Email marketing software

[libbert]

Hey All,

I have just been rejected at constantcontact.com, which is an email marketing software. reason is that I have gamling related content in my emails. Fair enough, but which software solutions do you use?

I would like a rather advanced system, would be good will a software solution with:
- A/B split test options
- segmentation options
- Various template to use
- etc

Thanks for your help.

[AptekMedia]

Hello Libbert

If you still require assistance with your email marketing campaigns please send a pm and we can discuss your campaigns.

[casinogod]

HI Libbert

We use http://www.aweber.com/?348408 (yes that is our affiliate link) but it is also what I use for our mailing lists.

It offers A/B testing and you can fully customise the templates it also (and very importantly) gets the mail delivered. Which is why we switched to it in the first place.

It is a very advanced system but there is a monthly fee and the bigger your mailing list gets the bigger the fee is (it starts at $19.99 per month).

You can create multiple sign up forms (so you can check where you are getting new sign ups from).

The reports show you everything from number of sign ups to where they are from and more (way too many reports to mention and a customizable area where you can select to just see the reports that interest you ( I like viewing the growth reports for my lists).

It allos allows you to set up auto responders as well as send out 'broad cast' emails when ever you want so you can be sure you can fully optimize your mailing list.

I hope that helps.

[universal4]

I actually signed up for them as an affiliate but haven't used them but do know a few others who have tried them out.

What worries me about using ANY 3rd party system that actually handles the email addresses, how can you be sure they do not mail to the names themselves?

Or worse yet, sell them?

I am not saying aweber (or any other place) does this, but what guarantess are in place?

Rick
Universal4

[alexpratt]

We are on Emarsys at the moment but were on Communicator Corp which was good too . I know a lot of people use Silver Pop as well

[TheBates]

I'd go with Aweber. It's by far the leader in email marketing. I've certainly never seen another service that can compare. Amazing stats and very easy to use.

If you are nervous about third parties handling your data, Aweber is definitely the most trustworthy of all the email marketing providers.They will not abuse your data.

[PhilF (ex-WhichBingo)]

We Use Mail Performance. Very good.

Speak to Matthew Bulbeck. Tell him Phil sent you.

[Planet Mark]

Going to add my vote for Aweber, very happy user for my English-language lists.

My only complaint is that they do not support Cyrillic text... if anyone knows a Russian equivalent I'd be happy to go via your link

Mark

[Buddy.]

I also use aweber. I've used much more advance and more expensive systems but Aweber offers a good service at a very reasonable price.

[BeyondOriginal]

I would personally recommend either Aweber or Interspire Email Marketer.

[casinogod]

I understand totally what Rick is saying about any third party system. Which is why I think it is so important to use a reputable one.

I tried a couple before I eventually got recommend Aweber (by another Affiliate at a conference in London) and after now using aweber for almost a year I am very happy with the results.

[SR1 Media]

I would personally recommend either Aweber or Interspire Email Marketer.

100% agree.

I use Aweber whenever possible, but when we have data that can't be handled by a 3rd party Interspire is the next best thing.

[whitepanther]

Aweber is one of the most popular auto responders available that gives you some great features to follow up on your customers to build a profitable mailling list. With Aweber you can configure unlimited campaigns. Each campaign includes unlimited auto responses and follow ups.

[alexcruncha]

I havent considered actually paying for email software (call me tight?!) but I am heavily into open source stuff that I can host on my own servers. ...so I use PHPLIST which is free to install and run on any LAMP server but you will need to talk to your webhost first if you plan to send loads of emails for a number of reasons. First of all many webhosts will limit how many emails you can send from their servers... unless you ask them to put you on their whitelist - my friends at Vidahost are good to me Also you need to configure some kind of throttling so for example I send out mails to a 12k list but Vidahost have asked I send no more than 1k per hour since Im on a shared hosting account so I play with the settings a bit and we are all happy. Webinsta Maillist is another piece of open source software which installs on a webserver and is free to run. Some people prefer it as it is easier to use than PHPList. I am not that senior so if I am going about this the wrong way I would like to hear the thoughts of others but it works for me so far. And yes it is a lot more work creating templates, getting them right, and the analytics may not be so good but there is basic usertracking which is good enough for my purposes.

[universal4]

I caution anyone sending emails to large lists to be very very careful sending to AOL.

I got my mail servers ip on aol's whitelist but I can tell you it is not an easy task and they tag a lot of mail to hurt a whitelisting daily.

If whatever mailing program you use sends through a real smtp server and aol happens to see it as spam it can damage the rating a mail server has and could get it removed from their whitelist or flag it so that it never makes it to the whitelist.

If whatever scripts or programs you are using use an embedded mailer and the mail is tagged with your website ip then that ip could be flagged.

I have heard and read great things about AWeber and in fact joined their affy program based upon a recommendation from another GPWA Member. Everything I have heard and read leads me to believe they do protect your list and will not steal it or mail to it.

Rick
Universal4

[Thomas Angerer]

Just trying out PHPLIST - but it's a process to get this starting ....
Aweber is easy-to-handle !?!
Will need to get a approval for the 19 books a month investment
Boss, are you reading this ???

[Sportsguy_USA]

It really comes down to your budget on these systems.

Reputation is critical in email marketing...meaning 'email reputation'. Sender permanence, bounce management, IP allocation, domain permanence, and recipient feedback.

You got the budget - Silverpop is carving a nice niche in this gaming sector. Personally attained +95% deliverability with them. Same with Exact Target a few years back, but now getting conflicting messages that they are no longer accepting gaming type clients.
Strong mail is great too...again, big budget and depending on the volume and size of your organization. Strongmail is good to retain all the data and reputation inhouse....but lets be realistic, most are looking for those 3rd party cost-effective solutions.
I've worked with all 3, and more, and a variety of smaller guys out there. The biggest issue we have in this industry is 90% of the public email service providers don't accept gaming clients.
There are a few that do (ex. vertical response) (I think they don't, but they don't check their clients sending messages unless there are issues), but the typical downside is your sharing your sending IP and domain with potentially 50 - 200 or more other clients of theirs. This can be good or bad...if they all maintain good sending practices and thus good reputation, you can piggy back off of this. And the opposite will be the same.

Any questions...drop me a line on here. I'm very familiar with this industry, and the players within.

[nico84]

Did you try Emailbrain.com?

[grem]

aweber and emailbrain are popular choices

[pgaming]

Currently using Aweber and must say awesome! The support and product is far beyond my expectations.

greek39