DA spreads the word

Johannesburg, 24 Mar 2009

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is furthering its political campaign by using a bulk e-mail service called MailFire developed by ISP Web Africa.

According to the DA, the party is using the application to send over 500 000 campaign e-mails every month to its e-mail lists.

The DA says that 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 Niki McQueen, IT developer at the DA, the party started using the product in November 2008. They use 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.”

The party chose this product because of its cost-effectiveness and the fact that Web Africa is a local company. MailFire includes a powerful newsletter editor, scheduling tools, ready-to-use templates and advanced reporting.

McQueen says: “MailFire has added significant value to this process. While we experienced some frustrations in the beginning, Web Africa has bent over backwards to resolve our issues. We now enjoy prompt, competent and personalised support.”

Matthew Tagg, MD of Web Africa, says the company is proud to be associated with the DA. “We enjoy working with clients who encourage us to extend our capabilities. We hope to continue our relationship into the future.”