DA bulks up for election

The DA says that the product is operating smoothly and delivering significant value to its marketing campaign. During election time the number of monthly emails jumps from 200 000 to 500 000 and the party distributes up to seven press releases per day.

According to Nikki McQueen, IT developer at the DA, the party started using the service in November 2008. It uses it for distributing newsletters, press releases, policy statements and speeches by party leader Helen Zille.

"In 2006, we started niche marketing and targeting our newsletters to specific areas for example health, HIV/AIDS, crime, etc," she says. "People can sign up to newsletters relating to their areas of interest.

Journalists targeted

"The result is that we have a number of different lists. We also target press releases to specific journalists depending on their beat [and] so needed a product that could do this efficiently and cost-effectively."

The party chose this product because it believes it to be cost effective and Web Africa is a local company. MailFire features include a newsletter editor, scheduling tools, ready-to-use templates and advanced reporting.

"The product has comprehensive tracking tools so we can see who is reading what content, what links they are following, etc," says McQueen. "And for those who don't have email coding skills, the easy-to-use editor enables them to produce a professional looking email, complete with visuals."

"MailFire has added significant value to this process," says McQueen, who added that while there had been some teething problems in the beginning, Web Africa put a lot of effort into resolving any issues.