commercial email service or phplist for non opt-in emails

ankit.nagpal · 08-06-2010, 08:32 PM

I am new to email marketing and I plan to send around 300 emails everyday (with time delays) to unique email ids. The email has a simple offer for sale with non-personalized, generic text in it. All of the email id are extracted from different sites without opt-in confirmation. Also, I will send only one email to every email id and will not send any email again to that email id. It is not a subscription based email but a one time email marketing campaign. I have installed phplist for it. My question is: for this much traffic, is it worth using iContact or Constant Contact rather than phplist if their delivery rate is more than 95% as they claim. Will the delivery rate be same in my case? Does these commercial services have significant higher delivery rate than phplist for non opt-in emails that I am sending?

Your help is really appreciated.

--
Thanks,
Ankit

seongpinas316 · 08-08-2010, 02:16 PM

iContact and Constant contact has a reputable name in email marketing services you can use both of them

ankit.nagpal · 08-08-2010, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seongpinas316

iContact and Constant contact has a reputable name in email marketing services you can use both of them

Yes I agree that both are good. they have better delivery rate but do they help in avoiding spam detection for non opt-in mails which might have been tagged as spam if sent otherwise? As i have not used any of the commercial service so have no comparison data. Actually i am looking for a spam detection rate between commercial and free service for same set of non opt-in emails. I need this data because I am about to send 100k targeted and personalized but non opt-in emails.

MEMA · 08-11-2010, 05:43 PM

Remember that the measurement of deliverability differs among ESPs, and depends of your reputation as well. So, even if they claim their delivery rate is more than 95%, it could be totally different for your campaigns. Any unwanted message is considered spam... And like you said, you built your list without opt-in confirmation. So, if they say that your message is a spam, your delivery rate won't be good. (<95%)

What you should do, even if you want to send just one email per id, is to include a free opt-out mechanism that is available through a single web page, replying to the email message, and through an unsubscribe button. The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business

ankit.nagpal · 08-11-2010, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEMA

Remember that the measurement of deliverability differs among ESPs, and depends of your reputation as well. So, even if they claim their delivery rate is more than 95%, it could be totally different for your campaigns. Any unwanted message is considered spam... And like you said, you built your list without opt-in confirmation. So, if they say that your message is a spam, your delivery rate won't be good. (<95%)

What you should do, even if you want to send just one email per id, is to include a free opt-out mechanism that is available through a single web page, replying to the email message, and through an unsubscribe button. The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business

Thanks for the info. Also I am in touch with iContact, Constant Contact, Vertical Response etc. and also using their services. I have noticed that people who use free email services like gmail yahoo affect deliverability rate the most as each spam click on the email window causes the feedback to be sent to these companies and hence reduces the chance of further email sent to those free email users and can also freeze the account with these email campaign companies. That is why I have deleted all emails of yahoo gmail aol etc. While those using thunderbird/outlook etc. will keep receiving the email in their POP3/IMAP account however these will be removed in the email client but atleast there is no feedback to ISP and ESP.

And I agree with you that there should always be a VISIBLE opt-out link in every email send but most email campaign companies do not allow to send even a single email to those people who have not opted for it however anyone can import a list of non opt-in users by just clicking "I understand the risk" checkbox in their respective campaign window.

Also I want to know that is it better to send only the direct hyperlink to the newsletter webpage that I want to show to them or should I put the entire newsletter content in the email itself? for less spam and better deliverability

dave · 08-12-2010, 12:28 PM

Apart from what is said above, which is all valid:

One thing that matters is the email server software you are using on your web server.

Exim or Qmail (Fully Patched) should be fine.

I wouldn't suggest sending out from any server unless it was your own dedicated server and make sure that you have all the DNS SPF records in place.

Setting Up SPF DNS Records

Apart from this, i don't think there is going to be much difference between using a big email provider and one on your own domain for a small amount of emails being sent.

If you are sending thousands you will definitely need a dedicated server.

I use aweber for ease of use at the moment.

Also, if you put a disclaimer at the bottom of your email most people will not read any further - you can hide your opt-out underneath this.

ankit.nagpal · 08-12-2010, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave

Apart from what is said above, which is all valid:

One thing that matters is the email server software you are using on your web server.

Exim or Qmail (Fully Patched) should be fine.

I wouldn't suggest sending out from any server unless it was your own dedicated server and make sure that you have all the DNS SPF records in place.

Setting Up SPF DNS Records

Apart from this, i don't think there is going to be much difference between using a big email provider and one on your own domain for a small amount of emails being sent.

If you are sending thousands you will definitely need a dedicated server.

I use aweber for ease of use at the moment.

Also, if you put a disclaimer at the bottom of your email most people will not read any further - you can hide your opt-out underneath this.

Hi, thanks for the info. But will dedicated IP be enough for sending emails because my hosting provider allows 500 emails per hour on shared hosting which is enoughh. And to avoid my IP address being blacklisted because of other domains hosted on same IP address, I have opted for a dedicated IP on shared hosting. Is there any other benefit of dedicated hosting over dedicated IP for small no. of emails to be send everyday?

dave · 08-12-2010, 05:25 PM

The benefit is that you can access the mail server queue to see which emails are stuck, also you will be able to send a lot more than 500 per day - more like 20,000 or more depending on the connection speed / server speed / memory/ disk speed

MEMA · 08-12-2010, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Also I want to know that is it better to send only the direct hyperlink to the newsletter webpage that I want to show to them or should I put the entire newsletter content in the email itself? for less spam and better deliverability

If you don't want to be spammed by your readers, you should put the entire newsletter content in the email itself. If you just sent only the direct hyperlink, they might be not interested because they could think that is a fake url... You could have a better deliverability this way, but your click rates will be very low and your message won't be read...

sholing · 09-02-2010, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEMA

If you don't want to be spammed by your readers, you should put the entire newsletter content in the email itself. If you just sent only the direct hyperlink, they might be not interested because they could think that is a fake url... You could have a better deliverability this way, but your click rates will be very low and your message won't be read...

that is a good point for me i will try to follow,thanks friend...