Choosing an Email List Service
by Josh Carlton

Outsourcing your email list management is much more effective than attempting to do this on your own. The email list management software market is large and growing, and this is a great advantage for you because of the increasing amount of features these providers are offering in order to woo clients. Also, keep in mind that no email list management service is made for everyone. There will be a company out there who can provide you what you need; it is your job to find them. Finding the right provider is critical to the success of your email marketing campaigns and using this marketing tool effectively.

In choosing an email list management service, the first thing to consider is how you will be using email marketing. How often do you plan on sending out a newsletter to your subscribers? Are you planning on sending out colorful emails designed to increase sales or just planning on building relationships with your customers through email? It is important to have a vague idea of how you will be implementing email marketing before shopping around for a service.

Once you have set up a budget of how much you expect to spend on email marketing – look at how the different services are priced. Most pricing in this industry depends on how you use the product. Some providers charge by the number of subscribers, others by the number of emails sent out monthly. A few will even charge extra for any additional features such as survey capability and an auto responder. The Email Marketing Software Resource recommends companies that charge by the number of subscribers. By obtaining a service that charges by the number of subscribers, you avoid placing serious restrictions on yourself and the ability to send out an additional email now and then above your monthly limit.

When choosing an email list management service provider, the single most important thing to consider is, are my emails actually going to get to someone’s inbox? With all the junk mail and spam floating around out there, how does me email list management service make sure that my message gets through? The key to this is to staying off blacklists and developing solid relationships with various email and Internet Service Providers, such as AOL, Earthlink, Cox Communications, MSN, and Yahoo! Usually, this relationship-building takes time, so look for a business that has been around for at least a year. Also, don’t take their salesperson’s word as gold, double-check what he or she says about the number of blacklists they are on by going to www.openrbl.org and typing in their domain name.

Personally, I recommend a service called iContact. Additional information on iContact can be found on their website.