[LordOpie]

It's been a while since I've done this so help would be appreciated.

I have a client that wants to send a monthly newsletter to 1000 of his clients.

Obviously I can't just send them cuz I think 99% of them would be dumped into the recipient's Junk Mail folder, yeah?

What if my client decides he wants tracking data? Does a script that's embedded need to communicate with another script on some server? Or would individual emails be generated, received by my software and compiled? What about managing unsubscription requests?

Thanks for any insight/info you can provide!

 

[SkaredShtles]

Majordomo is a pretty good mail subscription application which allows opt-in/opt-out with little administrative intervention.

Do his customers a favor, though - if he wants "tracking" information have him use a voluntary poll/survey. Don't embed things - that could pi$$ customers off.

 

[LordOpie]

Majordomo... is it something that I can run and control fully on my end or do I need a server/service to run parts of it?

Thanks for the info on surveys. I've found that people request tracking data and too often ignore it, but an actual survery that people voluntarily participate in is probably better.

What about "embedding" voluntary survey at the end of each article that asks if it was useful? Maybe with a comment box?

THANKS!

 

[Transcend]

A lot of anti spam setups will automatically trash any email with tracking bits embedded in it. The easiest way to "track" is to embed a 1px x 1px transparent gif. Then you can host it on your web server, or use google analytics, and get super detailed stats about who actually opened the email.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Majordomo... is it something that I can run and control fully on my end or do I need a server/service to run parts of it?

Since it's automated you would want to have it hosted on a machine that is up most of the time, so a server would probably be a good choice. You can use it with whatever SMTP transport you like.

Thanks for the info on surveys. I've found that people request tracking data and too often ignore it, but an actual survery that people voluntarily participate in is probably better.

What about "embedding" voluntary survey at the end of each article that asks if it was useful? Maybe with a comment box?

THANKS!

That sounds pretty innocuous. I'd not object to something like that...

 

[LordOpie]

SkaredShtles and Transcend,

Thank you so much for your input!

But as I started re-learning this stuff, my research suggested that if you don't do it exactly the right way or even if you do, but there are enough complaints (mark as junk mail?) that some ISPs might outright ban our IP and block ALL emails.

Broadcasting in and of itself is not a core corporate function, so if our client wants us to do it, we'll manage the project and outsource.

Doing it ourselves is a headache for me with no benefits.

Thanks again.

 

[SkaredShtles]

SkaredShtles and Transcend,

Thank you so much for your input!

But as I started re-learning this stuff, my research suggested that if you don't do it exactly the right way or even if you do, but there are enough complaints (mark as junk mail?) that some ISPs might outright ban our IP and block ALL emails.

Yeah - if you were going to do something like this it would behoove you to "trickle" the email out. Don't blast it out.

Broadcasting in and of itself is not a core corporate function, so if our client wants us to do it, we'll manage the project and outsource.

Doing it ourselves is a headache for me with no benefits.

Bingo - email bull$hit like this is just begging for headaches. Literally begging. You'll become an email administrator. Which you do NOT want. Trust me.

 

[SK6]

A lot of anti spam setups will automatically trash any email with tracking bits embedded in it. The easiest way to "track" is to embed a 1px x 1px transparent gif. Then you can host it on your web server, or use google analytics, and get super detailed stats about who actually opened the email.

Now that trick is slicker than snot on a doorknob!!!