[webproducers] Re: email marketnig suggestions

"Ryan" <ryanpchampagne@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I need a internet marketing solution for a customer of mine. They are
> looking for doing eblasts & newsletters and are gearing up for a new release
> for their website. 

Off the top of my head, three things to watch for when buying mailing
list hosting services:-

1. privacy and portability of your database - if you're in the UK,
does the service comply with the Information Commissioner's good
practice guidelines? Visit www.ico.gov.uk and grab the guides about
outsourcing and email marketing. Some US-hosted services targetting UK
NPOs don't comply and look more like ways for shady companies to build
databases of kind donors. You also need an easy way to copy your
mailing list for backups or changing service provider - a CSV
(spreadsheet as comma-seperated values) download is a pretty good
idea.

2. simplicity - does the service allow you to send useful plain text
emails? A few services send plain text versions which are basically
"click this link to read the newsletter in your web browser" which
will annoy your non-webmail subscribers. Can people sign up with a
simple email form (no javascript or Flash) and/or by sending an email?

3. standards - can it include List-Id, List-Help and List-Unsubscribe
email headers? Those are specified by Internet Engineering Task Force
documents and activate email-list-handling features like simple "help"
and "unsubscribe" buttons in good email clients (not Outlook, of
course). List-Id in particular helps if you move your list to another
provider later - good email clients will be able to tell it's still
the same list.

On DIY: my co-op hosts some email lists and helps other people to
self-host. We've used mlmmj, mailman, sympa (NPOGroups looks
interesting but we've not used it yet) and phplist.

Hope that helps,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)
Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small
worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
(Notice http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html) tel:+44-844-4437-237

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