"Just a quick one" is probably the most fatal phrase there is. The moment you think it, you're doomed to feel Murphy's Law and you know it's going to take a really long time!
I would therefore like to use this article to apologize to our newsletter readers for the late issue. I know that you were counting every single second with excitement and looking at your mailbox in agony.
Why it took so long: I was looking for a new newsletter system. Just quickly. Write a few newsletters, select a recipient list, send it out. Can't be that difficult. What I hadn't considered was the Internet.
If you search for the phrase "newsletter system" on Google, you get a whopping 590,000 hits. The first pages are comparison portals: "all newsletter tools, all providers", "the 10 best newsletter systems", "the 4 best newsletter systems 2021", "59 newsletter solutions you should know about now" ... You can see straight away that the whole thing will be as simple as "I need a car".
So let's do some soul-searching first. What do I actually need?
Requirement 1: Writing must also be fun!
Writing a newsletter is work. To make work more palatable, you should make the framework as simple as possible. There's nothing worse than having to use a text editor that doesn't work properly or that turns my formatting into internet-galactic garbage. A good example is the old text editor from Sendythe newsletter system I have been using up to now. It is lean and functional and can integrate wonderfully with Amazon SES but it's no use when writing: typing is a pain. Whenever I was finished and went to the preview, suddenly the line spacing was no longer correct, paragraphs were duplicated etc., formatting was no longer correct.
I was then able to correct the errors in the HTML source code, but to be honest, this type of writing is no fun. In a long text, <p> and <br> and <a> Setting or deleting tags afterwards is like removing white lint from the laundry after you've washed the paper handkerchief again. It was even worse when I had prescribed texts in Libre Office and then wanted to copy them in. The formatting was so broken that it looked as if I had taken psychoactive substances while writing. But I hadn't. At times like this, the notebook lives extremely dangerously, even though it really can't help it.
So if you are trying out a new newsletter system, first test whether you are comfortable using it. Write a letter or copy your written letter into the editor and see what happens.
Requirement 2: While we're at it, please integrate it fully into our website
I wanted the newsletter system to integrate well with our website. We currently use a WordPress website and we have a blog. These blog posts should be published regularly in the newsletter.
And the same applies vice versa: Why not just use a newsletter story as a blog post? You are reading a...
So if I use the newsletter system directly on our WordPress website, I don't have to copy images and text back and forth between two different systems.
In addition, we keep the content of the entire newsletter directly as a web preview on our domain mainetcare.de and this also means food for the search engines. The web preview of a newsletter is a function that every newsletter system has: I receive the newsletter as an email, but I also find a link there that I can use to look at the whole thing again online at any time. You can usually find the web link at the end of every newsletter.
And while we're at it: it would be nice if I could simply select and insert the finished blog posts from our website when writing the newsletter without a lot of "copy-paste". Something like this:
Requirement 3: If we already have the Amazon, she should also work for us.
Sending lots of emails at once is no easy task. If you have a normal hosting package, your provider usually prohibits the sending of bulk emails. The emails must also be sent reliably and you need a log of the dispatch. The most important thing, however, is that the emails are delivered as SPAM-proof as possible. What use is the best mailing if the letters end up in the SPAM folder? The right IT technology plays an important role here. This is also the reason why there are so many providers on the market. You need basic admin knowledge of how mail works in order to get your own newsletter system up and running.
For us, the Amazon SES product offers itself as an external shipping system. It is reliable and cost-effective and even GDPR-compliant. We already have an infrastructure at Amazon Web Services (AWS) for our special web applications and our AI search and, as a result, a quota of 50,000 emails per month. That's enough for several newsletters a day 🙂
Requirement 4: No third-party platforms
Most newsletter systems are available as third-party platforms, i.e. you register as a user on a website and manage your newsletter and other mail marketing functions from there. The most common representatives in Germany are SendInBlue, CleverReach and RapidMail. An external administrator naturally has the advantage that you don't have to worry about sending emails (see above), as this is handled by the provider. Many also offer a free basic package for a few emails, which explains the popularity of SendInBlue, for example, where you can send 300 emails per day free of charge. For many small self-employed people, this is enough.
But I still didn't want that. The costs play less of a role here than two other arguments:
- Firstly, you are once again dependent on the marketing whims of another provider. For example, they decide to change the interface for a "new, even better user experience". This seems to be the trend lately. For the regular user, it usually means that familiar workflows no longer work. I want to have the operation under control and also the functional conditions. The costs anyway. So the requirement was: we install this on our system and have a certain amount of control. If I don't like new versions, I don't have to install them.
- The options for intervention are limited.
What remains?
In the end, our research left us with these candidates as WordPress plug-ins:
- ALO Newsletter (free of charge)
- Mailster (one-off purchase price approx. 90,- EUR)
- MailPoet (free of charge up to 2000 e-mails)
- The Newsletter PlugIn (approx. 69,- EUR per year)
- WordPress Newsletter PlugIn from Tribulant (approx. 65 EUR per year)
ALO Newsletter is a bit out of the question, as it doesn't actually offer any integration with Amazon SES, but you would probably have to program it yourself, but hey - it's free! Nevertheless, I decided against it, as it is only being developed very sporadically and the gap between the plugin and the WordPress world is widening. With such tendencies, it's only a matter of time before the whole thing blows up in your face with some future update of WordPress or the server software - and then nothing works anymore.
In the end, we opted for Mailster because it received amazingly good reviews for a one-off purchase price and an initial test delivered really good results.
Long story short: I will report on how I get on with this system in the future, or you can read it for yourself. And I hope I have been able to inspire you a little with this report and make the forest more visible.
If you are planning to write newsletters for your community yourself, please get in touch with us. I now know the providers quite well and we can find the right solution for you. So hit the keys...