Sendy for Large Email Lists and Savings

If you have an email list of over 2,000 subscribers and want to reduce your email marketing costs, consider Sendy.  I’ve been using this email newsletter program since 2016.  It is also useful if you have multiple email lists to manage.

What is Sendy?

Sendy is a newsletter or ezine service that makes it possible to send authenticated bulk emails to people who have given you permission to do so.  You can set up an email to go out right away or schedule it for any time in the future.  Sendy has a low price without sacrificing deliverability (so your emails don’t end up in spam folders).

Additionally, for each “list” you set up, you can schedule various autoresponders.  An autoresponder is a feature that sends out select messages automatically, on days of your choosing, once someone subscribes to your newsletter.  Sendy has other internet marketing features such as: tracking open rates, sorting, reporting, list segmenting, and much more.

Sendy‘s one-time fee makes it stand out from similar services, which usually charge monthly and on a sliding scale, depending on emails sent and/or number of emails in your account.

 

What You’ll Need to Start Using Sendy

1. A hosting company.  First, check the hosting company for your website.  Check to see if it allows self-publishing a newsletter on the site and what the rules are.  Or, use Amazon AE2 to host your newsletter.
2. Purchase a Sendy license (a $69 one-time fee).
3. Choose an SMTP program.  This allows what you’ve created to “send.”  I use Amazon SES which costs under $2 to send an email to 10,000 people.  However, you can also use Elastic Email, Sendgrid or Mailjet.
4. Hire someone to get it working.  It could be your tech person, Sendy’s team, or someone else you hire.  Sendy does provide instructions to do it yourself.  I used it once, but then decided it’s best to hire a professional to upgrade it for me.
5. Build templates for your newsletter if you want graphics and color.  No template is needed if you’re just sending out a basic text-only newsletter.
6. Articles!  Schedule time to write articles or invite a guest writer to submit an article.  Allocate some budget to hire people to write for you, such as a marketing company that specializes in your industry.  If you’re in the financial professions, a custodian can provide you with pre-written articles already approved by compliance.

 

Sendy Updates and Upgrades

Every now and then, Sendy provides updates to its system with fixes or adds a new feature.  You can choose to use them or not.  They are free, but it’s up to you to update the program or have it updated.  Personally, I do not update until they’ve updated it a few times.  I haven’t found the changes so different that it’s imperative to hire someone to update the program for me immediately.  I update it once or twice a year.

Sometimes, Sendy will upgrade the program.  Again, you can choose to upgrade or not.  The fee is usually half of what a new license would cost.  I wait a few months to upgrade to a new version so that the bugs that members find are worked out first!

 

Integration

Integration allows you to save time and money in the long run.  Zapier is a commonly used integration automation system that is compatible with over 4,000 apps.  I bet you use some of them already for CRM, HR, and other areas of your firm.  Redtail, Hubspot, and Salesforce are examples.  Sendy integrates with many programs using Zapier.

 

Refund Policies

You can ask for a full refund for Sendy IF you make a request within 60 days from the day of purchase.  The license number you were originally given when you purchased Sendy will be revoked.

 

Other Features

You can create forms for your website using Sendy’s form maker.  Basics on the form will be an email and name tags.

Create and store custom tags that you can then segment to create custom lists based on specific characteristics.  Like state, country, last name, or any custom tag you deem important.

See a list of all features on the Sendy website.  Using the demo link on the top of the page, try out the program as it will look on your website’s background.

 

Who Should NOT Consider Using Sendy for Emailing

1. You have a small list.  In this case, try a free trial with Constant Contact or Mailchimp.  You get a certain number of emails sent and/or number of subscribers during the trial period.  After the trial, monthly fees vary based on either the number of emails sent or the number of email subscribers in your account.
2. You’d rather not bother with anything technical and don’t have a team member to offload this task to during the year. You’d be better off with a full-service email service provider (ESP) such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, or Campaign Monitor.
3. Your ideal clients like getting HTML newsletters from you – colorful newsletters with pictures – UNLESS you hire someone to create a template for you or turn what you’re currently using into a template to use in your Sendy.  Sendy allows you to have multiple templates and also send newsletters out as text (black font, no images).
4. You want customer service immediately.  The creator of Sendy, Ben, does answer all requests, but he is not US-based and it might take a few days.  Best to check the forum on the website for the answers you’re seeking or the FAQ.

 

Other Low Cost or Free Newsletter Options

If you’re just starting out with a newsletter, chances are that you have a list of under 2,000 subscribers.  If so, you might consider a basic email newsletter program, such as:

Mautic Community

PHP List  This was the first newsletter list I used on my website.  Very simple to use.  Very little technical expertise necessary.  Ask your website hosting company if they offer it (many do) as an easy plug-and-play option.

Or these low-cost options for small lists that have pricing plans for various levels of subscribers.  ESPs such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, or MailerLite, all of which include the program, hosting, and features all under one dashboard.

 

Newsletter Resources for Self-Hosting Sendy

Email program: Sendy

Best Sendy video Training Very comprehensive.

Integration services: Zapier is a free or paid option, is only necessary if you are integrating Sendy with your CRM program.

SMTP: Amazon SES, Elastic Email, Sendgrid or Mailjet

Hosting: Wherever your website is hosted or Amazon EC2.  No website yet? I’ve used A2 Hosting (current), SiteGround, and Bluehost

 

Sendy Installation Costs

Sendy:  Once you pay $69 for the license, Ben from Sendy will install their system and set up Amazon SES the first time you purchase that app ($79).  Ben will ask you for a bunch of information.  The Sendy team does not maintain updates or upgrades to the Sendy program that you are self-hosting.

Fiverr:  I do not recommend doing the work yourself unless you email the Fiverr vendors first.  Below I have listed my recommendations for Fiverr’s who know Sendy very well and whom I’ve worked with. If you choose them, when you write to them, tell them that CoachMaria sent you and include the name of the hosting company you use for your website.  They will check the hosting company and make sure that Sendy can be self-hosted as a free service.

If all is well, they will send you a custom order request.  They will request access to your hosting website (for installation), your Sendy license number, and your Amazon SES account.  They will ask for a few other important bits of information.

Coach Maria’s personal Fiverr Sendy recommendations are:

Tharindu:  He charges $20-$40 to install the Sendy license plus Amazon SES depending on your hosting platform’s limits and services it offers.  Future charges would be $20 to update or upgrade Sendy.   It’s free for him to ask Amazon for higher user limits than are originally offered by Amazon.

 

 

(c) 2022 Elevating Your Business.