Greetings:

My firm uses a CRM by the name of Zoho. Our business is commercial real estate (B+B). We email listings to segmented lists (i.e. law firms, 1 to 10 employees, 10017 zip code) of potential customers. 

We have about 11,000 contacts in lists of various target industries.

We have been using the Campaign module of Zoho which is designed for email promotions. Zoho requires that this module be used when more than 500 emails are sent. 

Would it improve the response rate if we don't use the Campaign module and and run a mail merge (less than 500 contacts) in CRM? CRM mail merges resemble  regular email and have less of a canned look. 

The open rates for our email campaigns range from 8 to 25% depending on the list. 

Insight on this question would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank,
Alan Rosinsky