April 18th, 2006
MailMachinePro shows flaws during review
by Susan Snipes
Product Review: MailMachinePro
MailMachinePro is a low-cost, email newsletter system with a couple of kinks. Be prepared for a bit of set up and customization time, it’s a little buggy. The reward is tight control over your presentation and the luxury of keeping your data private.
Recently, one of our clients requested an email newsletter system as a needed marketing and outreach piece to complement the Web site we were creating for their political campaign. After doing some online research, one of our partners suggested using MailMachinePro. This is a look at the pros and cons of the system and what you might enjoy or have to bear when using it.
Our email newsletter requirements
Web-based. No email client (such as Outlook) should be required to send the newsletters.
PHP / mySQL.
Easy-to-use for non-tech savvy persons. We want the average computer user to feel comfortable composing and sending the newsletters.
Custom Look in HTML. The newsletters must be HTML format and must be able to allow for custom template(s) including images, styles, and colors we specify.
Integrate with current web site. The ability to sign up for the email newsletters online is essential. If it’s seemless with the rest of the web site, that’s even better.
Low price. Open source or less than $100 is best.
Key MailMachinePro Features
Web-based setup wizard. Relatively easy install by copying files, creating a database and then running the installation wizard.
Easy integration with your existing web site. Generate sign up forms within the newsletter tool to copy and paste into your web site.
Double Opt-In/Out Options. Require subscribers to activate their subscription by clicking on a confirmation link that is sent to their e-mail address. (This is optional, it can be turned on or off.)
Templates. Create multiple HTML templates to use for your email newsletters.
Batch-mail Sending. Send out emails in batches over a specific time interval to work in accord with mass-emailing policies some hosting companies have.
Link Tracking. Each link in your email newsletter is assigned a unique ID so you know which links are clicked on and from what newsletter.
Bounced E-mail Management. When emails bounce at a certain address, after a set number of bounces, the address will be removed.
Upload/Download Contacts. Import or export a large list of contacts using the administration tool, can be done as copy and paste, or using a csv (comma separated values) file.
Multiple Lists and templates. You can create numerous contacts lists and different templates for all variations of your marketing campaign.
MailMachinePro offers many other features as well. The ones listed above are the ones we found the most interesting and useful.
Pros
No ongoing service costs or cost-per-user. Unlike web-based email newsletter subscription services, once you purchase the license you have no more software fees, and no price increases if you have a lot of subscribers.
Data stored on YOUR server. Unlike web-based email newsletter subscription services, your contacts and newsletters are stored in your database.
Can be completely visually customized. You can change the templates used across the entire system to match your web site’s look and feel from the admin tools, to every email sent. This means no third-party branding anywhere!
Cons
Buggy. Unfortunately, the biggest problem this system has are the remaining bugs. Most are minor, but one major bug happens when using the very common browser Internet Explorer. See the next section for bug details.
Requires time to set up and customize. The system doesn’t look that great right out of the box. The default templates for administering the system are passable. There is no template for integrating the sign up forms on the front-end. Without creating one, it’s very hard for a web site visitor to use.
Requires some html/programming/database skills. The system requires moderate understanding of html, programming and setting up databases.
Buggy
These are the three major bugs we found. There are a few minor user-interface issues as well.
1. Selecting a template saves newsletters prematurely (IE - Internet Explorer only). When composing an email using Internet Explorer and selecting a pre-design template, the javascript has a bug that prematurely submits the page and causing issues with saving. This bug doesn’t exist in FireFox.
2. System templates uneditable. The software offers the ability to customize the templates used in the web-based admin system. Unfortunately, the ability to edit or save changes does not work correctly. We worked around this by editing the template directly in the database.
3. Testing newsletters unavailable. A test newsletter button is supplied in the system, but does not show a preview of the email.
Overall assessment
Hesitantly recommended. MailMachinePro is conceived as a great stand-alone system. The ability to have multiple lists, upload/download contacts, and track clickthroughs are all highly powerful for a low price. A bit of hand-holding will be needed to get non-tech people comfortable with using it. The major bug in IE is a definite drawback, but hopefully it will be fixed in future releases. You’ll need to be willing to work through a couple of quirks (or put your Web company through them!) Overall, we’re satisfied with our system.
Who should use MailMachinePro?
We recommend this newsletter system for a person or company that is going to do a moderate amount of email outreach (2-20 newsletters a month) for one or more email groups. Best candidates will already have a small or medium-sized web site not powered by a CMS (Content Management System) and want to communicate more frequently and effective with prospective and current customers.
Technical Skills needed
The software requires a hosting plan with PHP and one mySQL database. You will need to set up a database/database user and possibly edit data in the database (we used phpMyAdmin). You will need to upload files to your server and edit file/directory permissions. To edit or create your own templates, you will need intermediate to advanced HTML and CSS skills (including the ability to edit HTML/CSS comfortably by hand) and be able to find your way around PHP and javascript. To create auto-replies, automatic backups of your data, and other automated tasks you will need server access and the ability to set up CRON jobs.
Want to send email newsletters?
Do you want to have your own email newsletter system? We can help you set it up and customize the look to match your Web site or other marketing materials. Get in touch with us for more information! Contact Q Digital Studio >
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