bulk emailer for mac

[toblerboy]

Hi
I have an ever-expanding base of opt-in emails (tens of thousands now) that I want to send emails to regarding updated products etc.

I am looking for a bulk emailer that I can use from my mac. I dont want to pay other people to send emails for me - i was just wondering if there was anything out there that was really really easy and understandable - ie very easy to use (i am not great at computers so the easier the better!!)

Ive tried a couple of things and got a little confused - just wondered if anybody had any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance

 

[toblerboy]

anyone? !!

 

[belvdr]

Why not just create a distribution list and then email to it, like the old majordomo lists?

Postfix can handle this load easily. Note that once you start mass emailing, it takes work to stay off the blacklists, especially if you're emailing from a dynamic IP.

 

[toblerboy]

Hi
Thanks for your reply - I know I sound stupid here, but I dont actually know what you mean - what is a distribution list? Majordomo? Blacklist?

 

[belvdr]

Hi
Thanks for your reply - I know I sound stupid here, but I dont actually know what you mean - what is a distribution list? Majordomo? Blacklist?

A distribution list is simply a list of email addresses. If you send an email to the distribution list email address, it goes to everyone in that list.

If you don't understand any of what I said, you should seriously consider paying someone to handle this for you. I haven't used it, but Amazon has a service for these operations.

 

[Mal]

I would strongly suggest that you use one of the email services. Try MailChimp or ConstantContact, they're two of the best. I've used MailChimp for a number of things in the past.

The reason why you don't usually find people doing this sort of thing from their computer directly is that it usually results in you being blacklisted by your ISP. They don't care to have bulk emailing being done through their mailservers, for a variety of reasons.

jW

 

[tgurske]

Mal is correct

You will have big deliverability issues if you are sending tens of thousands of the same message out from your computer. Most ISPs actually submit their IP addresses to the blacklists so that you don't send that way. They want you to use their mail servers and they aren't going to let you send that many emails.

If you do decide to buy an app and send from your computer, send them very slowly. Like a couple every five minutes. Take a week to get them all out.

Email marketing is a real pain.

I used this, years ago: http://www.maxprog.com/site/software/internet-marketing/mass-bulk-emailer_sheet_us.php

 

[robgendreau]

What format do you have those addresses in? Some sort of database? I'd look there for solutions first.

I have used RoboPostman by Koingo to do this. http://koingosw.com/products/robopostman.php

It can import from CSV, text or Address Book and is pretty easy to use. But the caveats about bulk mailing others have raised are still important. You can use RoboPostman to delay send, but you really need to check with your ISP about this. It may be impermissible activity.

 

[windowstomac]

I'm with Mal too, the small investment in using something like Constant Contact will save you lots of hassle and the potential of being blacklisted.

 

[Felasco]

I created what may have been the net's first ezine mailer / ezine ad agency back in the 90s, and had an office filled with Macs running the Mac app ListSTAR, which was great at the time. Since discontinued.

Times have changed. The advice above is good. Use one of the pro mailing services listed above. Aweber.com is another.

If you can't make a profit from a $20/month pro mailer account, you're most likely wasting your time sending bulk email.

Here's a stat that might help explain. Over 90%+ of all email traffic on the net is spam. Getting legit mail delivered is now near impossible to do well, even for the pros, given all the obstacles and filters in the way.

Even if you can get the mail to the user's mailbox, the chances of it actually being read are no where near as good as they once were, due to information overload.

Having a pile of addresses is no where good enough anymore.