WordPress is an outstanding tool for website development because it is highly configurable and can be developed to perform many tasks.
However, there is at least one thing that WordPress is not suited to accomplish – and it’s not a WordPress fault. Many people try to save a few dollars and manage their email marketing list using a WordPress plugin.
This is one of those cases where paying a little doesn’t cost you, but actually saves you money and even has the potential to make you money. There are at least five reasons that come to mind why I recommend my clients use a service for this.
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You Have Little/No Help Making Your Messages Less Spammy
Most of the email autoresponder systems available have some type of algorithm that scores your email (title, body, etc) and gives you a SPAM rating.
Their objective is to help you construct messages that do not trigger SPAM filters so that their deliverability rate remains high. Without a service, you are left to figure this out for yourself.
Your Host May Not Send All Your Emails Out In A Timely Manner
If your list is large, you may trigger your host’s outbound email alarm and they will slow down the quantity of your outbound emails that are actually sent.
You may even receive a warning email/letter informing you that you violated their maximum email quantity. The procedure of slowing your email is called throttling and can cause your emails to take hours or even a day or two to be delivered.
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Your Email Address/Domain May Become Banned
If the emails you are sending are deemed to be SPAM – or worse yet, a recipient reports them as SPAM – then your email address (or your domain) could be banned. If your email address happens to get banned by GMail, then there’s the possibility that your website could be banned by Google.
Deliverability – How Many Of Your Messages Actually Get Through
Knowing that your email messages are reaching your intended recipients is very important. In fact, it’s probably the most important factor of your email campaign because if they don’t get it, you don’t even stand a chance of them acting upon your message.
Email autorespondor companies spend lots of money and resources to ensure that emails reach their intended recipients. This includes avoiding “spammy” looking emails, reducing bounce rates, protecting their sending domains, and several other methods. This is their business, so naturally, they do whatever it takes to be successful at it.
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You May Have To Defend Yourself Against A CAN-SPAM Claim
If someone decides to drag you in to court claiming that you did not remove them from your email list when they requested, you are left to defend yourself completely. It then becomes your word against the plaintiff. However, if the same incident occurs and you have a third party such as AWeber, MailChimp, MadMimi, or Get Response in your corner, then it’s much easier to demonstrate you’ve done your part.
Additionally, these reasons don’t even address the future of such a plugin.
- Will the plugin continue to work as WordPress evolves?
- Will the developer keep it updated with future versions of WordPress?
- How difficult will it be to update the plugin yourself?
The bottom line is there are many reasons NOT to use a WordPress plugin to manage your Email autoresponder list and very few reasons to use one. I cannot in good conscious recommend that any client try to maintain their own email list. I always recommend a service to handle that important part of their marketing strategy.
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This is a great post, and one that I wish more people would see. I cannot tell you how many times people have tried to use plugins to avoid any costs. There is no replacement to using an email service to make sure everything goes smoothly and keeps working. Deliverability and following the spamming laws are critical to your success.
Thanks for your comment Bob (great last name by the way). Since I work with local businesses, I try to help them create marketing systems that don’t cost them money, but instead make them money. Keeping up with an email list is a chore that could just cost them more if we tried to manage it in-house. Using a third party vendor is just smart money for my clients.
Completely! Plus, there’s always the chance of something screwing up with the plugin or your blog. There are several different ways to incorporate mailing programs like Mailchimp or Constant Contact into WordPress anyway.
However, what about using those plugins for general blog notifications such as when a new blog is posted, or a page is updated?
Goodday James (great first name there – Bob has a great last name – LOL).
Thanks for the comment here – it’s really appreciated.
With my clients, we usually use an email newsletter to notify subscribers of new posts, page updates, and such. For example, one of my clients is a Veterinarian. He only wants to email his subscribers once a month and we design his posts to the website to drop in conjunction with that email newsletter. However, we are starting a new service to let subscribers know as soon as a pet food or snack recall/warning is issued and we’ll have additional emails going out for that. Regardless, we still use our email list for that. In fact, I believe AWeber and several others integrate with the blog post function so that when a new post is added an email is sent out to subscribers.
Good post, right to the point. With free and low-cost starter plans from the email marketing pros, it does not make good business sense to waste time on an unproven roll-your-own setup that you can’t possibly have time to properly maintain.
Goodday Paul.
Thanks for commenting – and this brings up a great point.
