so many mailings will produce
so many orders.
This way you can be virtually sure that if you mail so many
circulars, you will make a set and firm amount of sheer profit!
Mail order at it’s best!
The attraction of this branch of mail order is that you can
often set your own income.
Make so many mailings - get so much back!
Mail order traders usually rate their response on a per thousand
basis for comparison. Some good products sold by mailing have
been known to sell 200 out of 1,000 - i.e. out of 1,000
circulars sent, 200 orders resulted. A huge profit! By
comparison, a poor mailing might only make 10 sales per 1,000 -
probably a loss.
So, you are probably safe to best on 50 orders per 1,000
mailings.
It may well be higher, but work on a mere 5% return, and you’re
sure to profit.
Knowing what sort of response to expect can enable you to plan
for profit.
The amount you sell must cover all your costs - and profit - so
set price levels accordingly.
Usually higher priced products are best.
Just imagine you have prepared a 1,000 mailing at an inclusive
cost of about 3250.
From that you obtained 50 orders for a product at Å?30.
That’s a take of Å?1,500 - ample to cover your costs and with
plenty of profit left over!
Next, assume you could repeat your example over hundreds of
thousands of mailings.
The sheer profit potential, almost guaranteed, is easy to
assess.
For success with mailings, it is vital to choose the right
product.
It is usual in the trade to “test” several before homing in on
the most successful.
Products should be those that are frequently sold by mail order.
Don’t try to be too different.
They should be attractive, and exciting, and just “begging” to
be bought.
You should also be able to obtain stocks, handle them - and pack
and post easily.
The most important criteria in product selection is the
eventual selling price.
This should usually be high, though this does not mean sales
will be low.
If you are only making 3%, 4% or 5% sales, it should probably
sell at no less than Å?20 per item. Larger amount, perhaps up to
Å?100, would be ideal.
Also make sure your product offers a good profit margin.
Anything less than 60% would be unsuitable - up to 99% is not
unknown!
If you can’t meet these standards with a single item, try
“lumping together” several in one mailing.
Do remember there are no “right” or “wrong” things to sell.
There are thousands of possibilities - and people do buy by mail
order running into hundreds of pounds each order.
Just do be sure to inexpensively test products until you find
one that really works.
Your mail shot is, of course, vital, and you may want to
experiment with different approaches.
A mailing expert or writer could be used for this, but you can
prepare it yourself.
All the best mail shots centre around a brochure.
This should be on coloured paper, and, ideally, illustrated and
worded attractively.
Support this with a sales letter (always on white paper).
This should introduce and explain your product as well as
convincing the reader to buy it.
Use high impact wording to make them want - and make them order
- immediately.
Each mailing should include a return order form to make buying
really easy and a return envelope which is prepaid through the
Post Office Business Reply Service.
The cost is usually repaid several times over. It is best to
put the printing of your mailing in the hands of a high quality
printer. Obtain several quotes first.
Poor quality literature is definitely a false economy.
Some printers will print all your requirements and also pack and
seal it into envelopes to save you a lot of time and trouble.
For best results use good envelopes.
These should be printed with an eye catching slogan to really
grab attention.
Your next job is to post your mail shots - and this can be quite
a technical operation.
For a start, you can’t just mail anywhere.
You must mail to recognised mail order buyers.
The names and addresses of such people can be bought from list
brokers.
There are many firms, but try several to find those with the
best lists.
Purchased buyers names can usually only be used once for one
payment, but most brokers will supply their names printed onto
address labels.
This makes your job really easy.
Before mailing circulars contact your local post office.
Sometimes there are special introductory postage discounts and
bulk mailing of several thousand envelopes qualifies for some
free postage.
It’s probably best to release your mailings in batches to
produce a steady flow of orders.
Experiment with the actual day of posting, which hence effects
the day of receipt.
Mailings received on a Monday are often less successful - but
those received on other days can either do well or extremely
well.
Test and see!
People who do best in mailing give little regard to order
handling. Yes - it should be prompt and careful, but you should
give most time to preparing and mailing circulars.
If you can, take payments on trust and post orders by return -
within 7/14 days at least.
Always enclose details of additional products when fulfilling
orders.
Past customers are highly likely to buy again.
Also keep addresses of past customers - mail new offers to them
as they are launched.
Again, they are likely buyers.
Nothing is better for business than a delighted customer, but if
you do receive complaints, it’s best to make a full refund.
That customer may well remain loyal!
The whole future success of circular mailing sits behind giving
good service and getting repeat orders.
If you can attain this you won’t need to spend much on
advertising in future.
Studying your market and results obtained as crucial to the
success of mailing.
Basically, the idea is to maximise successes for a huge overall
gain.
If you send enough mailings, you are sure to be able to tell
which are most successful.
The business is really a continual testing process.
Try with different approaches and different methods. Try
different products - different prices - different wording.
All these things can combine to make either a disappointing
result - or an outstanding success. This is just the same
procedure used by the “millionaire” type mail order venture.
