Solution for mass emails

[Ehren]

Hi everyone,

Earlier today I released updates to my products and sent out emails to my customers to alert them. Shortly after, my site was suspended by my host for sending mass emails (over 1,000) in a short time span. After confirming to my host that my site/email wasn't hacked, they thankfully restored it - however I'm interested in how to prevent this from happening in the future.

I'm currently using xenforo's "Default" email transport method which I understand probably isn't ideal for my situation. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can safely send bulk emails to my users in the future without causing any problems? Mailchimp, Google, etc?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Jeremy P]

I'm most familiar with Amazon SES, but there are a bunch of transactional/marketing email services that offer SMTP. SendGrid, MailGun, MailChimp, SparkPost, etc.

 

[Sim]

Yup, like @Jeremy P said - look for a dedicated Email Service Provider who can send emails for you, don't use your host's SMTP server - quickest way to get blacklisted and have deliverability problems.

I use SparkPost - I built an addon which sends via their HTTP API rather than SMTP (slightly better performance) and it does full bounced email handling too: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/sparkpost-mail-transport.7537/

 

[Ehren]

Amazing, thanks for the help guys! I'll definitely take a look at your addon @Sim if I decide to go with SparkPost.

If I choose a different service, do I simply fill out the SMTP details under Options > Email options in the admin panel and that's it? I'm assuming that's all I need to do to take the stress away from my own server..

 

[Jeremy P]

Generally yes, the provider will give you SMTP credentials. Some other configuration may be necessary on the service provider side of things, but it varies. I remember having to do something to get bounce notifications working properly with SES.