Which Email Direct Marketing Tool
Do We Use & Recommend?

Our choice of email direct marketing tool is Dotmailer. It’s what we bought and use when creating a bulk email marketing campaign for our clients.

Like our direct marketing consultancy and our clients, Dotmailer is based in the UK. This has several advantages for UK businesses because of the EU anti spam laws that apply here. Download our free Email System Comparison Guide to see how Dotmailer compares to other systems.

General benefits of using Dotmailer

• well-established with a strong and prestigious client base
  
  
• strong links with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), ensuring direct marketing emails have a good delivery rate
  
  
• it’s the email marketing tool we know and use for our clients’ direct marketing campaigns
  
  
• free version for small users
  
  
• free templates for all users
  
  
• full telesupport. Email rendering (how an email looks when your customer receives it) is a complicated and ever-changing subject, so it’s hugely helpful to be able to pick up the phone and discuss a problem with an expert
  
  
• it can handle your database management too, with the options of either using the in-built data management tool or automatic link-up with Salesforce CRM

Benefits for UK businesses using Dotmailer

You can use purchased data lists

While it’s always better to build your own opted-in customer database, sometimes it suits to buy a direct marketing list from a reputable source of legitimate customer data. This is perfectly acceptable within current EU anti spam laws.

However, every US-based email marketing tool that we know of will not allow the use of legitimate purchased lists, even if you’re in the EU.

Avoid the legal minefield of storing your data in the US

Email marketers exporting data on EU citizens to a US email direct marketing tool should be aware of the issues of ‘Safe Harbour’.

Before considering sending any direct marketing emails from the US, you should seek advice on storing your data in the US. Or better still, send them safely from the UK using dotMailer.

Higher delivery rates with UK based IP addresses

Sadly, the US is recognised as one of the countries responsible for the bulk of the world's spam. Britain, on the other hand, is not. So, sending to UK contacts through a UK-based email marketing tool offers some additional delivery benefits.

Yet another reason why Dotmailer is our recommended email direct marketing tool.

Any downside to using Dotmailer?

Cost

A quick search will easily find a lower cost email direct marketing tool. Unless you subscribe to their free entry level system, Dotmailer charge a one-off licence fee, then either a monthly subscription or a PAYG charge per campaign.

Limited data management tool

Dotmailer uses an email address as the primary ID tag for each contact in the data management tool. So, if you wanted to manage customer contacts who don't have an email address, you would need to create a dummy email address.

Integration with Salesforce or a similar CRM system removes this problem, but comes with an additional cost.

GEORGE SAYS... I’m happy to recommend Dotmailer to you (particularly if you’re in the UK), because we’ve used it for over 4 years. I must say that the ability to pick up the phone and speak with tech support about an email problem is priceless. Especially if you absolutely have to send the email out in the next half hour and are tearing your hair out...(yes, I’ve been there!) If you do choose Dotmailer, please remember to tell them I sent you!

• Find out more about those anti spam laws
  
  
• Here's more help on choosing email marketing campaign software
  
  
• Creating an email marketing plan