Compass Designs .net

Letterman

developer.joomla.org/sf/sfmain/do/viewProject/projects.letterman

Pros
Simple clean interface makes this email component easy to use. Contains most of the core features you would need in an email newsletter. Imports CSV and XML.
Cons
Some key features missing such as multiple lists and bounce handling.

Features: 3 stars
Interface: 4 stars
Overall: 3 stars

Letterman is very easy to set up, consisting of a single component file and a subscribe module. In under 2 minutes you are installed and working on your email template. The interface is equally as simple. There are three main sections: configuration, subscriber management and newsletter management.

• Reliable sending mechanism
  There don't seem to be any known issues related to sending emails from Letterman. There does not seem to be anyway to resume a failed sending. Once you send, there is no progress monitor.
• Ability to throttle sending
  When you send an email, you can set how many you need to send out at once. There does not seem to be any way to vary the time period between these groups.
• Unsubscribe mechanism
  All emails have an unsubscribe automatically added to the email as a footer. Following the link sends you to a page where the subscriber has to enter their name and email. This does mean that if they can't remember it, they cannot easily unsubscribe.
• Subscribe form
  The subscribe form/module sends a viewer to a page that shows all recent newsletters and a link to subscribe to our newsletter. Testing this process it seems that the module doesn't actually subscribe you, but sends you to this page where you need to re-enter your information. This seems a redundant step.
• Double opt in
  Letterman has a simple, but effective double opt in process. It also allows you to send emails to people that have yet to confirm (one should not do this though)
• Multiple lists
  Letterman does not support multiple lists
• Bounce handling
  Letterman does not have any bounce processing.
• HTML templating
  Emails can be created with html and a text only version provided. There is no way to store a template, but it is possible to open up a previous email and copy and paste.
• Import/Export subscribers
  Letterman allows importing from xml and csv files, and allows exporting to xml. There is no process to handle duplicates (though it will skip duplicates on sending). There is a handy "validate" tool that allows you to validate emails. I was not able to get this to work out of the box.
• Integration into Joomla user database
  The integration with the Joomla user db is one way. It is relatively easy to add users with a single click. However, there is no integration from Letterman to the user db. This means that if someone unsubscribe's from your list, you might re-add them as they would still be part of the user database. This can quickly lead to conflicts with the CAN-SPAM act.
• Email Statistics
  Letterman does not offer any sort of statistics tracking.