E-Mail Software and ASPs, Items 1 to 50

I have several favorite e-mail listservers -- for desktop, CGI programs, and ASP hosted applications.

• ASP Hosted Applications -- I recommend Topica Email Publisher and Constant Contact.
• Desktop Applications -- Gammadyne Mailer, a very versatile tool that can use your existing databases and spreadsheets. I've used it for years. Postmaster Express is another powerful tool incorporating a listserver, customer tickler file, forms parsing into a database, and sequential autoresponders. A simpler but powerful program is Infacta GroupMail.
• CGI Programs -- I use AutoResponse Plus as a listserver for my large lists as well as a powerful autoresponder. Highly recommended!

"E-Mail Software and ASPs" includes 134 items
This page contains items 1 to 50

1. Using Gmail For Your Business, by Armando Roggio, Practical eCommerce, 12-28-2009 Explains reasons why Gmail -- both the free and paid business version -- can help businesses. He covers storage amounts, uptime, search of e-mails, chat, threaded structure, support of multiple stores and domains. However the author doesn't like Gmail's HTML weaknesses and slowness.
2. Quantifying the Pass-Along Value of Online Advertising, by Hollis Thomases, ClickZ, 12-29-2009 Meteor Solutions has developed a technology platform that allows media teams to track the performance of paid media with the "organic lift" that occurs by word-of-mouth. Explains how it works, and discusses implications for agencies.
3. Geo-Targeting, Even For Email, by Gavin O'Malley, Media Post, 7-21-2009 Email marketers can now determine the IP address, ISP and latitude/longitude data of recipients, as well as segment data by location or by a specific distance from a particular location, O'Malley reports.
4. Free Tool Lets You Check Whether Your Reverse DNS (rDNS) is Set Up Properly, by Anne P. Mitchell, ISIPP, 4-22-2009 Setting up your reverse DNS (rDNS) is important to deliverability. Tool is available at http://isipp.com/check/revcheck.php
5. An End-to-end View of E-mail, by Christopher Hosford, B to B, 4-20-2009 Today's technology is increasingly enabling commercial e-mail solutions to get "smarter," integrating the formerly siloed marketing channel with other marketing solutions, Hosford writes. The challenge is to make all your tools tie into each other.
6. Shopping Carts: Survey of Merchants Confirms Fractured Market, by Armando Roggio, Practical eCommerce, 3-5-2009 A Feb 09 survey of Practical e-commerce readers found 30 different shopping carts used, with GoDaddy's Quick Shopping Tart (14.1%) on top followed by Yahoo! Merchant Solutions (10.3%), osCommerce (7.7%), Network Solutions, ProStores, CubeCart and 1ShoppingCart each with 7.1%. Discusses the implications of the survey and lessons for merchants.
7. How to Halve Your Email Costs: 10 Tips for Signing with a new Service Provider, by Tamara Gielen, BeRelevant!, 2-27-2009 Give tips on getting the most when selecting an e-mail service provider (EMS). (1) decide what you want first, (2) know how pricing works, (3) ask early and always negotiate down, (4) get your volume commitment right, (5 & 6) ditch the consultancy and training services, (7) ask for a longer contract, (8) ask, "If we sign by the end of the month...?" (9) Ask "Who do you usually pitch against? (10) Speak to other clients, (11) be nice.
8. Cart of the Week: ShopVisible, by Brendan Gibbons, Practical eCommerce, 1-30-2009 Light review of ShopVisible, a SaaS (software as a service) cart that combines marketing, merchandising, content management, and back-office integrations. It's aimed for businesses that do between $500K and $50MM online annually.
9. So Many Choices, So Little Difference: A Five-Point Email Marketing Service Provider Checklist, by Josh Nason, MarketingProfs, 3-18-2008 Points to consider when you are choosing an e-mail service provider (ESP): can you talk to them, what services do they provide, how much does it cost, how do they manage reputation, and… other stuff.
