English is not my first language, and I have my “teacher’s hat” on now: so this is going to be a lengthy one. If you don’t want any of the explanation, kindly jump to the bottom for my recommendation. That said, reading through my meanderings will help you better appreciate the WHY of my recommendation.
First, some background information. To be able to send a newsletter, you need three basic things:
1) Form to capture subscriptions on your website (either a pop-up or on-page form)
2) Something to create or build each issue of the newsletter
3) Something to actually deliver each issue of the newsletter.
EMAIL or NEWSLETTER MARKETING Providers perform all three functions (and then some). But they often don’t have good-looking subscription forms, so people often use 3rd-party form providers to design beautiful on-page and pop-up forms to capture subscriptions, and transfer the data (automatically, behind the scenes) to their preferred EMAIL/NEWSLETTER MARKETING provider.
Then there are SMTP or TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL Providers who ONLY specialize in the 3rd function of actually delivering emails. There are tools out there that excel at creating beautiful forms and designing the actual newsletters, but do not send the mails themselves. These tools connect to an SMTP or TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL Provider to actually deliver the emails to subscriber’s inboxes.
With this background knowledge, let’s look at your current solution.
THE “NEWSLETTER” PLUGIN
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The “Newsletter” plugin CAN perform all three functions above, but with a big caveat when it comes to the 3rd function of delivering emails: by default, it will use the same server hosting your website to send your newsletters.
Unless you have and carefully manage YOUR OWN PRIVATE SERVER, it’s never advisable to use your website server to also send bulk emails like newsletters, as your messages will likely end up in your recipients’ spam box.
Recognizing this problem, the “Newsletter” plugin actually recommends that you use it to perform only the first two functions, and has a built-in feature allowing you to integrate with a 3rd-party SMTP/TRAINSACTINAL EMAIL provider to perform the 3rd function of delivering the emails to your subscribers’ inboxes.
THE MAILOPTIN PLUGIN
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MailOptin can also perform all three functions, but, again, with some caveats.
First, when it comes to performing the 3rd function, the same issue I mentioned above with the “Newsletter” plugin surfaces: if you care about your messages reaching your subscriber’s inboxes (instead of their spam box), you should use a specialized 3rd-party service to actually send the emails. And like the “Newsletter” plugin, MailOptin also integrates with several 3rd-party providers.
But…
Whereas the “Newsletter” plugin integrates with SMTP & TRANSACTIONAL EMAIL providers that only send the mail (and nothing else), MailOptin, on the other hand, integrates with full EMAIL MARKETING / NEWSLETTER PUBLISHING providers that perform all the 3 functions above (though they often only excel at the last two, making products like MailOptin essential for the first function of capturing subscribers).
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
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First, both MailOptin and “Newsletter” plugin are performing similar functions, so there’s really no need to use the two simultaneously (even if they could easily share the same subscriber database — which they don’t)
“Newsletter” plugin does not natively support pop-ups. But the same person who makes this plugin also makes the Newsletter Pop-up Maker plugin, which CAN send the captured data to the “Newsletter” plugin. So, if anything, you should be using these two “sister” plugins, instead of MailOptin.
On the other hand…
MailOptin alone CAN do everything that those two plugins will do. You can use MailOptin to create both pop-up subscriptions forms AND widget subscription forms in your sidebar, footer, etc. Plus you can use it to send out newsletters, just like the “Newsletter” plugin.
FINALLY, MY RECOMMENDATION
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— To ensure the highest deliverability (ie the chances of your newsletters getting into your subscriber’s inbox), I don’t recommend you use your website’s server to send your emails. Yes, it’s no extra cost, but why spend the time to create the newsletters if your subscribers aren’t receiving them? I recommend you use a 3rd-party professional service to send the emails.
— Unless your website is a ghost town, WordPress itself does a lot of work to serve your website to visitors. And I don’t recommend you make WordPress’ job any harder by also using it to design and send your newsletters. Again, use a 3rd-party service to perform this function.
So what I consider an optimal solution for you is…
— Use the MailOptin plugin alone, but only to create opt-in subscription forms (as pop-up and widgets in your footer and/or sidebar).
— Create an account at one of the email/newsletter marketing services supported by MailOptin — nearly all of them have a free basic plan — and connect MailOptin to it.
So MailOptin will just capture subscribers’ data and send it to your email marketing service account. And you’ll login to the email marketing account to create and send your newsletters.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY RECOMMENDATION ABOVE AS A BEST PRACTICE, BUT FEEL FREE TO DO WHATEVER YOU DEEM BEST-FIT FOR YOU.
Good luck!
