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katharina 
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Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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 Topic: Store NewsletterPosted: 15-March-2009 at 11:55am |
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Ok, I know many of already touched this subject and we all agree that PC needs work in this regard. Mailup is not an option for us, because our list is to small and 45 dollars per month is rather steep for sending 5000 message per month. I don't think it will generate enough sales to make worse the money. So I was playing around and exported subscribers and set up a list on my host (they offer it, but it is not that pretty). Now I started to look around and one ASP application caught my eye. It's called Newsletter Manager Pro http://www.designerfreesolutions.com/web/viewitem.asp?idproduct=1027
What I liked was that it lets you sync up with an external database (like your store database) and import subscribers on the fly without duplication. So you can do that each month and it only adds the new ones. At the same time it will have its own database which allows visitors to sign up for a newsletter without creating an account in PC on your site. It has all the opt-in, approve, and opt-out options you need. Quite nice from just playing with it on the makers site. Now my question is has anyone tried this application with PC and what is their experience. Katharina |
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Greg Dinger
Certified ProductCart Developers 
Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238 |
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Posted: 15-March-2009 at 1:53pm |
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I have not used that, but here are a few other options:
Cindy from TastefulGarden.com uses http://dadamailproject.com/. However, there are a variety of issues ranging from the application running on Linux (necessitating seperate hosting) and it really doesn't provide strong list management support. But it's very inexpensive, she's using it monthly (and has done so for years), so it does indeed work.
We have used http://www.campaignmonitor.com/ on some projects and one thing we like is that it is free signup, and you only pay when you use it.
We use a number of the tools that Juan sells, and in particular one client has installed http://xigla.com/absolutenl/index.htm
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katharina
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Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Posted: 15-March-2009 at 2:32pm |
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Now lets try this again. Vista gave me the blue screen of death aka crash dump. Campaignmonitor will end up costing the same as mailup, only that it is not monthly. The other ones are not appealing to me. It think the Newsletter Manager Pro seem to be a good solution. Especially since you can maintain a signup form online, without having to create an account with the store. It has all the bells and whistles and can be used as an add on for PC. You can have it mapped to the store database, pulling all customers into it and then filter out those that do not like to get mailled. You basically map the signup field and use it as an filter. Or you simply run a custom export in PC and import the cvs file without being connected to PC. It will take care of duplicate entries, so nobody gets emailled twice with the same email address. I like all the reports it can run, telling you who read the message and what links they have followed. Really cool. You upload images to the program and they put them as links into the message, so you are not emailing attachments. The cost of 80 bucks seems to be reasonable, and no monthly fees! I'm kind of surprised that nobody has written an add on, but that may be a big task. Someone should take this product and rewrite it as an add on for PC.
Katharina |
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ProductCart
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ProductCart Team Joined: 01-October-2003 Status: Offline Points: 135 |
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Posted: 16-March-2009 at 5:53am |
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The issue is deliverability. Will your message get there? Everything else - at the end of the day - does not matter much at all. All professional e-mail marketing services spend a ton of time (human resources, properly configured data centers, etc.) managing relationships with ISPs and resolving disputes.
An example to make this more clear, otherwise it seems too abstract. - You send an email - A couple of your recipients report you as a spammer (even if you are not) - The SMTP server you used to send the message gets blacklisted (or otherwise penalized) - The deliverability of all future messages is severely impacted (most future messages will never get to your recipients). When you use a professional e-mail marketing service company, they will manage this situation and find a resolution (e.g. provide proof that their client was not spamming, provide proof that their client has been removed from the service, etc. etc.). If for some reason one of the IP addresses they send messages through has been penalized and the situation cannot be resolved, they will use another one (they typically send messages from server farms that use lots of different IPs). Much of what you pay for in an e-mail marketing service is the high deliverability of your messages. You are paying to use a system specifically designed to reliably get your messages delivered. E-mail marketing services bet their reputation on this, so it is something that they constantly work on. |
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katharina
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Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Posted: 16-March-2009 at 4:10pm |
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I see that point, and I appreciate of pointing out the pros and cons. It just simply leaves the small business and the occasional mailer out of the loop. We have only under 5000 opt in subscribers and only want to mail once every 3 months with a coupon and announcement of new items of interest. That would cost us 135 dollar for those messages, and perhaps 1% will buy. That is about 3 dollars per buying message. Quite steep. Are you guys looking for other options where you only pay when using it, rather then a monthly charge?
The blacklisting is a real concern. It is so simple to mark someone as spam, even it they give the option of opting out. Katharina |
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intour
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Joined: 30-June-2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Posted: 18-March-2009 at 4:07am |
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Hi Kat,
There are a few organistations that run these blacklisting lists - spamhaus.org for one. If a mail server owner signs up to use their services (which are free) all of the clients using that mail server are subjected to that blacklist. Unfortunately some blacklist before checking and as spammers spoof email addresses perfectly innocent companies can get penalised.
There is a way around this though. These organisations usually have a method by which you can be removed from there blacklist on their own webistes.
There are also sites where you can check your mail server like this one:
It says it checks 147 blacklists (yes there are at least that many !). I don't know how reliable the information but its my guess that whatever a mail company can do to ensure mail service company can do to ensure deliverability you should be able to do yourself.
It comes down to time and cost. If you have the time to do it yourself then its well worth it but sometimes its cheaper to use the mail service because the cost of your own time exceeds the cost of the service.
Nigel
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katharina
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Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Posted: 18-March-2009 at 10:34am |
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Hi Nigel,
thanks for taking the time of explaining this. I had this problem once of being blacklisted with another email address of mine 4 years ago. It was AOL who blocked me emailing some friends of mine, and it was caused by a spammer faking my email address. It took me over one week to get removed, that's how slow AOL is and it wasn't easy. I did follow their instructions online to the point. It was very frustrating. I had already forgotten all about it. I tend to discard negative things out of my head fast. LOL So putting all of this together the MailUp idea is not that bad afterall. Plus with dumb spam laws (they never get the real fakers anyway) it may be even better to join. As a small business you are always trying to save money, but then there are those expenses that just have to be there. At least I'm not using a shopping cart like yahoo!!! So you save on one end and spend on the other. LOL Katharina PS it may be an idea to write those drawbacks and how a mail service deals with it up on the EI website. Many store owners may not posses that knowledge or don't even think of it (like me). |
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intour
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Joined: 30-June-2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Posted: 18-March-2009 at 11:57am |
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Hi Kat,
I had to get to the bottom of it because I have my own dedicated server and provide web hosting hosting and email services for most of my clients - it makes life so much easier for the ones using productcart to know I have all the components on the server.
I'll put something up on the EI wiki when I get a chance.
Nigel
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