Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

I would say to most likely want a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, which just means a web-based service for your email marketing.

There are a number of services out there and if you do a search for email marketing in your favorite search engine you will find a number of choices. You can evaluate what features and benefits each offer, and then maybe even do a free trial of a few and choose the one that meets your needs most closely.

There are a lot of choices.

The lowest rung is using a program such as Entourage or Mac OS X Mail to send out your emails. This isn't ideal, since you'll be tempted to use Bcc to send out all the emails at once.

The next step up is using a bulk emailer programs (https://www.maxprog.com/site/software/internet-marketing/mass-bulk-emailer_... or https://ethreesoftware.com/directmail/). This allows you to send an email at-a-time to your email list. HTML, Rich Text, or plain text are all supported.

Finally, a contact manager/SaaS solution (https://www.myemma.com/, https://www.constantcontact.com/, https://www.streamsend.com/, etc.) for web-based control. The major benefit of these services are templates and in some cases, dedicated IP addresses. Dedicated addresses are most useful to ensure your emails aren't blocked because of another user using the same IP address.

I agree with the previous posters. You don't need to limit yourself to an installed software solution.

In addition to MyEmma, Constant Contact, StreamSend, I'd suggest you compare features of:
https://BlueSkyFactory.com
https://VerticalResponse.com
https://AWeber.com
https://MailChimp.com
https://iContact.com

Major benefits of these SaaS-type solutions:
- They all provide permission opt-in functionality.
- Some provide automated or human review services to help score and identify problems with your email before you send. This helps increase your deliverability rate and reduce your risk of being flagged as a spammer.
- You can access and manage your database(s) and campaign(s) through a Web browser from any computer with Internet access.
- Some (BlueSkyFactory, MyEmma) let you create sub-accounts and manage permissions for other team members to use.
- Some have integrated surveys or direct mail services.

The pricing models vary, typically either:
- Flat fee per month for unlimited emails sent in a month
- Tiered pricing depending on specific number of emails sent in a month.
- Non-profit 501(c)(3) discounts.

I'd suggest you decide what your requirements are, create free trial accounts and play with them. I tried 5-6 before finding what worked well for my needs.

I hope you found this helpful.
Good luck.
-Roland

Try www.campaignmonitor.com

Theyare very cheap and offer quite robust reporting options.

Cheers, FD.