Hello; I know this sounds like a bit of a technical question, but I suspect the marketing people are going to be the ones that know the answer. I've got my site up and running, I'm up at the #2 position on Google for searches for my name, which is quite good considering I share the same name as a famous recently deceased sports player. I'm ready to start gathering addresses from my web site and starting a list. From a technical standpoint, I can easily run a mailing list with double opt-in, donotmail list, etc. My question here is for people that have experience with using mailing lists for marketing. Is there any real world difference in deliverable for messages sent from your own server vs those sent from a well know list company such as aweber.com ? Since I can host a list on my own server for no added cost, would I have any marketing benefit from using a mailing list provider (such as reduced accidental spam filter hits). Thanks Jamie
Paying the extra costs are worth it, and it isn't even close. If you are going to send the email from your own server, I am guessing that a large % is going to be labeled as spam. If you go with one of the big guys (I have had nothing but positive experiences with iContact), you will be much more likely to land in the inbox, not to mention access to a whole lot of other great features that will pay for themselves if you are doing it right.
Although I guess you may don't need my opinion, but i still want to tell you is that the second benefit of using a professional service is it can save you a lot of time. Hope this can help.