Email Marketing: How to Send to a Large Mailing List

I've worked for the past three years at a decent sized very reputable hosting provider here in the UK, I frequently see people having issues sending out to large lists and people blindly trying to do it via their standard shared hosting accounts so I though I'd post up a little information on the best way to go about doing it.

If you want me to explain anything further, please pipe up in this discussion or just PM me; I'm more than happy to answer any questions.

Step 1: Gather details of your list and have them to hand, you'll need to make a few enquiries with your web-hosting provider or potential providers; how large is your list, is it and opt-in list, how're you sending it out (via mail software, Outlook, etc...?).

Step 2: Ascertain exactly how you're sending mail to your list; ideally you'd use proper email marketing software such Dada Mail (http://dadamailproject.com/) or PHPList (http://www.phplist.com/).

Step 3: Select your mail sending provider. Things are pretty simple if you choose to send out via a dedicated SMTP service provider (please recommend below), though it can get pricey. For lists that're <10,000 addresses in size it is always worth asking your website hosting provider what limits they have in place, whether they perhaps have an SMTP server you can use for free (you'll be surprised, most do to ensure their hosting servers don't land on blacklists) and if they have limits in place what they are (hourly sending rates, etc...).

Step 4: ALWAYS setup bounce processing. This is extremely important list management that MUST be done, always. This ensures that email addresses that are no longer available, are constantly full or actively reject your messages get removed from your email list automatically; this ensures your list remains a high quality list (and also wont get you in trouble with your hosting provider).

How to setup Bounce Handling in Dada Mail (http://dadamailproject.com/support/documentation-dada-2_10_16/dada_bounce_handler.pl.html) and PHPList (http://docs.phplist.com/PhpListConfigBounces).

Step 5: Understand the time-frames involved when sending out to your list; you cannot simply hit "send" on an email heading to 20,000 recipients and expect it to land into their inboxes within the minute. Based on the limits in place on your sending servers and the speed of the mailing script, you should be able to calculate roughly how long it'll take a list to send to all recipients.

For truly instant mass marketing, Twitter or other social media is a much better option.

Step 6: TRACK your results! Ensure the site/offer you're trying to push traffic to has proper tracking put in place either with Google Analytics or Piwik (open source G.Analytics, better IMO); you should be tracking goals to give you an insight into what percentage of the traffic is converting into sales/enquiries, that way you know how effective your marketing efforts are truly being.

Thats it!

I hope someone out there finds this useful, though let me know if you want me to elaborate on any key areas and I'll head in and edit this with more useful information.

Cheers,
K

 

thanks so much for this! great info!

 

Hi, You can try with the bulk mailing software to send mass mails.

 

Hi there.
Sending mail is the easy bit so long as adequate resources are available and used. It is selecting the right list to mail to that tends to be the sticking point. For instance if you don't own your own huge list there are literally dozens of list owners only too willing to hire theirs out and at very competitive rates. BUT they are so ruthlessly used that, to be frank, are useless or at best provide a very poor return on the hire costs.

I many peoples view the best way to handle large lists is to build your own and there a so many different techniques available now is is mind boggling. OR you can actually buy a list but then you are most likely to buy one of the abused and worn out lists anyway.

Depending on your needs you should do as many thousands of others do and visit an Email list marketing expert. I know it worked for me.

 

We can send a large mailing list within a few second by using software. You can send an email to large distribution list using the Bigmail service. The fee for using Bigmail is $26, which can be paid with a departmental intramural or charged to the sender's U-Bill.

 

uf, thanks for this, I was gonna do it on my own server, but I better check with my ISP tomorrow