Application for Sending HTML Emails in MIME format

Question

I am coding HTML emails for our company press releases and wondering what is the best way to send a multipart HTML email? Some people say outsource it to a mailchimp.com or a campaign monitor. Other's seem to use PHP on their web server.

What is the best way to send HTML email templates?

Thanks

Answer 1

Depends on how much back end work you want to do. ESP's like Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp are the best option for less technically savvy people. They are also pretty much plug and play. Using other services such as transactional options like Sendgrid, Mandrill or Mailjet, are more API driven. They are designed to be triggered by a program, usually in response to a user action. PHPList is an open source program you can host yourself, so that is also an option.

I would avoid reinventing the wheel, there are a lot of bad things that can happen if you are not really careful. You need to know about CAN-SPAM, unsubscribe handling and deliverability for example. If you get any of that wrong you can trash your domain or IP's reputation and end up getting blacklisted.

For your simple press release example, the easiest option would be to stick with an ESP.