Mailing list software - recommendations?

[Dcmtr]

I produce HTML marketing emails for my client which they currently send out by maintaining a list of addresses (around 1,000 at the moment) in Excel and pasting them into Outlook.

They may wish to get me to take care of this for them and perhaps it could be done using a more sophisticated method.

I want something that will send out the HTML emails for me, automatically process subscribe and unsubscribe requests (but also allow me to add and remove entries manually, e.g. through a web interface and if pos by uploading CSV files), and I guess it would be nice if the software also outputted some kind of stats.

I know there are various bits of software and subscription services that do this kind of thing. Can anyone recommend one that is easy to use and not too expensive? NB it is stricltly opt-in marketing lest you suspect I am some kind of spammer!

Thanks,
David

[Hutchy]

You may already know about this, but I would recommend Email Newsletter Software for Web Designers - Campaign Monitor - you pay for the service but its more than worth it for the features. They also have very good newsletter templates.

[Dcmtr]

Thanks for this, I have been playing around with it just now, and it's excellent.

Especially like the tool for converting CSS to be purely inline - I've always wished there was something that did that!

I have been researching these email services a bit since the original post. A subscription one is fine but at 1 cent a post this one is rather expensive which is a pity.

It's good that they don't offer design services as well however unlike some of these companies - don't want them stealing my clients.

[Image Resolutions]

never had a use for this feature but I'm sure outlook can do this although it may be a fully manual approach to add/remove subscriptions.

[Dcmtr]

If you are interested, I'll tell you the problems with this:

Outlook can't do it, at all.

Weirdly, Outlook Express can.

However:

- The stupid large organisations I work with are only able to use email through Outlook.
- There are various idiosyncracies to do with how OE and various mail servers handle HTML email
- When you have thousands of people to mail, spread across different mailing lists, sending them out and processing unsubscribes is a *massive* pain in the arse.

[Image Resolutions]

Which bit are you saying can't be done, all of it or just the add/remove bit?
As outlook can make a distribution list which is the same as a mailing list - link to how to

I think theres plugins available for the add/remove by the looks of google, like I said I haven't got a need for it so am not fully upto speed on it though.

[Dcmtr]

The bit I meant is HTML - Outlook has no bit where you can input it.

Thanks for the link anyway, could be handy, will check it out.

If anyone else is interested in this I have just come across Email Marketing Software - Your Mailing List Provider as well which is a subscription one but v v cheap

[gononny]

i can write a php code for news letter if you are interested....

[brinny]

Hi there

In my experience there are several online applications out there (open-source based). An applications which i have used before is sugar crm this also allows you to manage the client base.

Regards