Alternative software to subscription services for an email marketing campaign

Published: 23/07/2021

Choosing a good software for managing an email marketing campaign is essential when efficiently exploiting the email contacts obtained by some type of medium (subscriptions, databases, social networks, etc.). Ultimately, the objective of the selected tool will be the construction, maintenance and improvement of the relationship of trust with customers.

In this context, although email marketing subscription services provide advantages such as free plans, reports, templates, integration with third parties. As the requirements grow, the free plans will not be enough. You must necessarily go up to payment plans whose prices rise quickly as soon as you need to increase the number of emails or subscribers. In addition, you must bear in mind that, if your objective is affiliate marketing, budget savings, own domain, customizable deliverability, then you should seriously think about whether you will really use the services of the provider you have in mind (the terms services that are generally very rigid and restrictive).

As an alternative to subscription email marketing services (Mailchimp, Benchmarch, GetResponse etc.) in this post we will discuss 2 software tools widely used for email marketing: SendBlaster and Acymailing

SendBlaster

It is a desktop application for the Windows platform.

SendBlaster is essentially a bulk mailing software for email marketing campaign and list management.

SendBlaster combines in a single product the practicality of a mass mailing software with the flexibility of a web service. On the one hand, it allows you to create newsletters and manage lists directly from the desktop, on the other the client gets an online monitoring service to manage their reports and improve their email campaigns.

Characteristics

Newsletters

• Template editor : Creating a new message from scratch is very easy with the Template Editor you can choose the structure of the message, header, footer or side columns, select colors and variations with a few clicks.
• Optional HTML 'font edit only' mode : Advanced HTML designers can optionally bypass the visual editor to keep complete control of their source code. < / li>
• Categorized templates : Includes a large number of templates; the template finder supports categories for a better organization of templates.
• Fit images in place : The visual editor includes an embedded photographic tool that allows you to apply the most common filters and effects to images instantly. You don't need to export images, and process them with external utilities and then add them again: just select an image in the message, edit, and immediately see the results.
• Custom attachments : SendBlaster allows you to send a custom attachment for each different recipient using programmable tags.

Newsletter customization

• Import .eml or .htm files : Messages can be imported from external files (HTML pages or previously stored .eml files - for example, from Outlook ). The import features will insert the images into the body of the message, avoiding any link to external files.
• Personalized emails for each subscriber : Sending personalized messages ("Dear Mr. Juan Pérez", instead of "Dear customer"). Each email sent is different, thanks to the email merging and personalization capabilities.
• Programmable tags : Includes a powerful script engine for tags, which can now be programmed using Vbscript (familiar to Office users) or Javascript (familiar to Office users). for developers and web designers). Tags can contain calculated or conditional output, random variations, custom attachments, and much more.
• Calendar events to your message : It achieves the greatest effectiveness in emails and makes it easier for your contacts to remember your offers and events, you can create an event and add it to your email as an iCalendar attachment; When your readers use the attachment, an event will be added to your calendar.
• Integration with JotForm : JotForm is a popular form design platform, fully integrated with most content managers and purchasing systems. SendBlaster allows you to import subscriptions and cancellations from your JotForm account simply by entering your credentials.
• Check Links : SendBlaster automatically extracts all links from your message, even hidden ones, and allows you to check them with one click.

Mailing list management

• Segments : SendBlaster allows creating list segments (subgroups) based on different rules; This makes it easier to organize and maintain lists. You can also optionally send to just one segment of a list.
• Replicator of cancellations : If you manage multiple lists, and they share the same contacts, you may end up having an 'unsubscribed' contact in a list, but still marked as 'subscribed' on a different list. If this scenario is undesirable, the Cancellation Replicator propagates cancellations from any of its lists to the rest of the lists: if a contact is 'unsubscribed' on ANY list, they will be marked as 'unsubscribed' on ALL lists.
• Importing email addresses from Excel, Access and .CSV files : MS Excel (TM), Access (TM) or Outlook contact lists (TM) in .CSV format files, all your clients' information is imported directly.
• Follow-up emails : All contacts that have been included in a previous shipment can be selectively activated in the current list. In this way, a follow-up shipment can only be made to those who have already received a specific email.
• Simple integration with your own website : Embedding mailing list management functionalities on your website becomes extremely easy with subscription management functionalities / unsubscriptions and the ability to import information from a website, allowing SendBlaster to take care of updating your lists and sending the correct messages to the correct recipients.
• Email or Web Form Subscriptions / Unsubscriptions : You can automatically manage subscriptions (and unsubscriptions) to build permission-based email distribution lists (even if not owns a website). Each list can be associated with an email address: when an email message with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line is sent to this email address, the sender is added to the list. If the subject is "Unsubscribe", then the sender is removed from the list (if previously subscribed). The newsletter management software downloads all email messages from the POP3 email account, verifies the subject and updates the related distribution list.
• Advanced information filter : You can sort the list by simply dragging and dropping each field heading, or even multiple fields.
• Merge and move lists : You can quickly and easily combine two or more lists or move a subset of contacts from one list to another using powerful rules.
• Rejected emails and blacklists processing : Rejected emails are automatically recognized, and the originating addresses can be deactivated or removed from the lists. Allows you to create blacklists of addresses or domains that you want to automatically exclude from your mailings.
• Return Address : Supports Return Address header, which allows bounces to be returned to a unique email address (instead of to the sender's address or Reply-to address.
• Unlimited lists with unlimited contacts : You can manage multiple distribution lists.
• History of inclusions and exclusions : Subscription, cancellation and bounce requests are saved in the database along with the date, so that you can keep track of track, export them for reuse or reprocessing.
• Mail to new contacts : All contacts that have been included in previous posts can be selectively deactivated in the current list. In this way, a sending can be made only to those who have not yet received the email.

