3:17 pm admin

First things first, let’s talk about the different methods in which you can use to send your email.

Most likely, if you’re doing any kind of marketing online, you’re using one of these 2 solutions.

First, we're going to talk about the types of solutions.  We basically have two main methods for handling your email marketing campaigns. Generally speaking, you're going to use either:

1. A third-party solution; or
2. A self-hosted solution

Note: We're not talking about tools like Outlook, Thunderbird, etc. These are not useful for sending mass email, but rather are intended for sending email to individuals and small groups.

These are not viable solutions for any kind of mass mailing marketing campaign.

So, let's look at both options.

#1. Third-Party Email Marketing Software Solution

A third-party solution is simply where your entire email database is stored on someone else’s mail server. This 3^rd party is responsible for getting your emails delivered, handling spam complaints and blocked emails, and ultimately resolving any issues that arise. There is no guarantee as to how long it will take to clear up issues or that they will be resolved at all.

With 3^rd party providers, you are actually sharing the mail server with other users.

In other words, Business A, Business B, and Business C all use the same funnel to send out their emails. If one person clogs the funnel, you’re stuck until it’s resolved. They can “partially” clog the funnel by blocking just one email provider (like hotmail or AOL, for instance) or it can be across multiple block lists and causing issues across the board.

Consequently, even if you adhere to all the rules, guidelines, etc., if someone else that shares your mail server does not, YOUR deliverability is affected. Your emails may be blocked even though you, personally, have done everything correctly to the letter.

For example, let’s suppose “Business Owner #1” has done something to cause him/her to get blocked by Yahoo, if you’re sharing the same IP address (aka Mailing Funnel), then your email messages don’t make it to Yahoo either.

#2: Self-Hosted Email Marketing Option

A self-hosted solution is actually housed in your own database and sits on your own server.

This allows you to have ultimate control over your deliverability.

In order to have this control, you are most likely going to want to look at getting your own server/hosting account with a dedicated IP address. This is the important piece with a self-hosted solution. You absolutely want to have your own dedicated IP address. More importantly, you’ll want to make sure that your EMAIL server has a dedicated IP address. In other words, nobody else will use the same “path” (or funnel) to send their emails to their subscribers.

If you don’t know what that means, that’s okay!

Simply call your hosting provider and ask them “how you can get a dedicated IP address.”

Tell them that you are looking to install email software and you’d like to be able to send your email without sharing the same email port with anyone else.

Most likely, you already have a web host (If you have a website, you have a hosting account).

Depending on the type of account you have, you may have to upgrade. It may cost you a few dollars more per month for the server, but you’ll be saving the monthly expense on the 3^rd party providers. Plus, you’ll be able to host an unlimited number of websites on this account, which will ultimately save you more in the end.

Consider looking at HostGator or Liquid Web. In our companies, we use Liquid Web for our VPS (Virtual Private Server) and our dedicated servers.

The only downside to this type of solution is that you are responsible for administrating your account. This means that you’re going to need some system in place for handling your bounce messages, unsubscribe requests, etc.

You also need to know what to look for when something comes back, and how to distinguish the legitimate data from the junk bounces.

The good news is that most self-hosted solutions actually have a good deal of this built in! So, as long as you follow the best practices and the guidelines we provide on this site, you’ll have the majority of the battle won before you ever even get started!

EmailDelivered™ Monitoring Service can take over this aspect of your email marketing management if you want a total turnkey approach.

Author: Heather Seitz

Attention Readers, Publishers, Editors, Bloggers, and Marketers: You may republish or syndicate this article without any charge. The only thing I ask is that you keep the newsletters, article, or blog post exactly as it was written and formatted, with no changes. You must also include full publication attribution and back links as indicated.

This information has been provided by http://www.EmailDelivered.com and written by Heather Seitz. To find out more about email marketing software , visit http://www.emaildelivered.com/email-delivered/types-of-email-marketing-software/. Don’t forget to sign up for the EmailDelivered Pulse newsletter for articles, tips, and recommended resources related to email marketing and email deliverability.

 

January 27, 2011