As an email hosting company, our customers and prospects are always asking us if they can send bulk email through our email hosting system. But in order to protect the integrity of our network, and because we don’t currently support things like one-click unsubscribe, bounced messages, and other features needed to be CAN-SPAM compliant, we’ve always said no. And our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) backs up that stance.
We’re not the only email company or ISP to have a strict AUP, and for good reason. But the reality is that businesses still want to communicate with customers, prospects, vendors, partners, etc., via email. They want to be able to send emails to a lot of people at one time. And I’m not talking about spammers. In fact, even here at Webmail, we’ve run up against our own AUP and we’ve had to concoct crazy one-off solutions just to be able to email our customers.
So without further ado, I would like to formally announce that we’re currently developing the first version of our email marketing service, codenamed Outreach. As per our normal way of doing things, we plan to release version 1.0 and then continue to improve the service from there. This service will be completely legitimate and we’re going to be very strict about what can and cannot be sent out (i.e., spam, of any sort, will not be tolerated and will not make it out of our system).
In the coming weeks, I will post more details as to the features that will be included in version 1.0, as well as the associated pricing. In the meantime, please feel free to comment on this blog or add ideas to Idea Central to let us know what you would like to see built into this service. You can also email us directly if you’d like an early version of the service.
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Email Marketing: The Right Way to Send Bulk Email
16 Responses to “Email Marketing: The Right Way to Send Bulk Email”
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Excellent news! Here are two use cases I’d like to use this type of service for:
1. Getting over the 250-automated email limit in your AUP. When we release a new version of our software we need to make the release known to our users who have maintenance. These are legit customers and we have an automated system to handle the type of email based on our customer database.
2. Mass mailing legit beta testers who have provided us with their email address with a coupon code (their reward) for beta-testing the product.
I’d prefer to do this via “massmail@domain.com”, but I could live with doing it via “massmail@subdomain.domain.com” or “massmail@domainvariation.com” too.
Is this something your new service could handle? Thanks!
“Happy” – The new email marketing service will be able to do both things you mentioned.
Excellent, I look forward to hearing more about the service in the coming weeks.
Awsome! I saw in your AUP build mail wasn’t allowed so we had to use an “other” method (off webmailus of course), but it isn’t a permanent solution.
Can’t wait to use Outreach!
How will this compare with services that provide statistics on who receives, opens and forwards the e-mail messages? I was using such a service to deliver a free electronic newsletter to subscribers and found the statistics useful, but I found that more and more of my subscribers’ spam filters were blocking delivery. Now I use listserve, but I don’t know who is reading the mail.
Curious: we’ll be implementing statistics so you can keep track email campaigns and we’ll be working hard to ensure the highest possible deliverability rates. I hope this helps.
We have a separate opt-in system under development. Will webmail require us to use the webmail opt-in system for outreach, or can we certify that opt-in policies have been followed?
Reynolds,
You can use your own opt-in system. We will not force you to use our opt-in system.
Thanks,
Kevin
Will we be able to use WebMail’s SMTP server to send out the mass mailings?
We have clients (some of whom we’ve setup with WebMail.us) that use a membership management system that can do opt-in mass emailing, but it requires an SMTP server.
Hi -
Are you planning for integration with existing databases / SOAP APIs?
Thank you
We already pay for 110 Webmail.us mailboxes, and have been very pleased with the service. Our company would also like to send mass email to our customers/prospects, however, since we are already paying you for the current service I feel as though there shouldn’t be an extra charge.
Please don’t turn into one of those companies that offer a service for one price, and better service for a higher price.
I understand your concern. However, email marketing is a completely different service and there will be a price associated with using that service. Sending bulk email is something that unfortunately, people have taken for granted over the years. But, it is very challenging for a service provider like us to provide these capabilities and provide them the “right way”. We have to develop special software, set up a totally separate infrastructure hosting platform, monitor everything that goes out, deepen relationships with ISPs, and more than anything, we estimate that the cost to support email marketing customers will be as high, if not higher, than the cost to support email hosting customers. Not to mention the cost prohibits anyone that would want to send spam through our system, something we simply cannot tolerate.
I also want to make a point about this comment:
“Please don’t turn into one of those companies that offer a service for one price, and better service for a higher price.”
We work very hard to put our best foot forward, always. We’re constantly improving our products and services, adding features, responding to customer requests, etc. And we have never raised prices. In fact, in the last year we essentially lowered our prices by increasing everyone’s storage 10-fold.
We are very sensitive to this type of behavior and we’re doing our best to make the right decisions for our customers and our business. We will continue to do just that.
Thank you for your comment. It is a good one and one I’m sure we’ll have to address many times.
Will this service be available for resellers and how soon will you be launching the service for resellers?
Thanks.
Yes, this service will definitely be available for resellers. We are currently beta testing with our small business clients and plan to offer a similar testing period for resellers in the coming weeks. We will launch the service for resellers shortly after.
Just a comment about your new email marketing service. It sounds good from what we have read and is something we will definitely consider.
As a small business catering for the short term accommodation needs of visitors to Melbourne (Australia), we are pleased with the level of service provided by your organisation.
We are pleased with the prompt attention to our queries, regardless of when the query was made. Something vital to a small business such as ours.
We expect your new email marketing service will also be up to your usual high standard.
Look forward to using it.
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Shortgetaway
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.