My goal is to arrive at a few powerful features for mail list management. We maintain our contacts in an SQL database. I'm picturing a web form that would allow me to access the e-mail addresses in the db for the purpose of sending mass mail newsletters.
I also want to enable an opt-in / opt-out function for users who would like to subscribe (or unsubscribe) to our newsletter. The difficulty, as i perceive it, is that I need to be able to mail to both our existing contact list, and anyone who simply subscribed to the opt-in list. in some cases, this might be the same contact, but i expect that i will end up w/ contacts who are ONLY in the opt-in list, and separate contacts who are ONLY in our existing customer contact list.
Maybe it will be best for me to send two newsletters-- one which will query the exisiting contacts, and one to select from the opt-in list that i will establish. but, if there is a way to combine it so that both table elements are included in the same outgoing mail, i'd be delighted. however, as an inexperienced ASP.NET coder, i will need this to be as elementary as possible.
in summary, i need the following
- opt-in / opt-out via web form - data to be stored in SQL db
- send mail to that list of opt-in contacts - query the db for the mail recipients
- manage both existing contacts, and opt-in contacts seperately
if i haven't expressed my needs effectively, please ask me to clarify. thanks for your help!