Go to for email marketing?

I have a plugin, ACYmail, for my WP site and use Amazon SES for delivery - a fraction of the cost of most/all other providers and great delivery rates if setup correctly!
 
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Then don't send spam!
 
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You need to have a basic strategy.
Sending sales stuff will cause issues.
Sending news, updates, help, tips & tricks builds a relationship, where you can then slip messages in, direct or indirect.
 
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Ozzy

Founder of UKBF
UKBF Staff
  • Feb 9, 2003
    8,322
    11
    3,439
    Northampton, UK
    bdgroup.co.uk
    I used Mailchimp in the past for the UKBF newsletter, which when I took it on was over 200,000 in size but very low open rates and costs a few thousand a month.

    Some may remember I did a massive data clean up when I took UKBF back on, opt-in and verified everyone and brought that down to ~85K but that price for that was still £1,600 a month with Mailchimp which just wasn't viable.

    I now use Mailjet. It has less fancy tools for segmenting and analysis. Mailchimp lets you measure your subscribers inside leg measurement and what they had for dinner, Mailjet doesn't have that level of reporting data - but it gives me open rates and allows me to measure what topics get the most interest and click throughs so I can better target the content that you guys find most interesting.

    That brought the monthly cost down from over one half grand to just a few hundred quid a month!
    5* review, would recommend.
    They have also just improved their automation to be closer to what I lost moving away from Mailchimp, so now I can have a nice customer welcome wagon for new members that I lost by moving.

    I do still use Mailchimp for my daughters riding school, purely because it is easier to use and her mailing list is less than 1k so doesn't cost so much.
     
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    'Spam' is relative and subjective - largely down to the joint relevance of your database and content

    Some will still say Spam and unsubscribe (personal experience- they may still become introducers or customers) - that's life

    Most will take a superficial look and move on, some will actively engage

    As with all marketing, the key is to make it about them, not about you

    No dull lists of how many services you provide

    No contrived' irrelevant self-accolades

    Case studies (problem solved / customer outcome)

    Genuinely interesting industry news
     
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    fantheflames

    Free Member
  • Business Listing
    Nov 23, 2022
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    fantheflames.co.uk
    Great recommendations here. I personally use ActiveCampaign, but with clients I tend to use Brevo, MailChimp, or Klaviyo. Recent drag and drop changes on Brevo have made it super easy to use Brevo, so if you're looking for something easy to use, then... I've found some issues on Brevo before, such as 404s and dead links, but I haven't had any issues on there recently!
     
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    fantheflames

    Free Member
  • Business Listing
    Nov 23, 2022
    490
    150
    Bristol
    fantheflames.co.uk
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    Tigris

    Free Member
  • Apr 30, 2018
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    D

    Deleted member 367565

    Mailchimp is a solid platform—but like Ozzy said, it gets pricey fast once your list grows. I run a book promotion site and send out a daily newsletter to about 50,000 subscribers, and eventually the cost just wasn’t sustainable.
    A couple of years back, I decided to cut costs and switched to Sendy. It’s a one-off purchase, and I self-host using Amazon SES. It took a bit of setup, but honestly, it’s been smooth sailing since. I do miss some of Mailchimp’s polish, but for my needs, this setup works brilliantly—and at a fraction of the price.
    Happy to share more if anyone’s curious—always glad to chat tools and tactics!
     
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    Upvote for Klaviyo here.
    I've used it for a couple of companies and found it very helpful. The builder is good and once you understand how it works then it all makes sense.
    If you are a micro business then it is free, if you need the paid for features then it doesn't cost the earth.
    only downsides I would suggest is that it takes a bit of time to get to know it (doesn't every system) and setting up the contact/signup forms on your website can be proper fiddly.
     
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    Rawww

    Free Member
    Jul 28, 2025
    1
    0
    Hi everyone,

    Just sharing this for anyone dealing with email issues — especially if you're seeing your messages land in spam.

    This post covers the essentials: choosing the right email management system, improving deliverability, and general best practices. Found it pretty useful:
    <Link drop removed>

    Might be helpful if you're reviewing your setup or planning a new campaign.
     
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    Ray272

    Free Member
    Jul 5, 2017
    477
    82
    We purchased Acelle Mail for $300 and have all the features we need for email marketing, has a smooth system underneath, you have to do all your own configurations to ensure email deliverability and trust but the system provides a completely unbranded mailout which can be edited fully. We were spending $900 a year on one account with one email address, this system provides unlimited accounts, unlimited emails. Just got this 3 months ago. Surprised how smooth the system works.
     
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