You can use MailChimp with up to 12,000 emails a month without any cost at all. However, MailChimp doesn’t allow affiliate marketing using their system, so if that’s your business, you will need another vendor. However, I do find MailChimp a real hassle to use sometimes. They claim that their system is very easy to use, but maybe I over think things sometimes because I find it difficult. But, I do have a client that uses it.
I’ve used AWeber for about five years and see it grow and improve over that time. For $19 a month, they have a really good system that is reasonably affordable.
My favorite though is MadMimi. I’ll bet most have never heard of them – I know I had not until October of 2010. MadMimi has the simplest interface that I’ve seen and yet they have a very powerful platform. Plus, they have a chat function that has never failed to impress. Their pricing is also quite competitive – FREE up to 100 subscribers and then it’s $8 for up to 500 contacts. The pricing is tiered up from there. If you are running no more than 500 contacts – as many of my local businesses are – then it’s a really good pricing structure. And you can send unlimited emails each month to your subscribers.
Can you tell I like MadMimi? Of course, as I said, I also like AWeber. I’ve used a few others for clients, but these three are the ones I’ve had the most experience with.
Thanks again for your comments Paul.
Thanks Jeff for this post,
You really hit the nail on the head on every of your point especially the first one that is getting popular by the day. It’s making many young entrepreneurs lazy.
I agree with your points Jeff… Thanks
Thanks for your comments Kelvin.
Sometimes we, as marketers, are so busy picking up dimes that we don’t notice the dollars we’re stepping over.
Have a productive week.
Earlier today WPMU was promoting a WP newsletter plugin. http://wpmu.org/wordpress-email-newsletter-plugin/
I agree 100% with this post. Deliverability really suffer when you’re not using someone with a “white glove” to send your email.
@Lisa – Your comment is HILARIOUS. lol
Thanks for your comment Todd.
As I commented to Lisa, for something as valuable as a marketing list, I just could not recommend that someone do anything to jeopardize it. It’s like a customer list and should be guarded as such.
I am curious – was it the irony that I wrote this today while WPMU.org was promoting a different approach that you found HILARIOUS or that Lisa brought attention to it? Just curious.
Was just funny pointing out the irony of contradictory posts. However, that plugin looks like it does have some cool features now that I’ve just read the article. I can see clients with less than 500 subscribers being able to get away with using a plugin though if their intentions are good when sending. However, it’s definitely not worth the hassle/risk for larger accounts.
Back to the humor though… I actually do have something funny to point out now that I read the other article. Is the voice in their demo video the same guy that narrated the Honey Badger video?
Don’t know about the voice Todd. When he opens, he says he’s one of the developers of the plugin. The Honey Badger video was a pro-voice I think.
Good day Lisa.
Thanks for your excellent input – and I really like that you brought this up.
As a member of WPMUDev, I have access to that plugin. In fact, that plugin addresses the three points about the future of a plugin that I addressed in my closing remarks. With the community of developers at WPMUDev, I am certain that this plugin will always be updated and maintained to be compatible with the latest version of WordPress – and that’s not “the company line” because I’m not “the company”. I’ve experienced this since being a member at WPMUDev – when WordPress is updated, the plugins are as well.
However, I still would not use that newsletter plugin for most of my business clients. Wny? I still don’t want them – or me – involved in the potential allegations from someone who wants to cry “foul” and hit some SPAM claim. The points I made still apply there.
Would I use the Newsletter Plugin from WPMUDev? Are there places that I could see using it? Yes, there are. Here are just a few and you can probably think of dozens more when you pause and think.
1) Churches could use it as a newsletter option for their members. Members of a church would be less likely to lodge a SPAM complaint so I would feel comfortable using it in that application.
2) Groups within the church – youth groups, college groups, etc. Same thing as with the general church population. Although I find that most youth and college groups like texting solutions.
3) Homeowner’s associations – the newsletter would be limited to homeowners so they would be less likely to cause issues.
4) Sports leagues
5) And the list could go on.
I’ve actually been considering trying the WP Newsletter Plugin on a Homeowner’s Association website that I built for a client because I think they could use it. And it’s probably a lot easier to use than some of the third party systems. But, for marketers that are in the business of selling something, the risks I outlined are too great to take with something as valuable as their email list.
Quick follow-up Lisa.
I thought you were talking about the eNewsletter plugin available from WPMUdev – but I believe you are talking about wysija mentioned in this wpmu.org article.
I have no experience with it, but theirs also looks like a potentially good plugin for non-marketing lists. Plus, you seem to get a free trial as well.