Compass Designs

A modern website, especially one that is driven by a content management system should be using email to communication with your site visitors. To help you find out which email marketing solution is best for you, we will review various Joomla email newsletters and some other non-Joomla email systems. We will look at both features based on desired functionality and features that are needed to conform to CAN-SPAM requirements.

Find the Best Email Newsletter for your Joomla Website

A Review of Email Marketing Newsletters Available for Joomla

A modern website, especially one that is driven by a content management system should have many tools that allow two way communication with your site visitors. A key part of this communication is the use of email newsletters. Many people associate email marketing just with spam, but email can fill many needs, for example:

• Follow up emails from ecommerce purchases
• Communicating with family members on a family web site
• Sequential ebooks about a particular topic
• A news and tips email from a topic niche site

Recently RSS has become more popular to send information to subscribers, but it is only really adopted by few web users. Most still are using their inbox to get information. I actually use a RSS to email system from Feedblitz on my site.

To help you find out which email marketing solution is best for you, we will review various Joomla email newsletters and some other non-Joomla email systems. We will look at both features based on desired functionality and features that are needed to conform to CAN-SPAM requirements.

A email newsletter should contain the following features (in no particular order):

• Reliable sending mechanism
  If you have gone to the trouble of getting visitors to subscribe, your email newsletter needs to be sent reliably. Pause/resuming the sending is a very useful feature to help make sure you emails get out.
• Ability to throttle sending
  Sending email can be resource intensive for your server. Having emails sent out with delays after X sent is called throttling. It also can overcome forced web host email sending caps
• Unsubscribe mechanism
  For you email to be legal, it must meet the CAN-SPAM act requirement of having an easy unsubscribe mechanism
• Subscribe form
  You need to be able to offer site visitors to subscribe to your email list
• Double opt in
  Recognized as an industry best practice, it is advised to ask subscribers to confirm their email subscription by some manner, eg. clicking on a link sent to that email.
• Multiple lists
  Very useful if you have different lists for different topics/purposes
• Bounce handling
  Emails might bounce for many reasons. Its important for these to be automatically removed from your list as repeat bounces from a particular server can get you flagged as a spammer (blacklisted) by ISP's
• HTML templating
  Current research indicates that html emails have a greater response rate that pure text. They also allow easy tracking of "opens"
• Import/Export subscribers
  As your needs change, you might well need to change your email newsletter system. You'll need to be able to easily import and export your subscriber list. You will also want to have some sort of duplicate handling.
• Integration into Joomla user database
  Many sites will have registration set up on their Joomla site for many reasons, ecommerce, private pages, paid subscription. You will often want send emails to your user database.
• Email Statistics
  Its very important to be able to track statistics about your newsletters, such as open and click rates.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but is what I would consider a minimum list to both meet federal legal requirements for email marketing and for an email marketing solution that compliments the Joomla CMS. We will examine email newsletters that are available as Joomla components and ones that are external to Joomla.

One important consideration that you will need to immediately take into account is how your website is hosted. Most www.aweber.com.

To a certain extent, this does immediately question the usefulness of Joomla email newsletters. If you have big lists, or hope that you will, you will be needing a dedicated server to make use of them.

Joomla Email Newsletters and Marketing Components

There are 5 main email marketing newsletters available for Joomla as integrated components:

• Massmail
• Letterman
• Anjel
• Yanc
• MosListMessenger

Note Massmail is built into the core of Joomla. It is only included here for the sake of completeness as it is not really a email newsletter component. It is most suited for shooting out a quick email to all your administrators for example.

Email Review Summary

There is not too much to separate the four review Joomla email newsletters at this time. All of them contain more or less the same core features, and all off them fall down on bounce handling and integration into the Joomla user database. You basically have 3 main choices at the moment, because of the support issues with Anjel, I would not recommend it.

1. If you need something simple for a small (<100) mailing list then Letterman is for you. Its clean interface and simple sending process make it ideal.
2. If you need to do email marketing with Yanc. It's more complex, but has more features than Letterman, and its still free.
3. If want to go commercial, the MosListMessenger from Phil Taylor might be worth consideration. Its still not ideal but the better support available from a commercial component might be worth it to you.

In our next review, we will be looking at non-Joomla email marketing. We will focus on hosted solutions that address RSS, RSS via email or just simple email.

On to the individual reviews.... 

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.

Anjel

www.schmalls.com

Pros
Almost a complete feature set and some attempt at integration with the Joomla user database.
Cons
Serious questions about support and updates.

Features: 4 stars
Interface: 4 stars
Overall: 3 stars (*support)

Anjel has a solid feature set, including the important functions of statistics and multiple lists. The interface is can be difficult to understand at times, but it is a sophisticated component with more to do, so that's understandable. One serious concern is support. There have been no updates in the project since 2005 and several critical bugs have emerged with the release of the 1.0.8+ versions of Joomla.

