9 replies to this topic

[rrev]

Hello,

Can anyone recommend a reliable service which offers auto-responders and allows importing of customers without a opt-in requirement?

I have a monthly newsletter subscription of ~21,000+ customers and am looking for another reliable email marketing service. I've been using InternetMailManager.com which charges ~$100/month, but lacks the updated features such as auto-responders and other services (although they don't require opt-in for imported lists).

I've looked at GetResponse and AWeber which has a multitude of features, but require imported lists to opt-in (which would decrease the size of the mailing list and hassle current customers). All addresses are legitimate customers who have previously ordered from our website or subscribed using our website signup form.

Thanks for your help.

[nethy]

Have a look at constant contact. I'm not sure if they require double opt in for imports.

[Randy]

Welcome rrev !

without a opt-in requirement?

All I can say is Good Luck with that!

All of the majors are going to have opt in as a strict requirement. If they didn't they'd be opening themselves up to spammers, which of course would adversely affect all of their legitimate emailing clients.

I rather doubt you're going to find that part of the equation with anyone who's reputable.

[rrev]

Welcome rrev !
All I can say is Good Luck with that!

All of the majors are going to have opt in as a strict requirement. If they didn't they'd be opening themselves up to spammers, which of course would adversely affect all of their legitimate emailing clients.

I rather doubt you're going to find that part of the equation with anyone who's reputable.

Thanks for the reply. That's what I'm finding much to my surprise.

I've used InternetMailManager.com for about 4 years now and they haven't expanded any of the features or auto-responders, however they do allow unfiltered importing (non opt-in requirement).

Oddly, all the mail services have the exact same pricing structure ($150+/month for over 15,000 emails) and almost the exact same HTML table copied and pasted across different brand websites (and everybody is requiring opt-in imports).

If anyone locates an alternative service or could recommend other software, please let me know.

[rrev]

Have a look at constant contact. I'm not sure if they require double opt in for imports.

Thanks for the suggestion -- I checked out Constant Contact, but they don't appear to have any auto-responders. Have you seen any other services that you could recommend?

[nethy]

All of the majors are going to have opt in as a strict requirement. If they didn't they'd be opening themselves up to spammers, which of course would adversely affect all of their legitimate emailing clients.
I rather doubt you're going to find that part of the equation with anyone who's reputable.

It does however, create an hole. Sometimes you need to move an already opted in list from one place to another. Tradeshow/in-store sign ups, moving email marketing systems (for example from a simple one on your own server to a hosted one). Essentially the services are saying that you need the opt in to have been received & processed by them. That's not always possible.

BTW: Didn't constant contact used to simply ask if you have permission? Have they changed policies?

[rrev]

It does however, create an hole. Sometimes you need to move an already opted in list from one place to another. Tradeshow/in-store sign ups, moving email marketing systems (for example from a simple one on your own server to a hosted one). Essentially the services are saying that you need the opt in to have been received & processed by them. That's not always possible.

BTW: Didn't constant contact used to simply ask if you have permission? Have they changed policies?

Indeed - that's the problem I'm facing right now is trying to move from one service to finding another with more features.

All 20K+ email addresses are legitimate customers opt'd in and many have subscribed for years.

I'm not sure what constant contact's policies were, but was hoping to move to a service with auto-responder capabilities.

[nethy]

Hi rrev,

Give this a try. http://goodbarry.com/free-trial. It's a full cms+ package that includes email marketing. I seem to remember an email marketing only package but I couldn't find it. But you might want to ask them. Or have a look at using it as your cms too. It has an interesting autoresponder system .

[omahonydonnelly]

I've just started using icontact.com and imported a list and only needed to initial that I have permission from them (they were already opted in). They also have autoresponders but I haven't used them.

[redsonia!]

Has anyone been using iContact? How do you like it? I'm particularly interested in the newsletter, autoresponder, and RSS feed applications.