While you can send an email or emails to all of your contacts using the Marketing module and the Campaigns, RAMCO has a few prerequisites and considerations before doing so.
You cannot send marketing email from RAMCO if you are using the "shared email server"
When RAMCO is initially configured the default email setup is to connect you to a shared email server run out of the NAR office in Chicago. All RAMCO clients tend to start off using this server. Because this is a shared server it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch, so we don't allow anyone using it to send bulk email such as class and event promotions. The chances that a member could mark one of those emails as spam, and cut off AOL or Yahoo email recipients for all other RAMCO users on that shared server, is just too great to ignore. Part of the terms of use are that you can send those "transactional" emails like receipts, confirmations, etc when on the shared email server, but you can't send marketing pieces.
You can send mass e-mail from Marketing and Campaigns if you connect RAMCO to your own email server
To do that for you all RAMCO would need is the following information:
Email server address:
Username for an account that can relay email:
Password for an account that can relay email:
However, sending that much email from your own email server is not recommended. If you're using your own e-mail server, and a member at Hotmail marks a class promotion as spam (either intentionally or accidentally), you may find yourself unable to send any email to anyone at Hotmail. Not only that, but you wouldn't be able to send those Hotmail people email from your own Outlook, much less through RAMCO, because Hotmail sees all those messages as coming from the same place: your email server.
If RAMCO isn't available or the best option, what is available?
The best option is to look into something like NAR's free Convio system. It's a blast email tool with the same capabilities as Constant Contact, Exacttarget, or any of those other email marketing tools. It is also the system that drives all the "calls for action" from NAR. Those are the "click here to contact your senator" emails and webpages. If you use Convio to send your blast email to members then there's no chance your own email from Outlook will get blocked from Hotmail just because someone at Hotmail didn't like your class's email promotion. Convio is also synchronized with NRDS so you don't have to upload new member emails every week or so. If you are interested in Convio please visit the information page on the REALTOR Action Center: http://www.realtoractioncenter.com/for-associations/hub/