10. Watch for Missteps with New E-mail Marketing Systems, by Derek Harding, ClickZ Experts, 2-21-2008 Get better results from your e-mail marketing campaigns by applying coordinated quality-assurance control to your e-mail delivery system. Suggested checks you can make to ensure that change, complexity and technical errors are not sabotaging your efforts.
11. E-mailers Flunk the Unsubscribe Test, by Stefan Pollard, ClickZ Experts, 12-19-2007 Do you know what your unsubscribe process is doing tonight? Most e-mail marketers have never tested the unsubscribe, let alone optimized it to get valuable information from departing subscribers. They run the risk of violating CAN-SPAM regulations.
12. Lift Your E-mail Performance: Move to an Affordable Top-Tier ESP, by Jeanne Jennings, ClickZ Experts, 11-19-2007 Change over to a top e-mail service provider from a 2nd-tier provider or an in-house solution, and you will likely see an immediate and sustained jump in your opens, click throughs, and other metrics. Illustrated by a case study with statistics.
13. What Do the ISPs Want from You? Check the Web, by Stefan Pollard, ClickZ Experts, 12-5-2007 Comprehensive check-list of the information you should have on hand when you contact a major ISP to try getting your e-mail messages unblocked, along with links to the webmaster info resources of several major services, and tips for keeping out of e-mail delivery trouble.
14. Industry Delivery Benchmarks Are Meaningless, by Stefan Pollard, ClickZ Experts, 11-7-2007 Towards a better understanding of e-mail campaign statistics, this article looks at the key metrics such as open rate, bounces, clicks, and feedback loop complaints, and explains what information you should be looking for from each statistic.
15. What to Look for in a Bulk E-Mail System, by Derek Harding, ClickZ Experts, 10-4-2007 In most situations, it isn't a good idea for a small business to try operating its own e-mail delivery system, as opposed to using a service provider. This article discusses all the subtle details and issues that make bulk mail delivery so difficult for a homegrown system.
16. Putting the Service in E-mail Service Provider, by Al DiGuido, ClickZ Experts, 5-31-2007 When you select an e-mail service provider (ESP), pay as much attention to the marketing savvy and expertise of the candidates as to the technical performance they offer. Their job should be to help you maximize overall campaign performance, not just to deliver messages.
17. Delivering Automated Transactional E-mail, by Derek Harding, ClickZ Experts, 2-22-2007 Automated transactional messages such as subscription confirmations and customer service replies are generally sent by different servers and identities than regular marketing e-mails. Unfortunately, this means that they may be blocked by ISP's, even if your main marketing e-mail system is clean.
18. What to Expect From Your ESP, by Jeanne Jennings, ClickZ Experts, 11-6-2006 Discussion of some of the basic capabilities you should expect and investigate when choosing an e-mail service provider: tracking and reporting, bounce management, support, and compliance.
19. More E-Mail Complaints: It's the ISPs' Fault, by Jack Aaronson, ClickZ Experts, 11-17-2006 When your opt-in e-mail recipient clicks the easy-to-use "spam" button in their e-mail program to unsubscribe from your list, it damages your reputation as a mailer and your deliverability suffers. Reduce false reports by making your unsubscribe process prominent and easy to use.
20. When A Low Bounce Rate Is A Big Problem, by Derek Harding, ClickZ Experts, 10-5-2006 More than you probably want to know about bounced e-mail, and how e-mail service providers handle (or fail to handle) bounce messages. The key points are that you should find out what your e-mail sender does about bounces, analyze delivery rates to spot problems, and get independent verification of your list's deliverability.
21. IntelliContact Delivers on E-Mail Marketing, by Wayne Kawamoto, ECommerce-Guide, 9-12-2006 IntelliContact is a hosted e-mail sending and opt-in subscription management service that provides a rich set of features, including bounce control, scheduled delivery, and survey management. The system works well, and it offers inexpensive, scalable price plans.
22. New E-mail Marketing Software for Outlook Fails to Deliver, by Steve DiPietro, ECommerce-Guide, 7-12-2006 PoliteMail integrates with, and extends the usefulness, of Microsoft Outlook, aiming to turn Outlook into an e-mail marketing tool with features such as tracking and split testing. But it is difficult to use, lacks important features, and has bugs and quirks that limit its value.
