List Builders, mailing list management software
Research re running mailouts.
History
At the Old Operating Theatre Museum we began building our mailing list using Yahoo Groups. It is free and works very, very well. Also has the advantage, that being web based, you can mail from distributed offices, and homes not just the office computer.
Yahoo then introduced a limit to the number of emails you could send at once and it uses adverts. So we swapped to running our own Outlook express system, and then incredimail - normal email groups. This works ok but there is no tracking, no automatic subscription and deletion, difficulty with large scale bouncing, and the database is not very good. So we maintain our contacts database (idealist) and the contacts in the email mailer.
Also used a free list builder programme called groupmail - it worked very well, but we got so many bounces that I came to the conclusion it was being interpreted as spam - so returned to email mailing.
But as we want to build up our email marketing am now looking for another method.
So what I am after, is a solution which handles automatic subscription and deletion, several mailing lists, open and click tracking.
This is my research. firstly, there seems to be a distinction between email marketing software and newsletter or mailing list management software. The difference is whether you are interested in managing group membership. If the later then you need online subscription etc.
All the SCriptsThis site lists mailing list programs and other resources.
1-2-All - Looks fully functional - one time purchase of $159 dollars - my only fear here is that it runs on Server using PhP so slightly worried that might not be so easy to set up - and you certainly need to be running your own web hosting.
MailerMailer - looks as good as 12-all has a free 200 emails a month option, but has a monthly fee of over $20 dollars for small scale business - so expensive in the long run.
MailListKing This sits on your own computer rather than on the web but on the other hand seems to integrate with mail software well and does promise to monitor open rates. Under $50.
Watch this space to see progress - my short list is 1-2-all as I have a personnel recommendation from Gorm Ashurst of Bullet and MailListKing because it integrates with mailprogramme.
History
At the Old Operating Theatre Museum we began building our mailing list using Yahoo Groups. It is free and works very, very well. Also has the advantage, that being web based, you can mail from distributed offices, and homes not just the office computer.
Yahoo then introduced a limit to the number of emails you could send at once and it uses adverts. So we swapped to running our own Outlook express system, and then incredimail - normal email groups. This works ok but there is no tracking, no automatic subscription and deletion, difficulty with large scale bouncing, and the database is not very good. So we maintain our contacts database (idealist) and the contacts in the email mailer.
Also used a free list builder programme called groupmail - it worked very well, but we got so many bounces that I came to the conclusion it was being interpreted as spam - so returned to email mailing.
But as we want to build up our email marketing am now looking for another method.
So what I am after, is a solution which handles automatic subscription and deletion, several mailing lists, open and click tracking.
This is my research. firstly, there seems to be a distinction between email marketing software and newsletter or mailing list management software. The difference is whether you are interested in managing group membership. If the later then you need online subscription etc.
All the SCriptsThis site lists mailing list programs and other resources.
1-2-All - Looks fully functional - one time purchase of $159 dollars - my only fear here is that it runs on Server using PhP so slightly worried that might not be so easy to set up - and you certainly need to be running your own web hosting.
MailerMailer - looks as good as 12-all has a free 200 emails a month option, but has a monthly fee of over $20 dollars for small scale business - so expensive in the long run.
MailListKing This sits on your own computer rather than on the web but on the other hand seems to integrate with mail software well and does promise to monitor open rates. Under $50.
Watch this space to see progress - my short list is 1-2-all as I have a personnel recommendation from Gorm Ashurst of Bullet and MailListKing because it integrates with mailprogramme.
Comments
http://tincan.co.uk/phplist
It has a few quirks but on the whole works well for us.