I want to try using the internal mailing list/newsletter function included in ECT. I've used Mailchimp for years, but the open/click responses to my Mailchimp newsletters has declined significantly and I want to see if I get any better response sending a newsletter directly from ECT.

In general, I think I know how to format a newsletter in the mailing list menu, and I created one this morning, then sent it to the admin email as a test, but once I did that, my newsletter disappeared so I couldn't make corrections to it and resend to the entire mailing list. Now it seems I'm going to have to recreate it. Am I doing something wrong? Should I create my email in a different app then paste the code into ECT? Should I create it in ECT, then copy the code and paste it into another app to be able to retrieve it after a test run? I searched through the ECT site, but couldn't find much detail about how to use this built-in function.

Hi Sharon
Oooo, sorry to hear that but yes, really it is designed for you to make up the newsletter then paste it into the ECT admin newsletter page to send it. Is the window still open? Maybe using the back button you can get it back?

Vince

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I tried to backtrack windows, but it was gone. While waiting of an answer, I created the newsletter again in the ECT window, then copied the code and pasted it into a text document to save while I was sending a test. I went back and forth this way until I was satisfied with the newsletter format, but then when I actually sent it to my mailing list, I got the 503 error that has been plaguing my admin for the last 6 months or so. Now I don't know if it was sent, and if it was, it probably didn't get sent to many of my subscribers. I looked at the action: 'clear "Sent" list' and it only shows 149. I was trying to send to over 4000 subscribers.

So if it only went out to 149, if I copy the code back in and try again, will it go to those 149 again, or will they be passed over until I clear the 'sent' list?

That 503 error is so frustrating! It only seems to occur in my backend admin pages.

Hi, your host should be able to help you identify the 503 errors, or you should see them in the server logs.
But it is possible your host has a limit on how many emails can be sent at once.
Additionally,, you want to be careful sending from your domain as we used to do it and often we would get blacklisted by all the Microsoft domains (live.com hotmail.com outlook.com, msn.com etc.) - after a week or so, our email would flow to those domains again.

Recently I changed to mailerlite from mailchimp... You can export your email list and upload to any provider. Mailerlite seem to be one of the lowest cost, yet robust tools.

Creating great looking emails that will render well on all clients and devices is a bit tricky and I also had trouble with that - when I used to send from my admin.

Just some food for though.

Thanks,
David

Thanks Dave, I'm hosted with ServeLink. They haven't been able to figure out the 503's either. Peter on their support staff recently told me they would be doing some big updates to their system this winter and he is hoping my problem will shake itself out. It seems to only happen on my admin side. I haven't received any complaints from customers and I've never encountered the error myself on my front pages. I'm just not knowledgeable enough to interpret server logs or even know where to find them.

Re the mailing list, I just wanted to try a newsletter through the ECT system to see if it generated more response than I seem to be getting from Mailchimp emails. I used to consistently have a 35% or so open rate, and lately it's been down around 12-15%. My customer base tends to be older women, so I worry they are dying off on me (a little gallows humor ). I went through this decrease in open rates a couple of years ago, but can't remember what I did to improve it again.

I'll give Mailerite a look to see if it would be less expensive than Mailchimp. My mailing list is 6000+, so I'm paying about $150+ a month for Mailchimp. It's just a convenience that Mailchimp is integreted with ECT and I don't have to download and upload contact lists.

Hi Sharon, I fully understand. I've struggled with paying for the email service, knowing I could send from my admin too.
I have about 17,000 on one store and was sending from admin occasionally, but what I did was use a different domain to send from - you have a place in the admin to do that - so I have the dot-com version of my domain, but I also have the .info version so I used that instead to try to avoid the whole blacklist issue.

Another thing I do with all of my email is use the affiliate system in the admin - I don't use it for affiliates, I use it to create codes to append to my links in my emails so then I can see for myself what kind of ROI I am getting, I also do this on social medial and search ads.

My other store has well over 100k subs, so I have to use a 3rd party service. I used to be with constant contact, but they were at about $1000.00 per month, so I moved that one to mailerlite at about $600.00 per month - so far we've been happy with them.
I recently setup the 17k list with mailerlite too.

I actually used AI to code my own tool - AI is great for this, but it goes much easier if you can ask it specifically what you want and understand the file and database structure.
I built this in a few hours actually.

Unfortunately I am on .asp and don't personally work with wordpress, otherwise, I could share my code.

Thanks,
David

Very interesting info. Wow, I wish my business was thriving like yours. Wow! 100,000 subscribers. When my site was doing much better, the cost of Mailchimp was worth it, now I'm always looking for ways to reduce my overhead. My hobby painting audience has been shrinking and I need to find a way to bring in a new wave of want-to-be artists. This is just my small retirement business that gives me some play money.

I like the idea of using the affiliate codes to test returns on newsletter links. I used to put just a generic one in my newsletters, but I've let that slide through the cracks for quite a while.

After your reply, I've been looking at Mailerlite and also Flodesk. I've decided to try Flodesk for a while. It's about the same price as Mailerlite, but is more geared to creatives and since my business is art related, I thought it might be a better fit for visuals. It will save me half over the cost of Mailchimp. Now I'll have to figure out how to update the audience on an on-going basis with new customers in my store.

I've read that AI can do coding, but again, I don't think I'd know where to start or how to incorporate it. I do use ChatGPT for home decorating ideas and photo enhancements, but coding seems a whole different ball game. Is there an AI app that you prefer?

Again, thanks for taking the time to share.