Sending campaigns

• Multiple SMTP settings : You can set different smtp settings.
• Delivery without SMTP : Using the direct send method, you do not need to modify any parameters to connect to the SMTP service provider.
• Verification of duplicate emails : SendBlaster has an automatic filter to prevent duplicate emails at the time of sending.
• Send to segments : Allows creating list segments (subgroups) based on multiple rules; This makes it easier to organize and maintain lists. You can ship to just one segment.
• Scheduled email sending : Email sending operations can be scheduled to be performed automatically at the appropriate time.
• Event logs : It has logs of previous email sending operations.
• More speed : Supports up to 100 connections - on a high-performance platform, this can significantly improve sending speed when using a local SMTP server or remote.

Campaign analysis

• It has an extensive campaign analysis dashboard of both statistical and graphical data.
• SendBlaster's interface integrates with Google Analytics to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.

SendBlaster ultimately shows that a good email marketing campaign does not require an expensive web solution: it can be carried out effectively from your desktop, keeping all your lists private and managing every aspect of the strategy in your own bulk mailing software. It's easier, safer, and requires less investment. It is considered as the first option at the desktop software level for the implementation of email marketing campaigns due to its powerful features at the level of newsletters, mailing lists, campaign shipments and analytics.

You can evaluate the software in its Demo version on the manufacturer's website

AcyMailing

AcyMailing is an application that runs on the server side. It is a simplified email marketing automation software.

The running operating system is Linux. It works specifically on 2 CMS (Content Management System) as a plugin.

The supported CMS are the popular WordPress and Joomla, where it runs as a plugin.

Features

Newsletters

• Importing email lists and newsletters.
• Multiple templates available.
• Drag-and-drop editor: Allows easy creation of templates.
• Testing your newsletter content (links, keywords, images) to make it perfect.
• Dynamic insertion of WordPress and Joomla content: Allows you to insert content from your e-commerce, events plugin and many more.
• Personalize communication with the client: Allows the insertion of the recipient's information within the newsletter.
• Subscription forms
• Captcha validation
• Unlimited creation of campaign lists
• Segmentation of lists through filters
• Workflow authoring tools
• Tools to improve email content

Campaign sending

• Automation for sending scheduled campaigns.
• Check the SPAM score and ensure that it will not be considered as SPAM thanks to the Mail Tester tool.
• Conditional shipping process based on specific conditions.
• Sending an unlimited number of emails from your own server or from an external SMTP service.
• Automatic bounce handling, to avoid that the sending is considered SPAM.

Campaign analysis

• Newsletter Click Tracking: Shows who opened / clicked on the links in your newsletter. Adding a heatmap that represents the links with the most clicks.
• Marketing Conversion - Newsletter Effectiveness Tracking - Who Visited My Website? How many pages? How long did they stay then? etc
• From visitors to customers: See how much money you have made thanks to the content you have sent in your newsletters.
• Integration with google Analitics

With little investment you can generate successful email marketing campaigns as an advanced way to promote sales. Increasing the chances of capturing the attention of entrepreneurs.

Acymailing outperforms most of the existing server run applications providing excellent high profitability possibilities.

You can evaluate the software in its Free version from manufacturer's website.

Now that you know the most used alternative tools to email marketing subscription services. You only have to obtain a truthful and reliable email database to start your own mailing campaign.

The veracity, integrity, reliability and updating of the email marketing databases offered by Fullpowerdata constitute the fundamental pillars of all our business databases in Spain. The sole purpose is to provide our clients with the best quality data to help them achieve their objectives of interest.

Wait no more and get the maximum benefit from the Summer 2021 update of the Fullpowerdata email marketing databases!
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