Some mailings you make are bound to be less than satisfactory,
but the trick is to monitor and record results carefully so that
you can spot such mailings.
Then - cut your losses.
Happy Banking
Jonathan Stree
Before you are able to block spam, of course, you have to know what spam is. Spam, actually, can be defined in various ways. But to avoid any complications, spam is any form of junk mail or email that just keeps on advertising. These are the kinds of mail, spam, that just give you headaches everytime you open your inbox.
You did not ask for email about certain products that you do not even know of. You did not request for messages about your horoscope or other love advice. But instead of having some sensible messages in your inbox, you can’t anymore due to the fact the spam has occupied most of your inbox space. A spam blocker is exactly what you need.
Spam Assassin, which is brought to the world by TCH, is an effective tool for blocking spam mail senders, especially from a certain server. If you opt to put Spam Assassin in its default mode, it will be disabled when a particular site is setup by TCH. Using this spam blocker assures you of a spam-free email address.
If you want to be more specific in blocking spam mail senders, you can block them by being more particular in the subject line area. Here is a simple step-by-step procedure for you to be able to do this more advanced intervention against spam.
First, you have to select Email Filtering, and then click Add Filter. Once you do that, a drop down box will show. In this first drop down box, you will click Subject.
If there is a first drop down box, there is bound to be a second one, right? Right. Well, in the second drop down box, you must click Contains.
And of course, a third drop down box is deemed to be inevitable. In this last drop down box, you are to type stop spam, or whatever collection of words or phrases it is or are that you want to filter or block. But you must always keep in mind that this field is very case sensitive. By that, what is meant is, when you type in the third drop down box the word obscene, the word ObScENe might not be blocked. This is, indeed, a disadvantage that will be worked on to make spam blocking a less nerve-racking predicament.
After that segment, you are to click Discard, Activate. Then after clicking those two previous separate buttons, click Go Back.
Blocking spam mail senders is not as hard as you might think it is. It is, actually, easier than perceived to be. All you need is more patience to be able to have an effective installation. Once you have blocked these annoying spam mail senders, you are bound to have a smooth time with your email addresses.
Voice mail and unified messaging are automated telephone technologies used by businesses large and small to increase productivity and efficiency while providing 24-hour responsiveness to callers. Also called “virtual office systems,” “virtual assistant” and “virtual PBX,” they don’t require you to buy any software or hardware. You’re simply renting a monthly service, and the service provider automatically routes your calls to a number that’s exclusively assigned to you. All calls to this number arrive at your physical phone.
Depending on the features you choose and how you tailor them, most voicemail/unified messaging services make it possible for your callers press keys for more information by voice and/or fax, and to leave voice mail messages, and to be forwarded live to the person they’re calling.
There’s a range of different voice mail and unified messaging services available, all with different features and calling plans. They charge a monthly fee for the basic service, plus long distance by the minute for all usage. Most include a toll free number, and some also offer local (non-toll) numbers in selected cities.
Pricing varies depending on the features you choose. You can get everything from a toll free number and/or one voice mail box to a unified messaging aka a virtual PBX with the works.
If all you need is a toll free number, shop your local Yellow Pages and the Internet for companies specializing in toll free numbers only. Or if all you need is one or two voice mail boxes for taking messages (and you’d rather not use an answering machine), begin with your local telephone company and then compare their prices to other such services.
But now let’s talk “unified messaging, virtual office, virtual assistant and virtual PBX,” all of which generally mean the same thing: a single phone number that does it all for your callers, automates your communications and consolidates all your messaging, 24/7.
The starting point in determining the nature and scope of your service requirement is to know how many voice mail boxes you need. You figure this according to how many different products and/or options you want to present to your callers via outgoing audio recordings that you place in the system. You also look at this based on how many associates, if any, are using the system with you.
For example, you’ll need more than voice mail box if you need an automated way to deliver various kinds of messages/announcements to your callers, say, about different products or different options. This allows your callers to press designated keys to hear what they’re looking for and to leave messages relevant to that topic.
You’d also need more than one voice mail box if anyone else works with you in your business. This allows callers to leave messages and make contact with the staff member you’ve assigned to that voice mail box extension.
If you want to take your calls live, you need “Follow-me-live” aka call forwarding. Ideally, the service you choose should have unlimited call forwarding where it can ring as many different phone numbers as you want until it finds you. (Many services will only forward to one additional number so keep an eye out for this.)
Another thing you’d most likely want to avoid is the service that limits the length of your voice mail messages, in, out or both. Be sure you don’t mind having your callers cut off at the ankles before subscribing to limited-length messaging services.
So far we’ve only scraped the surface of unified messaging services. Among the many other features and functions of the best services are caller ID, call screening, paging, fax on demand, email voice and fax delivery, voice blasting, name/address capture, lead distribution, music on hold, automated order taking, automated interviewing and more.
