MailGun – Send, Receive and Track Bulk Emails

MailGun – Send, Receive and Track Bulk Emails

Whatever your background is, you will find that email is the most effective communication tool there is today in getting your messages through. You may be starting your own virtual shopping mall or trying to seek an effective way to communicate with the thousands of members of your NGO. Or perhaps you are a business owner who wants to gauge how well-received your promotions are.

Nevertheless, finding a reliable mass email software is never easy. But with our software, Thunder Mailer, you now have options… and affordable ones too. We understand that mass email marketers have various requirements and these requirements can change over time. When you first started, you may be most concerned about budget. As your business grows, you may require more features and are willing to pay for them.

That’s why Thunder Mailer gives you the freedom to choose the SMTP server you wish to use. Now, that makes great business sense, doesn’t it?

Thunder Mailer integrates with any standard SMTP servers

In our previous article, we had discussed about SendGrid and why it is recommended to be used with your Thunder Mailer software. Actually, Thunder Mailer works well with all SMTP servers, both free and premium. This means that you are not tied to a single SMTP server and if desired, you can change SMTP server providers anytime without affecting Thunder Mailer’s performance.

In this article, I would like to introduce another worthy SMTP server provider, Mailgun. You can easily and seamlessly integrate Mailgun with Thunder Mailer.

Who is Mailgun

While might not be as big as SendGrid, Mailgun is a serious competitor in the SMTP server industry. Their clients include Spool, Parse and AddRoll.

In 2012, Rackspace Inc, which specializes in managed hosting, decided to acquire Mailgun to boost their cloud services. The acquisition did not affect existing Mailgun customers’ accounts. On the contrary, this move promises more resources and growth, hence increasing the quality of service.

Here are some features which Mailgun offers.

• Free SMTP Server

  Mailgun provides users with a free account where you can send 10,000 emails every month for FREE. Yes, absolutely free and there is no hidden charges. You can use their SMTP server for FREE. This is great news for smaller businesses that are on a budget or for those who wants to test out Mailgunn’s services. Of course, if you only need to send less than 10,000 emails a month, then they are perfect for you too!

  All you have to do is invest a one-time amount of $69 (from time to time, we have special promotions too!) for the Thunder Mailer software and you have access to free mass emailing service for up to 10,000 messages per month.

  However, understandably, their free accounts have a few other limitations e.g. you can only create up to 5 domains. But if you were to provide your billing details, you are then given more features:

  1. You can send unlimited number of emails
  2. Logs and Event API data retention is up to 30 days
  3. You can create up to 1,000 domains

  Don’t worry, you will still get the first 10,000 emails free when you sign up for paid accounts. The difference is that paid accounts give users the flexibility and convenience to continue sending emails after the 10,000 free email quota is met.

• Pricing Policy

  The one thing I love about Mailgun is their pay-as-you-use policy. Yes, their pricing policy is based on volume instead of a pre-set number of emails or features.

  For example, based on their Monthly Pricing calculator, 40,000 emails in a month would cost you $15 per month and 39,500 emails for $14.75. Pretty straight forward and you won’t have to worry about paying “extra” for unused portion of allotted emails.

• Analytics

  Like SendGrid, Mailgun too provides tracking information for their customers’ email campaigns. Users are provided with chart and percentage information of the open and click rates, email bounce rate and the number of unsubscribes on their Mailgun account dashboard.

• Multiple Domains

  As mentioned earlier, Mailgun allows you to create multiple domains. Actually, it doesn’t quite matter which domain you use when you are sending the emails. Each domain has a different SMTP username and password. Just use the appropriate sign-in for the domain you wish to use.

• Deliverability

  This is one of the main differences between free and paid SMTP server providers.

  What Mailgun does is that they automatically queue your emails in order to help you establish a sending reputation for your IP. In other words, if you have just created a new account, you will notice that your delivery speed is slightly slower. This would help minimize your spam complaints as well as lower your bounce and unsubscribe rates. Over the next few campaigns and when your reputation grows, Mailgun will gradually increase your sending speed.

Thunder Mailer users have the freedom to select the SMTP server that provides the best features at the most desired price depending on their requirements.

SendGrid and Mailgun are among the top SMTP server providers currently and offer great SMTP services. Both have their pros and cons. We will discuss a comparison between them in an upcoming article. Meanwhile, do check out Mailgun and give them a try. You have nothing to lose and lots to gain.