Switching list hosts: when and how

When the passion goes out of the relationship, it's time to say goodbye. But maybe it's not them, it's you.

According to the experts interviewed by Kate Maddox, performance problems are not always your email service's fault. Before switching to another host, you need to take a look at your own practices and see if they're behind any drops in deliverability or response.

Between them, David Daniels and Elie Ashery offer up a few broad tips on when it's time to change and how to make the transition easier. You'll find more articles on the topic here.

One vital tip...

Before you put out the first emails with your new service...pour yourself a stiff drink, cross fingers on both your hands, take a deep breath and get someone else to click on the "send" button. It helped me.

Email service listings | Tags: email marketing services, list hosting

Permalink | June 08, 2007 | 2 comment(s)
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2 Comments:

At the end of the article, they advise people to export bounces and unsubs before they switch ESPs.

Smart. They should also export a bunch of email stats and reports, because the new ESP may need them to judge how "clean" their list is.

When people come to us and say "I hate my old ESP" or "I've had problems at my last ESP" we usually think in the back of our heads, "what has this guy done wrong?"

So before people can just import lists from their last ESP, we like to see open rates, unsub rates, bounce rates, and especially abuse complaint rates (if their ESP tracked them).
By Ben, on 08 June, 2007

Thanks Ben - great tip. Plus of course you'll want to keep those records for yourself before your old service deletes them.
By Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on 08 June, 2007

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