The service you choose should be just that robust, versatile, scalable and flexible without costing an arm and a leg. The best example is a user-centric service that has years of consistent uptime, lots of features, simplicity of use, and never a busy signal. The idea being to support your need to deliver the highest form of responsiveness to your callers that automation can provide while gaining greater productivity and efficiency for your business.
So you have been writing mortgages like crazy now for the last few years. You have a pretty big database of customers and hopefully you have been getting and keeping full contact information for them. An organized database is the first key to customer retention.
The next step is to put together a direct mail campaign to keep these customers thinking about you when they think about mortgages. It is often years between times when each customer needs a mortgage professional, and it takes far less than that for them to forget your name. As well as fighting time, you are fighting indifference. Customers who get great service are often reluctant to pass that information along, while customers who feel they have gotten poor service will tell everyone. Most of the time good customers need to be reminded of their experience. By following up with each customer on a regular basis you will not only stay in the front of their mind but you will also start to build a reputation as a solid and responsible business.
So how do you get started? Below are a couple of the most frequently asked questions when starting a campaign to keep in touch with past clients.
What Type of Direct Mail Piece Works Best?
There is a great debate amongst Mortgage Professionals about what type of direct mail will work best for getting new business. Many swear by letters for their appearance of professionalism, while others like the low cost and high visibility of postcards. Overall, both seem to work adequately for bringing in new business. You just need to find which works best for you personally.
For keeping in contact with past customers, however, the way to go is postcards. This is due to the fact that if your customers are not currently looking for a mortgage for themselves, they are far less likely to take the time to open a letter. That causes most of your “keep in touch” promo that is in envelopes to get thrown out before it ever gets read.
Since the goal is recognition and not direct action you only need to get them to read the message. Postcards have the message visible when mailed, which means that while your customers are deciding what to read and what to throw out, they are already being exposed to your message.
How Often Should I Send Promo?
You will want to mail a piece to your database every 30-60 days. Any longer than that and they may have already forgotten you when their friends are looking for a mortgage. Since you will want to send promo out often, you will need to keep your costs down. With postcards there are no envelope costs, no assembly costs and the postage is 30% less than letters. When using a mail house to send your postcards you can often get postage rates as low as 18¢ per piece.
What Should Be On My Brand Recognition Pieces?
There are some basic rules for the design of a brand recognition direct mail piece.
Rule #1: Keep color consistent.
Many times people fall into the trap of changing the look of their promo for the seasons or for the holidays. The thought is that people are thinking about Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day so they will respond better to promo with those colors. The truth is exactly opposite. Their senses are so flooded by those images that they actually start to skip right over them. Pick a color for your company and stick with it. You will do much better in building recognition.
Rule #2: Make a logo and use it on every piece.
Having a clean, professional logo is best. It may be a little pricey to have designed but in the end it is well worth the money. Experienced designers can often charge up to $2000 for a corporate identity package including logo, letterhead and business cards. If you aren’t looking to make that type of investment simply pick a type style for your company name and use it every time. Consistency is key because your logo is your main identification point.
Rule #3: Make it Informative.
Every piece should have something useful for your customers. Whether it is new information about the mortgage industry or even possible investment properties in their area, it can even be completely unrelated to the mortgage industry. A calendar or list of emergency numbers, even the old recipe card trick still works pretty well. Anything that is likely to be kept around will help to build recognition in the minds of your past customers.
The mortgage industry has experienced a huge amount of growth over the past few years. Unfortunately this growth cannot last forever. At some point it is going slow down and the only way to keep your income in the range that you have become accustomed to is to ensure that you retain as many past customers as you possibly can.
A direct mail campaign is the best way to do this, but remember, this type of program is a long term process. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t directly calculate the amount of money that you bring in right off the bat. What you are doing is burning your name into the minds of your customers. Eventually it will work out to you seeing less attrition and far more referrals.
The building management will not keep the door buzzers working properly in my apartment building. None of the tenants have received mail in over a week because the mail carriers can't get access to the building. This is not the first time this has happened over the past year. The Post Office told us that we have to get on management about this, but we've called and nothing gets done. It does not appear that management provides keys for the mail carriers to have access. Meanwhile, tenants aren't getting their bills, subscriptions, medications, etc. Can we take any legal action about this?
Yes you can call your local housing authority office and turn them in.Here are some services that will help you.
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Half of the mail I receive (since moving into our new home) is the previous owner's mail. He clearly did not want his own junk mail (e.g. brochures, catalogs, etc.) being forwarded to his new address and left it for me to deal with. How do I essentially halt the delivery of his old mail to me? In case you haven't guessed, I am not interested in contacting him. Legally, am I allowed to throw his mail out if something important comes along?
I always write "return to sender, address unknown. And add
"No one by that name at this address! MOVED!
I would think that would do it for you. It's always worked for
me. Then put it back in your mail box with the flag up, if you're
rural, or prop it up inside the mailbox, if you only have a apt.
box. Whatever you normally do to signal to the mailman that
you have outgoing mail.
Sooner or later, they will stop the mail at the senders' end.
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