Anyone use their own email newsletters

[Chris Ashdown]

Anyone use their own software to send out email newsletters or do you sub it out to a outside company.

I would be interested in what software you recommend and how you avoid being blacklisted as spammers

Also any requirements with your ISP, we do have a dedicated server if that matters

 

[Ashley_Price]

I don't use my own software, I usually use Mailchimp. It takes away a lot of the mundane stuff, but still has a great deal of flexibility.

How to avoid being blacklisted is simply a case of ensuring your list is only those who have "opted-in" to receiving emails for your type business or industry. However, there are still those who will "forget" they agreed and report you. I used to send out a monthly email newsletter and would occasionally get people who put in a complaint. I would follow these up, giving the date, day, time and IP address of when they signed up. Often they'd come back "Oh, sorry, I forgot I'd signed up to it."

If you ARE thinking of just trying to build a list of those who haven't opted-in, you could make sure you don't use personal email addresses such as "ashley@..." but just "info@..." and the other variations.

I think though you're going to have to be very clever and eye-catching with your email subject line to save the newsletter being deleted along with all the spam that gets sent out.

 

[businessfunding]

I would also go with mailchimp.

I'm not a creative type but in about 1/2 day created what has been described as a professional and eye-catching template which is the basis of a minty newsletter

I have only had 2 reports - one of which was wholly malicious. There is a 0.2% opt out.

As Ashley said get permission or at least use some judgement on who you opt in

 

[Scratch]

Another vote for Mailchimp here, but just a comment about previous post. mailchimp won't let you send to generic addresses such as "info" or "sales", so don't waste time on these. It will only remove them anyway.
It's so easy to create a signup form (to embed on your website or similar) that if you think people will be interested it won't take long to build up a decent list.

 

[Ashley_Price]

mailchimp won't let you send to generic addresses such as "info" or "sales", so don't waste time on these. It will only remove them anyway.

Is this a new rule change? Because many of my emails went to "info..." etc., but that could be because people themselves signed up to the newsletter, I didn't enter them.

 

[SkoshBusiness]

We are a specialised Partner of CallPro CRM and use their in built functionality to send out newsletters, email campaigns and product information updates. You do need to know the details of your ISP/SMTP servers to configure. This is a great solution for emailing those who have opted-in. Failing that as others have suggested you can use Mailchimp.

If you want to know more about CallPro please send me a PM.

 

[peggyprice]

Mailchimp is a brilliant tool, simple, easy to use, cheap too when you're starting to build your lists (free if you have less than 2000 subscribers).

Getting people to opt in is key - not just to avoid data protection issues and being reported as spam, but because you don't want to waste your time sending your beautifully crafted newsletters to people who couldn't care less! And Mailchimp ensures you also have an easy opt-out option, which is essential.

There are so many ways to get people to give you their details though - the sign-up form on your website is so easy to do, and effective, but if you're bricks&mortar a simple fill in sheet on the counter ('sign up for regular updates', 'sign up for special offers' or whatever) works well, or if you do trade shows the old 'drop in your business card for a chance to win a bottle of champagne' will do the trick.

 

[lilyhollies]

Rather than just MailChimp, remember there are a whole bunch of others like:

• [FONT='Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif]Sureshot [/FONT][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif][/FONT][/FONT]​
• [FONT='Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif]Mandrill[/FONT][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif] [/FONT][/FONT]​
• [FONT='Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif]Campaignmonitor [/FONT][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif] [/FONT][/FONT]​
• [FONT='Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif]Madmimi [/FONT][FONT=Calibri,Sans-Serif] [/FONT][/FONT]​

Try them out, and find something that you like. There's nothing more frustrating than an email client which you hate but already paid for.

 

[Core List]

Hi,

I use iContact, as they are not as restrictive as MailChimp. As we got alot of emails offline, Mailchimp wouldn't allow this, even though we had consent, it was just not recorded digitally.

I did look at doing it myself. There is software out there, but I am not a whizz with setting up servers, roaming IP addresses and so on, so it wasn't worth it.

If you are good with setting these things up and have a big mailing list it would be cheaper though. But if not, the setup costs wouldn't cover the savings.

Regards
John

 

[SkoshBusiness]

At Skosh Business Solutions we recommend Mandrill.

 

[peggyprice]

Hi,

As we got alot of emails offline, Mailchimp wouldn't allow this, even though we had consent, it was just not recorded digitally.

That's useful to know, John, thanks - I've collected details manually in the past, and used Mailchimp, but never at the same time, so hadn't picked up that issue.

 

[pickaweb]

I would recommend using Aweber, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Infusionsoft
All the best.

 

[Peanut Butter Man]

Anyone use their own software to send out email newsletters or do you sub it out to a outside company.

I would be interested in what software you recommend and how you avoid being blacklisted as spammers

Also any requirements with your ISP, we do have a dedicated server if that matters

I use Aweber which allows you to create an email optin form and then send your automated email sequence at any intervals you so decide and for as long as you want.

You can also control your lists as per mailchimp.

Its a $1 trial month also

 

[14Steve14]

As I have an ecommerce site I rely heavily on newsletters. I am lucky in that the store software also integrates with a small email package called mailbeez. It offers several other email packages as well as the newsletter, all itegrated with the store. The only problem I seem to have is the huge database, that needs clearing out every few months.

 

[a1anm]

+1 for Mailchimp

 

[lilyhollies]

Just wondering, what features are you all looking for in a particular mail client?