Bulk email software, though never to be used for spamming, has many great benefits for traditional businesses, online marketers, and non-profits when used responsibly. It is truly an amazingly effective way to communicate with customers, clients, and supporters, but is not without its challenges to the newbie.

If you are new to email marketing, you need to learn everything you can about it before taking the plunge and spending your hard earned capital on bulk email software packages that won't work for your needs. Many software packages are clearly deceptive in their claims, and you can waste hundreds of dollars on email software that simply doesn't work–or for which you'd need an IT degree, or hundreds of dollars in technical support consulting fees to make it work.

You can avoid hundreds of mistakes made by new email marketers by doing your research first, and learning about the benefits and pitfalls of various bulk email software packages and solutions.

Types of Bulk Email Delivery Solutions

There are at least two main categories for bulk email delivery solutions:

1. Desktop Email Solutions
2. Hosted Email Solutions

Desktop Email Solutions

Desktop email software is by far the most popular–you can find commercial, shareware, or free bulk email software downloads everywhere on the Internet. But unfortunately, desktop bulk emailers rarely get the job done. Experience shows that they do little more than discourage the owner from developing their email communication skills, because the results are generally so poor.

First, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) will not take kindly to using their email servers to deliver bulk email, even if it is an entirely legal, permission-based email campaign. You could find yourself banned from your ISP, and this in not uncommon.

ISPs have correctly taken tough steps to stop the problem of illegal and unethical spam delivery over their networks. They almost always place severe limits on the amount of connections (called "relays") that can be initiated, meaning your mail delivery can be slow if it goes through at all.

Second, since any kind of bulk email delivered through any major ISP is bound to get flagged as spam eventually (whether it truly is or not), your successful mail delivery rate will be severely reduced. Perhaps you have a customer list that you've spent hours compiling from back records, which can be a completely legitimate list to mail to. However, the mere quantify of email relays will flag your mail delivery as spam, and it won't get delivered. It may leave your outbox, but it won't arrive in your recipient's inbox.

It is possible to find software that attempts to get around these limitations by acting as its own SMTP server, or by spoofing someone else's SMTP server. These also come with high risks, both in terms of low mail delivery rates, and legal compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. Any kind of mail delivery that uses faked headers, faked email senders, or other faked fields, can run afoul of the law and get you into severe legal trouble.

ISPs are stepping up their efforts to prosecute spammers who fake their mail delivery settings to get around ISP rules. In our opinin, desktop bulk email software is simply not worth the risk. For the serious marketer with a serious business or communication agenda (churches, ministries, and non-profits can use email newsletters successfully as well), a hosted solution is the only way to go.

Hosted Email Solutions

With a hosted email newsletter delivery system (meaning it is web-based rather, not desktop bulk email software for Windows or Mac OSX), your delivery rates will be much higher, and in general, your response rates will be higher as a result. Since a successful email campaign relies on people actually reading your emails, appreciating the content you provide, and responding favorably to it, hosted bulk mail delivery solutions are more likely to get the job done.

There are some other tools for web-hosted email newsletter management as well that are generally superior to desktop solutions:

1. List management functions
2. CAN-SPAM Act compliance
3. Website integration
4. Professional looking newsletters
5. Drip marketing features

List Management Functions

List management functions in a web-based email delivery system are generally much better than those in stand alone email software. Subscribe and unsubscribe requests can be handled automatically, whereas these functions are often quirky, unreliable, or non-existent in normal desktop software.

In an increasingly regulated legal environment, where lawsuits against unethical bulk emailers are increasingly likely, it behooves you to be a responsible mailer and make sure your list management is fully automated. Anytime your system requires human intervention–i.e., remembering to delete a user, keeping track of the time and date of opt-ins, etc.–it is subject to a potential lawsuit if you fail to do those routine tasks.

One of the downsides of desktop list management functions is that it often requires your computer to be on during mail delivery and subscribe/unsubscribe requests. So if you mail to your list and shut down your computer, some desktop software won't reliably accept those unsubscribe requests.

CAN-SPAM Act Compliance

One of the keys to CAN-SPAM Act compliance is meticulously providing accurate information about you, the sender, to the recipient, and keeping accurate records of opt-in and opt-out dates. A hosted solution usually is set up to allow you to protect yourself from mistakes, and keep your campaign ethical and legal.

Website Integration

With a hosted bulk email solution, your opt-in and opt-out tasks can be easily integrated with your existing website. You can easily set up custom thank you pages, error pages, etc. Custom Flash subscribe modules can placed your site to entice your current website visitors to sign up and stay in touch with you for years.

Professional Looking Newsletters

Drip marketing features

A drip marketing campaign (also called an autoresponder) differes from a normal newsletter in that it is a series of emails that go out to individual subscribers over a period of time. A newsletter goes out to the entire list at once.

On a drip system, a user can get an immediate email with a link to a free download (great for enticing a user to opt in to your list). Then they can be sent a pre-set series of emails after one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year, etc. These can be set as frequently or as infrequently as you want.

Drip marketing is an incredibly powerful way to communicate with your customers, clients, and supporters, because you create the messages and rules once, and walk away from it. It becomes an automatic marketing machine, with your web-based email system doing all the scheduling for you.

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