Can Plesk Panel be used for email marketing?

[Garindan]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but its a new area for me.

I have a linux server with Plesk 11. Is it possible to use plesk for email marketing?

I have a html email ready and a list of addresses. Can anybody point me in the right direction? I can't seem to find anything.

Many thanks.

 

[IgorG]

Do you mean use Plesk for spamming?

 

[MislavO]

Plesk - no.

They are some free applications like:

http://www.phplist.com/

(you will have to play with the configuration for bounceback, ignoring non-existing emails, how many emails can be sent per hour, etc.)

If you want to pay, they are many services like "mailchimp".

 

[Garindan]

Do you mean use Plesk for spamming?

Thanks for that. No I do not mean use plesk for spamming, it is a legitimate use with our own customer list. Would have expected a more helpful response from the Parallels team. Disappointing.

they are many services like "mailchimp"

Thanks for the more helpful response MislavO, I had looked at mailchimp before and have gone with that rather than trying to set up Plesk.

 

[Faris Raouf]

You really do not want to use your own server to send mass mailings if you can avoid it. It could get blacklisted by at least one big ISP and may end up on one of the more important blacklists if you are unlucky.

The biggest problem is the way that users of services such as AOL and Hotmail use the "mark as spam" option to remove email from their inbox, even when the message isn't spam and the user actually did request it/deliberately subscribe. I've even seen people mark order confirmation emails as spam [shakes head sadly]!

The use of an ESP such as Mailchimp (US) or Dotmailer (UK) is really the best option, and gives you some great features and very fine-grained control. However, always keep a copy of your lists(s) locally, and also keep evidence of how the user subscribed (double-opt-in / own customer), because ESPs can be trigger happy if you are unlucky in terms of complaints.

 

[Garindan]

Thanks for your help and advice, very informative