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I have a custom CMS for my customers. That's because most of my clients are in a specific market (film industry) and need very specific tools.

But they also need to send newsletters. I did create some basic WYSIWYG HTML editor and managed to create a send out script with PHPMailer.

Everyone else seams to use MailChimp. Why? What are the reasons to use mail chimp over a custom made script?

  • How does it affect reader's compatibility (and does it?)
  • How does it affect spam blocking?

I've always thought sending e-mails through the original server was the way to go to avoid having a senders' mail not having the same reverse domain name.

Wouldn't it be better to simply create a clean inline css and send it out by connecting to the local SMTP server? No cost, no mail chimp monkey ad, etc.

Edit: This is not for the purposes of sending spam and most of my customers only have lists between 100 and 1500 recipients, they are all professional mails (film making industry). It is not about how to send 100K e-mails.

halfer
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Vincent Duprez
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  • [This answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/3905805/472495) is the reason why `:=)` - the bottom line is that email is hard to do well. I am sure you can remove third-party sender adverts if you pay a fee to use the service. Note there are loads of mail sender services, so compare the offering from each. – halfer Feb 26 '14 at 10:17
  • @halfer really not, I added an edit to my post to make things clearer. thanks for the closing vote :) – Vincent Duprez Feb 26 '14 at 10:26
  • I still think it is a duplicate. That answer _perfectly_ explains why you should not do it yourself. Don't get distracted by the fact the OP in the other question wanted to send much greater volumes - that's not relevant, imo. – halfer Feb 26 '14 at 10:39

1 Answers1

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Strictly speaking there is no reason you can't do what Mailchimp (and others) are offering. However they do tend to make it a lot easier to work with.

They all have their different approaches, but they tend to speed up development of complicated mail campaigns and allow them to be managed better. This is particularly true of HTML emails, which can be an absolute time sink to get right on all browser & mail client combinations. (Gmail on IE8-11, Mail app on iOs, Outlook on Mac... etc. etc.)

I'm speaking specifically of Mailchimp here, but this should apply to many others:

  • Templates. They provide HTML email templates to get your designs started. This can avoid a lot of subtle errors in HTML mails.

  • Device preview. They provide a preview service to display your mail on a large number of devices & mail clients. So you don't have to go through them all yourself.

  • Opt out service built in. In Europe at least all marketing emails must have a link to unsubscribe from the mailing list. It's a legal requirement that can bite you and they handle this neatly. The link is always embedded and you can't accidentally re-add someone when you create another list.

  • Scale. They are built to sent lots and lots of mail. This can reduce the load on your servers and keep them from falling over. It can be particularly useful to make sure mail gets delivered quickly and doesn't sit around in a mail-queue.

  • Management. You can set up the campaign (as a developer) and hand over to the marketer(/someone else) to manage the campaign. => More time on SO for you!

  • Spam. They may come with an anti spam tool to check your mail before it's sent out. Not foolproof, but handy before you spend your money on a campaign.

This may sound like an endorsement for Mailchimp, but any of these kinds of services will do much the same. There are many of them so shop around and find the best fit for you. My main point here is don't re-invent the wheel. Emails may seem simple, but can get complicated fast.

halfer
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Barry Hennessy
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  • "Emails may seem simple, but can get complicated fast." I know, I'm having trouble with outlook 2007, it relies on Word html engine, so it is full of non standard ms property code. I wonder if mail chimp & others are compatible. I'll have a try – Vincent Duprez Feb 26 '14 at 11:05
  • @VincentDuprez It looks like it has some support for Outlook: https://blog.mailchimp.com/preview-your-emails-on-mobile-screens-and-30-email-readers/ <- also a good example of how complicated things can get! – Barry Hennessy Feb 26 '14 at 11:23
  • @VincentDuprez compatibility is all in your email html. You can design a compatible or incompatible email on any platform. It simply takes a skilled email designer to address the quirks of each email client and navigate through the minefield. – John Feb 26 '14 at 16:29
  • @John Sure, but I wonder if mail chimp does more than inlining css. if it does some core html modifications. – Vincent Duprez Feb 27 '14 at 09:34
  • @Vincent It doesn't. If you upload html, that is exactly what it will send with the exception of merge tags, tracking, and if you have a free account, their logo at the bottom. – John Feb 27 '14 at 13:08
  • @John is right. You get templates that have been compatibility tested but once you modify them you're on your own. – Barry Hennessy Feb 27 '14 at 13:46
  • The problem with MailChimp is that you need to subscribe your list, no? What if I need to send to 500-600 emails only once? – Yannis Dran Nov 24 '15 at 18:10
  • @YannisDran I'd still use a provider of some sort. Rolling your own will always cost you in terms of time and complexity of building and testing the html, tracking the campaign, customising the templates per user etc etc. Mailchimp mightn't be the most appropriate service in that case, but would still work. I'd shop around the providers. – Barry Hennessy Nov 25 '15 at 11:37
  • @BarryHennessy at first I thought that setting up a newsletter with contacts derived from, let's say, Outlook is not possible as these contacts haven't sign up for a newsletter. But now, I investigated a bit, and I see this might be possible. – Yannis Dran Nov 25 '15 at 17:09