What do you use for direct mail management?

Omgoozle · #1 11-17-2014

I've been manually handling an email list of over 12,000 addresses of previous buyers. Every 2-3 weeks I send out a blast email directing them to my personal website, but doing it manually is getting tiring.

I can't find a service that charges an "OK" amount of money for mailing lists of this size. Mailchimp I think is the cheapest, and even then their prices are ridiculous.

Any input or advice?

Blighty · #2 11-17-2014

I was using phplist till my host got sniffy and banned it and demanded I upgrade to a dedicated server account for a 7.5k list sent 3 times a year, told em to stuff it so an also looking for somewhere reasonable to host it again. Will have to research it soon and find somewhere what with Xmas coming

rsot · #3 11-18-2014

12000 addresses - wow

Mrjame · #4 11-18-2014

You can try SendInBlue https://www.sendinblue.com/ , with free plan you have up to 9,000 per month. The next is $7.37 then you will have 40,000 per month. It is cheaper than Mailchimp.

GreenBean · #5 11-18-2014

Sendinblue is buggy

jeffweico · #6 11-18-2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blighty

I was using phplist till my host got sniffy and banned it and demanded I upgrade to a dedicated server account for a 7.5k list sent 3 times a year, told em to stuff it so an also looking for somewhere reasonable to host it again. Will have to research it soon and find somewhere what with Xmas coming

Were you on a host for a website, or on a VPS? The workload generated by this program might be a bit much if you are sharing the server with a thousand other websites, so if that is the case your host may have had a legitimate gripe. But a VPS should be able to handle it without much of an issue. I need be, you could split the list into 2 or 3 smaller lists. And a VPS isn't too expensive. A $15 per month host should be able to do it.

I am NOT a tech guru, but this simple program shouldn't require a full blown dedicated server. Maybe others will chime in, I could be missing something.

jeffweico · #7 11-18-2014

In fact, I just looked into this and the people who wrote phplist have a hosting option that is not too expensive. A package that allows 15,000 emails per month is €24.99 which is $31.28 in dollars. It could be worth the small extra cost because of their expertise.

https://www.phplist.com/hosted