23. EzineDesigner, by , , Autoresponder that provides conversion metrics, A/B subject line split testing. Up to 10,000 e-mails $14.95/mo and up.
24. Beyond Outlook: Five Alternative E-Mail Apps, by Cyndy Bates Finnie, et al., TechWeb, 5-11-2006 Reviews of five e-mail application software alternatives to Outlook Express and Office Outlook: Eudora 7.0, Pegasus Mail 4.3, PocoMail 4.1, The Bat! 3.8, and Thunderbird 1.5.
25. A New Outlook on E-Mail Marketing, by Karen Gedney, CllickZ Experts, 5-31-2006 Case study describes how a marketer with an opt-in list of 2,000 is able to carry out quite sophisticated mailings and analysis using Microsoft Outlook, augmented by PoliteMail service.
26. The Tide Is Turning for Authentication, by Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald, ClickZ Experts, 4-26-2006 E-mail authentication is rapidly gaining momentum amongst commercial senders, ISPs, and corporate recipients. As an e-mail marketer, you must adopt one of the two leading authentication protocols - SenderID framework (SIDF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) - or your messages may languish in the bulk folder.
27. E-Mail: Art or Science? Redux, by Jeanniey Mullen, ClickZ Experts, 5-1-2006 Many experienced e-mail marketers find that search boxes and interactive scripts within e-mail messages generate great attention and click through. But testing shows that many forms and all scripts are disabled by ISPs. Suggestions for dealing with the realities of deliverability vs. interactive functions.
28. Cool New Toys For E-mail Marketing, by David Baker, Media Post, 3-27-2006 Reviews 3 tools for e-mail marketers: E-mail Analyst; visual rendering tools from companies such as Lyris, PivotalVeracity, and ReturnPath; tools from new companies that will enable you to view your deliverability reputation and compare it to standards.
29. Mapping the E-Mail Deliverability Chain, by Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald, ClickZ Experts, 3-15-2006 What stands between sending out your marketing e-mails, and subscribers actually reading your messages? At least 20 hurdles and roadblocks, according to this analysis of the process. Brief descriptions of each issue and how it impacts deliverability.
30. Is Your IP Address Whitelisted?, by Neil Anuskiewicz, MarketingProfs, 4-4-2006 One common reason for low delivery rates of commercial e-mail is that the IP address you are sending from (your web host, or your e-mail service provider) is blacklisted, likely due to the actions of another marketer sharing the same address. Steps you can take to avoid this problem.
31. Tying it All Together, by Carol Krol, B to B, 2-13-2006 With the endless fragmentation of media channels and long selling cycles typical in b-to-b, advises marketers to use integrated, consistent messaging to customers across channels over a set period of time. Reviews services.
32. Beyond Deliverability, by Pamela Parker, ClickZ Experts, 2-10-2006 AOL's intention to use the Goodmail system of fee-based assured commercial e-mail delivery has got tongues wagging in the e-mail marketing industry. Most of the talk is strongly opposed to the idea, but there are some benefits that marketers shouldn't ignore.
33. eMill E-mailing Software, by , Active+ Software, Desktop software includes built-in WYSIWYG HTML editor. Can connect to your data sources by ODBC without having to import data. Message personalization, message tracking, multi-channel extensions. $499 and up.
34. SendBlaster E-Mail Software, by Raffaele Serusi, eDisplay srl, Desktop e-mailer with WYSIWYG HTML editor, personalization, subscribe/unsubscribe, supports non-Latin alphabet, import/export data, HTML and text. $75.
35. Forrester Evaluates E-mail Providers, by Karen J. Bannan, B to B, 1-13-2006 Provides highlights of study of e-mail service providers, describing several leaders, second-tier leaders and strong performers..
36. Transitions: A Guide to Switching E-Mail Technologies, by Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald, ClickZ Experts, 1-18-2006 Switching e-mail service providers or platforms: it isn't easy, and it isn't for the faint of heart. This checklist identifies and discusses a dozen issues to attend to in order to smooth the transition.
