
Let’s explore e-mail marketing delivery methods
When launching a large e-mail campaign it’s wise to ask “Should we use a company like MailChimp or Constant Contact, our own mail server or should we use a commercial e-mail server to send our mailings?” Here’s your choices Mr. Executive:
- Your traditional E-Mail Delivery Methods
- A free e-mail account
- An E-Mail newsletter service provider
- Dedicated space on a private server
It’s good to ask this question and carefully consider the answers because there are advantages, disadvantages and risks to each choice. We can’t give you a definitive answer that works for all businesses and all e-mail campaigns. There is one choice that is more obvious than the others so we’ll start there.
Using your normal e-mail methods.
This usually means the e-mail server that’s on the same machine as your web server. Sometimes you might use a dedicated machine or provider for your every day business mail.
Advantages:
- No set up expense or time
Disadvantages:
- This is the riskiest way to send commercial e-mail, it’s almost certain to get you into trouble.
- Probably can only deliver to less than 25 recipients at a time
- The e-mails received have a great chance of not looking the same as what you’ve created.
Risks:
- Blocked from sending e-mail by your ISP at your offices physical location, even if you only try it once.
- Blocked from sending e-mail by your external e-mail provider, even if you only try it once.
- Legal trouble (if you keep doing it)
- Jail time IS possible (if you keep doing it)
- As with any e-mail marketing campaign, if the campaign is large and long enough you run the risk of having any e-mail than links to your website blocked by ISP’s, backbone relays, free e-mail providers, corporate e-mails providers, etc, from being delivered.
- As with any e-mail marketing campaign, if the campaign is large and long enough you run the risk of “viagra-ing” your brand name.
When to use this method:
NEVER. Ok, it’s probably safe if you’re sending less than 10 e-mails to people you already have an e-mail relationship with. But other than that…
Using a free e-mail account
You could use a free yahoo account and be relatively risk free right? Well, it does lower the risk but there’s a high chance you’ll just be wasting your time.
Advantages
- No fees (other than what you pay for labor)
Disadvantages:
- Lots of time in labor in setting up the e-mail list for even a typically small e-mail list
- Can only send to so many at a time
Risks:
- Losing the free e-mail account
- Losing other free services from that provider
- Legal trouble (if you keep doing it)
- Jail time IS possible (if you keep doing it)
- As with any e-mail marketing campaign, if the campaign is large and long enough you run the risk of having any e-mail than links to your website blocked by ISP’s, backbone relays, free e-mail providers, corporate e-mails providers, etc, from being delivered.
- As with any e-mail marketing campaign, if the campaign is large and long enough you run the risk of “viagra-ing” your brand name.
When to use this method:
NEVER. Ok it’s probably safe if you’re sending less than 10 e-mails to people you already have an e-mail relationship with. But other than that…
An E-mail Newsletter Service Provider
We’re talking about services like MailChimp and Constant Contact here. They have a high rate of delivery and other advantages, but are very likely to refuse to service you and they will be a high per e-mail cost.
Advantages
- Negates most risks
- Help with creating visually styled e-mails that work correctly in most e-mail clients. This is bigger than it sounds as this is difficult for even an experienced web designer.
Disadvantages:
- High costs
- Easy to get kicked off their service.
Risks:
- Using a service almost totally negates all the risks typically associated with e-mail marketing provided you don’t purposely game their system.