Title: Delivering Your Email Newsletter
Author: Robert F. Abbott
Summary: Finding your way through the delivery choices for an email
newsletter or ezine can be a big job. But, be grateful for the choices,
and use free versions to find out which works best for you.
Keywords: email, e-mail, newsletters, email newsletter, delivery,
delivering, Abbott
Author Email: robert@abbottletter.com
Author photo: http://www.managersguide.com/images/r-abbott.jpg
Web location: http://www.communication-newsletter.com/delivery.html
Length: 747 words (including byline)
Terms: This article may be used in online or offline publications,
provided the content and the byline are used as provided. Notification
of use is appreciated but not required.
Delivering Your Email Newsletter
By: Robert F. Abbott
After creating your email newsletter, you face the challenge of
delivery. With a printed newsletter, there's usually only one method of
widespread distribution: the post office.
Fortunately, though, publishers of email newsletters have several
choices. Let's now work our way through this small jungle, and try to
remember that although these choices force us to do extra research,
they also give us many more options than we have with printed
newsletters.
The first choice is between manual and automated mail management. The
manual approach is how many, if not most, email newsletters get
started. And, it's a good system as long as the mailing list remains
small, say something less than 100 or 200 names (depending on how
efficient you are at managing your email program). You can do this with
an email program like Outlook Express or Eudora.
But, if your list is growing, you'll soon grow impatient with the
amount of time it takes to manually add and remove subscribers, as well
as to send the newsletter. For example, you might need to divide your
list into parts, and send out a series of mailings rather than just
one, to keep the size down.
That's when it's time to check out the automated approach, using
mailing list managers. These programs and services come in several
forms. By the way -- and you'll need to know this when you go looking
for an automated service -- the difference between an announcement
list and a discussion list.
An announcement list is essentially one way, which takes in most
regular newsletters, or ezines. You are the only person allowed to send
a message to the people who have subscribed. You're also probably the
only person who knows the email addresses of the subscribers.
However, if you want to make it interactive, with recipients allowed to
post contributions, as well as receive them, then you need a discussion
list. For most of us, though, an announcement list is the best starting
point for a newsletter.
Now, if you have chosen to automate, you need to decide whether you
want to do it yourself, or have someone else do it for you. If you plan
to do it yourself, then you need a dedicated mailing list program. A
couple of well-known providers are Dada Mail and MailLoop. To find
other mailing programs, enter the phrase "mailing software" (with or
without the quotation marks) in a search engine.
Of course, it's much easier to have someone else do the mailing for
you, and that's where we're going next, since few of us have the
expertise or time to do it ourselves.
Full service providers take care of all, or almost all the work for
you. You fill in a few forms, make a few choices, and then they take
over and do the rest. Those duties include adding and removing names,
sending the mail, and handling mail that can't be delivered (expect as
many as 5% of messages to 'bounce' back after each mailing, once your
list begins to grow).
So, if you've decided to use a full service provider, you next have to
decide whether to use a free service or pay-for-service provider.
Again, free generally works well when your list is small, and grows
more problematic as the number of subscribers increases.
Free services offer many of the same services as the commercial
services, but don't charge a fee. The catch? They place an ad in your
e-mail newsletter. If you sell advertising the free service takes away
a revenue spot. Or they restrict the number of subscribers or the
number of mailouts. Services I've used include Topica, MailerMailer,
and at the moment, I use ResponseBot. Again, you can find other
services by using a search engine or directory.
One of the great advantages of using free services is the opportunity
to try out different services before making a commitment. Test drive
each one for a few issues to find out whether or not you like it, then
make your choice.
Summing up, finding your way through the delivery choices can be a big
job. But, be grateful for the choices, and use free versions to find
out which works best for you.
Robert F. Abbott, the author of A Manager's Guide to Newsletters:
Communicating for Results, writes and publishes Abbott's Communication
Letter. Read more articles about Internet communication, as well as
email and printed newsletters at:
http://www.communication-newsletter.com/ic.html