• Reliable sending mechanism
  There don't seem to be any known issues related to sending emails from Anjel. 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 as well as set a time delay to pause between batches. There is also a handy feature to require some sort of user input from the admin.
• Unsubscribe mechanism
  All emails have an unsubscribe automatically added to the email as a footer.
• Subscribe form
  The subscribe form module works well, its a one step process. This is always better as more steps lead to abandonment. However, it only asks for your email and not your name. Setting did exist in the module parameters to add the name field, but these did not seem to have any effect.
• Double opt in
  Anjel 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
  You can have as many lists as you need with Anjel. Each one can be subscribed to individually. You can even customize subscribe/opt in messages for each list.
• Bounce handling
  Anjel does not have any bounce processing.
• HTML templating
  Emails can be created with html and a text only version provided.
• Import/Export subscribers
  Anjel allows importing from csv files, and allows exporting to csv. There is no visible process to handle duplicates.
• Integration into Joomla user database
  The integration with the Joomla user db is a bit clumsy. It seems that for any newsletter, Anjel will maintain two lists, one for subscribers that are registered on the site and one for subscribers that are unregistered. It was quite easy to register on the site, and then subscribe to the email newsletter. I then sent a test email and got two copies, as I was on both lists. The unsubscription is handled independently. This means that if someone unsubscribes 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
  Anjel allows you to track simple statistics about how many emails were opened.

Yanc

http://www.joomla-addons.org/yanc.html

Pros
A very strong feature set with multiple lists, integration of content and HTML templating.
Cons
No attempt at integration with the Joomla user database. Interface and installation can be difficult to manage.

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

Yanc has a difficult installation process. There are numerous files to install beyond the basic component. Its interface is sometimes confusing, but it has a solid feature set and a good track record for reliability.

• Reliable sending mechanism
  There don't seem to be any known issues related to sending emails from Yanc. 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 as well as set a time delay to pause between batches.
• Unsubscribe mechanism
  All emails have an unsubscribe automatically added to the email as a footer.
• Subscribe form
  The subscribe form module works well, its a one step process. This is always better as more steps lead to abandonment.
• Double opt in
  Yanc has a simple, but effective double opt in process.
• Multiple lists
  You can have as many lists as you need with Yanc. Each one can be subscribed to individually. You can even customize subscribe/opt in messages for each list.
• Bounce handling
  Yanc does not have any bounce processing.
• HTML templating
  Emails can be created with html and a text only version provided.
• Import/Export subscribers
  Yanc allows importing from CSV files and XML files, and allows exporting to XML. There is no visible process to handle duplicates.
• Integration into Joomla user database
  There is not method to integrate into the Joomla user database. The only possible way to achieve this is to export users from the MySQL tables and them import them into Yanc. Apart from being technically difficult, this means that if someone unsubscribes 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
  Yanc allows you to track simple statistics about how many emails were opened and how many subscribes/unsubscribes you have had.

MosListMessenger

www.phil-taylor.com

Pros
Relatively robust and a sophisticated interface. Useful search feature and duplicate handling on import.
Cons
Commercial component, $40. No bounce processing or statistics.

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

MosListMessenger is a port to Joomla of a commercial email component, ListMessenger. The license is locked to a specific domain. To install you need to upload a php file and then a mini component to read that file and unlock the full component. Is is relatively robust, reflecting its commercial cost.

• Reliable sending mechanism
  There don't seem to be any known issues related to sending emails from MosListMessenger and it has a useful pause/continue progress monitor. On large lists (thousands) either very long sending times or a powerful server are needed.
• Ability to throttle sending
  When you send an email, you can set how many you need to send out at once as well as set a time delay to pause between batches.
• Unsubscribe mechanism
  All emails have an unsubscribe automatically added to the email as a footer.
• Subscribe form
  The subscribe form module works well, its a one step process. This is always better as more steps lead to abandonment.
• Double opt in
  MosListMessenger has a simple, but effective double opt in process.
• Multiple lists
  You can have as many lists as you need with MosListMessenger. Each one can be subscribed to individually.
• Bounce handling
  MosListMessenger does not have any bounce processing.
• HTML templating
  Emails can be created with html and a text only version provided.
• Import/Export subscribers
  MosListMessenger allows importing from CSV files and XML files, and allows exporting to XML. Duplicates are discarded on import.
• Integration into Joomla user database
  There is a free patch that will add new user registrations to the email list. However, this means that if someone unsubscribe's from your list, you might re-add them if you ever did an export or import as they would still be part of the user database. This can quickly lead to conflicts with the CAN-SPAM act.
• Email Statistics
  MosListMessenger does not track any statistics about open rates etc.

If you liked this review and it was useful to you, make sure you subscribe via RSS, RSS via email or just simple email to get ones like this and more Joomla tips and news.