37. Dynamic E-Mail Messaging Demystified, Part 1, by Derek Harding, ClickZ Experts, 1-26-2006 To implement dynamic e-mail messaging, you need an e-mail platform that can be customized. This article explains 4 customization mechanisms: segmentation, variable substitution, conditional blocks, and content insertion. Pros and cons of each method.
38. The E-Mail Chicken or the E-Mail Egg?, by Jeanniey Mullen, ClickZ Experts, 12-12-2005 Many marketers don't use powerful features of their e-mail delivery systems, such as segmented campaigns, dynamic content blocks, response-based-triggered messaging, and surveys. Are you one of them? And if so, why?
39. ESPs: Is Bigger Really Better?, by Derek Harding, ClickZ Experts, 12-29-2005 David vs. Goliath, the small e-mail service provider vs the big guns. This commentary recognizes the technical strengths and capabilities of very large e-mailing firms, but touts the advantages of smaller providers: more flexible, quicker to introduce new capabilities, more attentive to the requirements of smaller clients.
40. The Blurry Line Between E-Mail Marketing and Spam, by Jay Lyman, E-Commerce Times, 1-5-2006 E-mail service provider Lyris is teaming up with anti-spam software developer Mailshell to offer a spam-fighting system for large commercial e-mailers that will reduce delivery failures by rewarding the sender for good behavior.
41. Follow Up Autoresponder Pro, by , Scripts4webmasters.com, E-mail auto responder written with PHP and MySQL.
42. Why Do Marketers Still Send Newsletters?, by Stephan Pretorius, iMedia Connection, 12-5-2005 While newsletters are quite useful in B2B marketing, Pretorius says they are a particularly poor format for consumer communications. Suggests a technology solution to send "unique emails at different intervals to different users 365/24/7."
43. E-Mail Headers: Where the Action Is, by Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald, ClickZ Experts, 10-26-2005 What e-mail marketers need to know about the technical subject of e-mail message headers, and how the hidden data in the header affects the deliverability (and success) of e-mail marketing pieces.
44. Does Size Matter for ESPs?, by Rebecca Lieb, ClickZ Experts, 10-28-2005 The landscape of e-mail service providers is changing rapidly due to mergers and acquisitions. Discussion of how this may impact marketers, focusing on the relative advantages and disadvantages of large vs. small providers.
45. How to Win the E-mail Marketing Campaign, by Jennifer Schiff, Small Business Computing, 10-18-2005 Designed specifically for small businesses, both FileMaker and Constant Contact provide easy-to-use templates and tools that allow you to compose, send and track e-mail campaigns that get top results without hurting your bottom line.
46. E-Mail Bounce Management, Simplified, by Derek Harding, ClickZ Experts, 10-6-2005 Discussion of bounce management, and why it is difficult for e-mail delivery software to distinguish between various kinds of bounce messages. With a suggested rule of thumb for simplifying the process of weeding genuinely dead addresses out of your list.
47. Your Name in Pictures: Personalization's Wow Image, by Karen Gedney, ClickZ Experts, 7-27-2005 Case study of a successful e-mailing that carries personalization to a new level by creating a personalized image (a pseudo Post-It note with the recipients name hand-written in this example) on the fly, from mail list data.
48. A Quick Intro To Individualized Lifecycle Marketing, by Scott Olrich, Messaging Pipeline, 8-8-2005 Discusses how PETCO, a large pet specialty retailer, improved the relevance, and ultimately the results, of its e-mail marketing campaigns through Individualized Lifecycle Marketing
49. Variable Image Doctoring Is the Latest in Personalized Publishing, by Charles Pickett, Publish, 7-8-2005 Describes software allowing publishers to design 1 to 1 marketing pieces, where a name or logo looks like it is part of an actual photograph in e-mails, Web pages, printed documents or on cell phones.
50. Making Every E-Mail Moment Count, by David Baker, Media Post, 5-2-2005 As e-mail marketers Baker says we have a matter of moments to make a lasting and favorable impression. Provides insights on selecting an e-mail vendor.