Email campaign software wanted

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J

Just_a_bloke

Free Member
Sep 10, 2007
201
4
  • #1
    I have about 3000 customers who have opted in to receive emails, so I wish to run a promotional email campaign.

    My existing business software (Oscommerce) will allow me to send out bulk emails, however I don't think it would be wise to suddenly send out 3000 emails in one hit, as I may then be black listed for spamming.

    Is there any software out there which I can upload my contacts from perhaps an Excel file or similar? Organise the contacts in to batches or I can set the rate at which the emails are sent per hour.

    Or what advise can others give on my idea/plan please?
     
    B

    belmorefinance

  • #4
    Hi

    I have been using several online email platforms by now so I suggest the below:

    IContact 7
    Benchmark Email
    MailChimp

    All of them have 30 days free trial and you can send up to 2000 emails free of charge. You can divide them in separate blocks, 500 a day for IContatct and Mailchimp (the latter has even a larger number of emails that can be sent daily but has less options as IContact), while Benchmark allows you to send just 250.

    Hope this helps :)
     
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    B

    belmorefinance

  • #6
    Just pay attention with MailChipm, it does not accept excell files unless you convert your lists from .xl to .csv. So make sure you do that before uploading your lists.

    Nevertheless it is a good online email platform.

    Cheers
     
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    J

    James-Web-Development

    Free Member
    Jul 4, 2011
    20
    0
  • #15
    Just_a_bloke said:
    I have about 3000 customers who have opted in to receive emails, so I wish to run a promotional email campaign.

    My existing business software (Oscommerce) will allow me to send out bulk emails, however I don't think it would be wise to suddenly send out 3000 emails in one hit, as I may then be black listed for spamming.

    Is there any software out there which I can upload my contacts from perhaps an Excel file or similar? Organise the contacts in to batches or I can set the rate at which the emails are sent per hour.

    Or what advise can others give on my idea/plan please?
    Click to expand...

    If they have opted in then it is not spam.
     
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    J

    Just_a_bloke

    Free Member
    Sep 10, 2007
    201
    4
  • #19
    Thanks for all the feedback.

    I started to use iContact, but there was something about it that I didn't like (it was several days a go, too much has happened since to remember why I abandoned it). I then moved on to Mailchimp and finally got a mail shot out. I haven't tried any others, so don't know how it compares. I did struggle to format the layout as it wasn't very clear to me how it all fitted together, but the next should be quicker now that I've sorted out a template to run with.
     
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    A

    Alan

    Free Member
    • Aug 16, 2011
    7,089
    1,974
  • #22
    Blasting out 3,000 e-mail from most hosting accounts would nearly always violate their terms of service and would hit daily send limits, so you are right you would need to throttle any mass campaign down to the relevant ISP's limits.

    There is software available that you could install on your server if you have technical skills that would allow you to throttle or use a third party mail gateway. Will features such as subscribe / unsubscribe etc. If you want to go your 'own' software route PM me and I'll give you some technical pointers.

    We have set this up on our servers and can send 10,000 e-mails per day for our clients' opt-in lists.

    Mail Chimp free service is OK, if you don't mind sending out e-mails that are branded from Mailchimp and obviously a free services.
     
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    R

    Rasta Pickles

    Free Member
    Jun 15, 2010
    335
    71
    Bristol
  • #23
    Just_a_bloke said:
    I have about 3000 customers who have opted in to receive emails, so I wish to run a promotional email campaign.

    My existing business software (Oscommerce) will allow me to send out bulk emails, however I don't think it would be wise to suddenly send out 3000 emails in one hit, as I may then be black listed for spamming.

    Is there any software out there which I can upload my contacts from perhaps an Excel file or similar? Organise the contacts in to batches or I can set the rate at which the emails are sent per hour.

    Or what advise can others give on my idea/plan please?
    Click to expand...

    If your contacts are already in Excel, you can use VBA to run through each one of them sequentially (at a time interval you choose) to send whatever email you want.

    Did it in my last position, we used to send stuff out every minute overnight.

    One caveat: you need to tweak the code if you're using Outlook as an email client - Microsoft have built in a warning along the lines of "another program is trying to send email on your behalf, this may be a virus yada yada yada" and it stalls the send for five seconds before requiring user intervention.
     
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    W

    WickITServices

  • #24
    Hi although I use my own software for this on my servers for clients, it can get complicated to administer especially when you need to handled bounced emails and all that stuff. If I were in your position I'd use a commercial service and Mailchimp do the job very well. But, as has been said they do not allow spam so you'll need to prove your recipients have opted in. Alex
     
    Upvote 0
    W

    WickITServices

  • #25
    In your shoes, I'd follow the recommendation to use Mailchimp who do a good job for a fair price.
    Trying to set up your own systems might well end up costing you more in the end if your not a real techie. I know as I've set up a bulk mailer and autoresponder on my own server and it's not easy to put it together and make sure it's all legal and secure. (It works great now though).

    Kind regards,
    Alex
     
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