Forum Moderators: phranque

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Email mailshot, security of our email lists? Who can we trust?

         

Mark_A

7:28 am on Oct 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



We are looking to do an email mailshot (something like a newsletter) to our contact list of about 2,000 email addresses.

Our own ISP bans us when we try to do it ourselves so we are looking at a fulfilment house to do the mailing for us.

Some seem very cheap and it struck me that they may just be a front for the stealing of email lists.

Obviously our contact email list is both very valuable to us but also something that we can't afford to fall into other peoples hands. If our contacts started getting spammed because we used a bad supplier we could be in trouble.

Does anyone have any tips as to how to find reputable email marketing completion houses where we can be absolutely sure our list will be safe?

phranque

8:38 am on Oct 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



no personal experience, but from what i've read and heard i would guess MailChimp and Constant Contact are among the most reputable (or at least most popular) email campaign services.

Mark_A

8:55 am on Oct 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Thanks phranque, yes I have been doing some digging this morning and they both seem to be talked about. It seems there is another called Campaign Monitor.

Just now digging through the forums to see if anyone has been complaining about any of them.

onlineleben

1:45 pm on Oct 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Just makesure that you do not have to re-confirm the email addresses with the new ESP. I heard Aweber practices this and that could really hurt because not everyone would re-subscribe.

maximillianos

5:51 pm on Oct 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Constant Contact seems to be a popular and reputable one.

Demaestro

7:03 pm on Oct 6, 2010 (gmt 0)

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The trick is finding one that has 'whitelisted' servers.

As part of your checking into places you should ask their mail server ip range and check to see if they appear on spam lists.

Even if they are reputable they could have blacklisted servers and if any of your clients use spam list services, as many do, then they won't even receive your message.

Mark_A

7:34 am on Oct 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Hi Demaestro, that sounds like a good point, not sure how I go about finding if they have been blacklisted though. Do people actually publish their black lists?

phranque

8:02 am on Oct 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

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once you have the IP address(es) of the SMTP server(s):

The Spamhaus Project - Blocklist Removal Center:
http://www.spamhaus.org/lookup.lasso [spamhaus.org]

RBL check | Realtime open RBL database | Block spam entering your mail servers | Antispam service:
http://www.smtpcheck.net/ [smtpcheck.net]

SpamCop.net - Blocking List ( bl.spamcop.net ):
http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml [spamcop.net]

Cisco IronPort SenderBase Security Network:
http://www.senderbase.org/ [senderbase.org]

Mark_A

8:06 am on Oct 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Wow phranque that is great data, thank you very much.