: When to use an external e-mail service? (MailChimp, MailGun etc) Noob alert. I've been reading about the big deal that sending massive campaigns is, in terms of not getting banned, warming up

@Jennifer507

a very good read about what it takes to send email successfully - blog.codinghorror.com/so-youd-like-to-send-some-email-through-code/

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@Cugini213

The key really to ensuring your mail server does not get blacklisted for spamming is to make sure that you only send emails to people who want them and have asked for them, and if you include a working unsubscribe link people can leave your mailing list without any issues, since the main reasons servers get blacklisted are for high numbers of unwanted email messages and unsubscribe links that don't work properly.

In answer to your question the best time to stop using your own server and pay for a professional service is probably when one or more of the following are true:


the server is also used for your companies corporate email accounts and so if blacklisted would have a detrimental impact on your day-to-day business communications;
the bandwidth usage required to send all the messages impacts on your business;
your server seems to frequently get blacklisted and you wish another company to manage the process (including the time and cost) of getting unblacklisted and to at any one time always have a pool of good IP addresses from which they can send emails to maintain a working service for you;
your server fails to respond to its other core purposes while sending out email campaigns, for example if it is also responsible for your website or webmail hosting;
the features of an external service are worth the cost (such as WYSIWYG editors, templating, HTML and Plain Text emailing, reporting tools etc.);
the cost of outsourcing works out to be cheaper than the costs involved in running your own server;
you worry about the security of your server and do not have the expertise to ensure it is kept backed-up, software and anti-virus kept up-to-date, and you are not sure if you would even know if the email contact lists are sufficiently protected from hackers, and therefore the security and privacy features of an external service provide peace-of-mind;
the frequency of mail-outs is such that your server has not finished sending out the first email campaign when it must already begin the next.


Obviously there could be many more reasons but perhaps this covers the more prominent. If keeping costs low is the most important priority then paying for a professional service may never help you toward this objective.

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