Privacy-aware email marketing

Questions
1

Hi folks,

I have a small side business for which I need to send transactional and campaign emails on a monthly basis with a small amount of subscribers (<100). The business will never be huge, but in the distant future I could see the subscriber list getting to 1000 and transactional emails numbering in the hundreds. I am using the open source mailing list platform Listmonk, which I am very happy with, but I need a bulk SMTP provider and preferably one that respects both my privacy, but at a minimum the privacy of my clients. I would prefer not to use tracking links and pixels. Basically I just need a bulk SMTP provider with good pricing that is not going to damage my domain’s reputation. Don’t need the marketing and templating stuff that seems to come with most sites. Amazon SES rejected me without giving a reason, even though I provided detailed information. They said that due to privacy reasons, they would not be able to give the reasons why. Currently using Elastic Email, but they don’t let you turn off tracking until you’ve built-up a good reputation with them, and with the low number of emails I send, I doubt I will get there anytime soon. Most providers have horrific reviews on TrustPilot and just feel slimy. Would appreciate any ideas anyone on here has!

1 Like
2

I’ve been happy with Postmark with another forum I run. I just self-host an email server for transactional emails from this forum and most other sites I run, and haven’t had any issues.

1 Like
3

The most important thing is to find a hoster that allows for this. Not all do. But yeah self hosting an smtp sever seems the right eay to go here.

4

I’m fine with self-hosting, but mail servers are a management headache. My last and only foray into mail server hosting ended abruptly when I realized it was simply too unreliable and time-consuming for a business application. After a conversation with Elastic Email in which they told me that there was no way I could remove their unsubscribe footer and solely use my own, I did some more sleuthing. Smtp2go appears to have everything I want. I can use them as an SMTP relay without being boxed into used their whole bounce management/tracking/templating infrastructure. Hopefully everything remains hassle-free!

5

How much technical know how is required to do this? I have recently acquired Freedombox and they have the following for.

I have also just set up a custom domain address with Tutanota. Could I make all of this work together to manage a mailing list for small business?