[SkullDude]

Anyone have any recommendations on good software for doing email marketing campaigns and just managing email addresses. I probably have about 2000 addresses built up from my ebay business and I wanted to be able to drive some of that traffic to a website. I've looked into costs and the software seems to range from $50 to $500. Any advice or recommendations would be helpful.

Thanks,

Josh

 

[tshirtn00b]

If you are a little bit technical or know someone that makes websites, phplist can be incorporated with your website (as long as it's hosted on a linux web server). You can add email addresses, create campaigns, send html or text bulk emails, etc. etc.

I have it in use at my day job and use it whenever we send out bulk mailings.

There is a separate admin section that you can log in to to add email addresses, set up mailing lists and configure and maintain the program as you see fit. you can have a text box for your website viewers to join your mailing lists on their own as well.

phplist.com : Homepage : home

Depending on your webhost, you may have that program or something similar already included with your hosting package. I believe my option to install it is in the Fantastico section.

 

[utemtu]

we use Aweber, very good stuff, and highly regarded in online marketing

 

[Uncle John]

Josh, I use Email seeker, it does a good job and is only about $50 bucks. From what you decribed it will work for you.
E-Mail Seeker - Advanced Email Extractor
Good Luck John

 

[Rodney]

I would recommend outsourcing the email sending to a newsletter service where you can upload your list and they handle the sending/bouncing and can help you build your list with forms you can put on your site.

Try Email Newsletter Software for Web Designers - Campaign Monitor or HTML Email Marketing from MailChimp

 

[SkullDude]

I would recommend outsourcing the email sending to a newsletter service where you can upload your list and they handle the sending/bouncing and can help you build your list with forms you can put on your site.

Try Email Newsletter Software for Web Designers - Campaign Monitor or HTML Email Marketing from MailChimp

Rodney, what is the advantage of the programs you listed as compared to the do-it-yourself program Uncle John listed. I should also add I am not a web designer. Where I wouldn't mind learning a few web programming things here or there I have no intentions on becoming a pro.

Also, when you say "bouncing", I assume you me undeliverable emails. Is that a large problem when sending to huge lists.

Thanks for the help.

 

[EnMartian]

We use Group Mail 5, which does a decent job.

Bouncing is a problem. Our current e-mail list is about 2700 names for one company and it keeps growing. Just managing the bounced e-mails, figuring out if they're bad, getting them off the list and/or correcting them can be a big job. You also have to deal with hosts who need to be convinced that you're not a spammer, which generally requires going through a vetting process. Doing it yourself can take a lot of time.

We've never used an e-mail company, so I can't say exactly what they might do for you, but I imagine they would handle the bounce and greylisting problems.

 

[tshirtn00b]

Kristine is right - trying to clear your good name of being a spammer can sometimes be a daunting task. It's nice to keep things "in-house" as much as possible but sometimes you are better off paying someone else to handle that stuff for you.

Especially when things like spending all your time filtering out bad email addresses takes over what you are really in business for - printing shirts!

 

[Adam]

MailChimp is a good one.

 

[taylormoson]

We use constant contact. They charge by the number of contacts you keep in your database, not per email which is how most other companies do it. Also, if you are using a company that charges per blast, you are going to pay nearly 10 cents per email, whereas a program like constant contact or some of the others mentioned above, will cost b/w 15-100 dollars per month depending on the size of the list. Your 2000 would cost about $30/month I believe.

 

[Rodney]

Rodney, what is the advantage of the programs you listed as compared to the do-it-yourself program Uncle John listed. I should also add I am not a web designer. Where I wouldn't mind learning a few web programming things here or there I have no intentions on becoming a pro.

Also, when you say "bouncing", I assume you me undeliverable emails. Is that a large problem when sending to huge lists.

Thanks for the help.

There is much less work with the online "services" like mailchimp, constantcontact, campaignmonitor.

No programs to install, the emails don't have to get sent through your ISP or your web host's ISP.

Those services main focus is making sure your email gets delivered. They have all kinds of stats, best practices, and constant communication with ISPs to work on getting your legitimate email marketing newsletters delivered.

Those are a few of the benefits.

 

[Robin]

we use constant contact too. It pays for itself many times over every month.

 

[rrc62]

Kristine is right - trying to clear your good name of being a spammer can sometimes be a daunting task.

My last ISP would permanently terminate an email account if they saw more than 100 emails go out from that account within a short period of time. They had software to detect it. Might be something to check into before pushing the send button on 2500+ emails.

 

[Uncle John]

The email program I mentioned, I can send hundreds of them. I bypass my ISP by changing my out going mail address to OpenDNS. We don't just shotgun them but qualify them, that they sell what what we want to wholesale to them. I hate SPAM but if your in the retail shirt business and get an offer would you look at it? Just an option.
John

 

[Rodney]

I hate SPAM but if your in the retail shirt business and get an offer would you look at it?

Not if it was sent as spam or unsolicited commercial email. I'd just delete it or report it. I know many others are the same way. Even targeted offers get overwhelming when you didn't request them. There are 1000's of companies that sell stuff that I might be interested in...definitely doesn't mean that I want even an occasional email (unsolicited) from all of them.

 

[Q.]

I have heard great things about Constant Contact's customer service.