Sending transactional emails in bulk as newsletters is commonplace among companies. But doing it without compromising the delivery of emails with conventional methods can be tricky. So, most companies are switching over to new approaches such as SMTP relay to address this problem.
Read on to know about SMTP Relay in detail and the advantages when used with email marketing platforms.
What Is SMTP Relay?
In technical terms, SMTP Relay is a service for the delivery of multiple emails through a 3rd party provider. It is primarily useful for sending huge volumes of emails in batches that need password resets or delivery confirmations.
The working of the SMTP relay depends on the successful connection between the SMTP port and the TCP connection. When both the components connect to a network, emails start moving to respective email addresses.
SMTP relay is nothing else but the server through which emails pass before reaching the desired destinations.
Each SMTP server has its address; whether it is Gmail or any other provider, all email providers comply with this rule.
Components of SMTP
SMTP primarily consists of the following two components:
- User Agent (UA)
- Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
Both these components perform their defined roles to ensure the smooth movement of emails to the desired destination.
Following creating a message, the UA component prepares it for its movement to an email address. On the other hand, the MTA component moves the email message from the sender’s email address to the recipient’s email address.
Why Marketers Use SMTP Relay
In email marketing campaigns, most marketers strive to achieve the objective of sending as many emails as possible to potential business prospects. Sending individual emails for this purpose can be tedious and inconvenient.
SMTP relay is a handy option to break the monotony of this repetitive task; it enables marketers to send emails to many potential customers at once. This way, it ensures high deliverability.
Besides deliverability, marketers look for ways to overcome cost-related challenges. They strive to devise a method run email marketing campaigns within a fixed budget. SMTP relay helps marketers achieve this objective even if they have a tight budget.
In a nutshell, marketers use SMTP relay to attain three goals. These include achieving high deliverability, sending emails in large batches, and sending emails within a fixed budget.
SMTP+ Email Marketing Platform: A Winning Business Combo
When SMTP works in conjunction with an email marketing platform, it makes for a winning combination in many ways. Both these aspects add up to form a winning business combo in the following ways:
- Go beyond sending limits
Email marketers need to send emails to potential business prospects in bulk. Any limit to the number of emails they send can impose constraints on their email marketing campaigns. SMTP relay removes this constraint by sending emails beyond the normal limit.
It proves to be useful for companies that wish to meet targeted goals within a shorter duration. The best part about it is SMTP relay allows companies to do so without increasing the operational costs.
- Send emails from multiple IPs
Marketers and companies linked with email marketing campaigns prefer to use multiple IPs to prevent the exchange of traffic. It proves to be useful, especially when the exchange of traffic happens via the same gateway.
Another factor that encourages companies to use multiple IPs is spam filters. Email service providers implement them to enhance the user experience of users.
Sometimes such filters auto-identify marketing emails and mark them as spam. Also, users have the option to do the same on their own. Either way, spam filters put the email addresses of marketers at the risk of being blacklisted.
If a marketer sends emails from a single IP, blacklisting it can hijack their email campaign. An SMTP relay server prevents such a situation by enabling marketers to send emails from multiple IPs.
- Protect sender reputation
An SMTP relay service blocks the movement of spam emails from its server. This way, it protects the reputation of a marketer with an outbound spam filter.
The outbound spam filter also helps web hosts bypass the common issues resulting from a compromised IP.
- Personalize emails & target relevant segments
The parameters of a successful email marketing campaign have changed in the last few years. At present, email hygiene is an important consideration that governs the success of such campaigns.
SMTP relay cuts down marketers’ workload by filtering the list of potential customers among email subscribers from time to time. It cleans up those subscribers who are inactive and keeps the list warm.
This way, it maximizes the chances of conversion in an email marketing campaign. Apart from ensuring the delivery of emails to interested and active business prospects, it also enhances email sending habits.
- Analyze & improve your campaigns
The success of a campaign depends on persistent efforts and planning according to current market trends. Without these imperatives, an email marketing campaign can go haywire.
Performance assessment is a must for a marketer to keep their campaign on track; the more it happens, the better.
For marketers’ benefit, an SMTP relay service simplifies the task of monitoring the performance of their campaign. It helps them find out the existing issues, if any, based on which they can fine-tune their strategy for better outcomes.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, SMTP relay is a boon to marketers and companies that deal with email marketing campaigns. It gives a clear advantage to both in the above ways, thereby playing a vital role in an email marketing campaign’s success.
