Can't seem to find the 'right' email marketing service.

It seems the trend for email marketing service is to go with a hosted solution and over a monthly subscription. This is find for people with small lists that they hit frequently, but it doesn't work for me.

I have a big list, over 100k that I only hit a few times a year. Maintaing that list on ConstantContact, BigResponse or the other monthly services would cost over $100 a month, even when I don't send a single email.

So I think a self contained software solution would work best, that I can setup to send through my own server. The problem is, there is too many options out there, ranging from free and open source, which makes me weary, too over $500 which makes it difficult to commit to, knowing how often I've changed solutions in the past.

Any reviews out there of software solutions are just affiliate grabs or really old.

So is there anyone out there in a similar position as me, or can reccomend a software solution that really works for them?

Many thanks!

 

There are email marketing services that provide also another type of billing. When you send emails, you're billed. If you don't do anything, you're not billed. If you're interested, check the market and you'll find such service.

 

But still hitting 100k+ emails is more expensive that software based solutions. I really don't want to be limited in what I can do because it cost $200 each time to hit my list.

 

That's perfectly right.

 

We use Interspire and love it. We also looked at the solution by the maker of Trio Help Desk. Both solid solutions and would solve your problem.

 

I too have a list of over 140K addresses. I use Atomic mail sender and have been using it for a long time. The version I have does not track open or read receipts. However there is a feature that allow the program to remove failures, and replies with remove or unsubscribe in the subject.

I host several domains with media temple on a DV plan. My costs are $42 a month for 3 IP's and up to 30 domains. With this plan there is no limit on the number of outbound emails. I easily send all 140K in about 4 hours. Response often bogs my server down considerably if I mail during business hours. So I set it and forget before going to bed. In the morning I run the unsubscribe features in Atomic, then check how many orders i have.

You can import CSV, remove dupes, and use the full blown built-in html editor to design your message.

Good luck