Why You Should Never Use WordPress to Send Newsletter Emails

We strongly advise our users to never use WordPress to send newsletter emails.

Some WordPress plugins allow you to send newsletter emails using WordPress’s built-in PHP mail feature. Often, beginners make the mistake of choosing this method due to lower costs.

In this article, we will explain why it is a bad idea and why you should never use WordPress to send newsletter emails.

Why You Should Take Your Email List Seriously

Your email list is one of the most reliable communication tools. It helps you bring back users to your WordPress website, which can lead to more sales, leads, and conversions.

If you are not already doing it, then you should start building your email list right away.

You will notice that almost every serious marketer, blogger, and business expert will recommend that you use an email marketing service such as Constant Contact, Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue), HubSpot, or Omnisend rather than using WordPress for email newsletters.

Now, you may be wondering if WordPress can send emails itself, then why should you use a third-party service to do that?

Let’s take a look at why.

Reliability

When you send emails using a newsletter plugin that relies on PHP and WordPress email functions, there is a great chance that your emails will land in your user’s spam folder.

Email providers like Gmail and Outlook have spam tools that will mark your email as spam for a number of reasons.

For example, the email server receiving your email will look for an SPF record to determine whether the sending server is allowed to send messages. It will also look for suspicious behavior, words, and phrases to rule out spam.

The spam-catching tools will also check their databases for suspicious IP addresses. On shared WordPress hosting, your website shares the same server IP address with several other websites.

Any sign of abuse by one person on that server can trigger spam-catching databases, which will make your email delivery doubtful.

There are countless other factors that are checked by spam-capturing algorithms, and it is very challenging to satisfy all those.

On the other hand, professional email marketing service providers work day and night to make sure that their emails are delivered to your users’ inboxes.

They apply a strict set of rules to all outgoing emails to ensure they reach the user’s inbox and not spam.

They have highly trained engineers, developers, and support staff that work round the clock to make this possible. They are also approved and known bulk mail service providers with most major ISPs and email services. When a user’s email server receives an email from a white-listed server, they know it is reliable and not spam.

This reliability and deliverability alone is the single most important factor that should be enough to convince you to use a professional newsletter service.

Email Limits and Delays

Many WordPress hosting companies provide email services to be used for a quick business email address or to send WordPress password reset and other important notifications.

They consider mass emailing to be an abuse of their mail servers and have strict limits on the number of emails you can send at a time.

Now, it is possible that your newsletter plugin or script will try to queue outgoing emails. But eventually, your hosting provider will catch and block these processes.

They may even suspend your hosting account for violating their terms of service.

On the other hand, when you are using a professional email marketing service, you don’t need to worry about these limitations.

They have servers spread all across the world, sending hundreds and thousands of emails every day. They have flexible plans that allow you to easily upgrade as your email list grows.

Ease of Use

Email service providers like Constant Contact and Brevo allow you to easily create and send emails to your subscribers. They have extremely easy-to-use tools to create and design your emails.

They also have API integration, which makes it easy for you to connect your email list with other useful WordPress plugins like OptinMonster, WPForms, SeedProd, and more.

By running your own newsletter, you miss out on all these tools that make things easier.

Instead of focusing on growing your business, you will be spending time struggling with things that can be easily done in minutes using a proper email marketing service.

Stats and Analysis

Professional email service providers offer you integrated stats and analytics about your campaigns.

You can see the number of emails that landed in the user’s inbox, how many of them were opened, and the number of clicks you have received. This allows you to improve and adjust your campaigns accordingly.

When sending out your own newsletter through a newsletter plugin, you have no way of knowing how many emails reached the user’s inbox, opened, or clicked.

You’ll have to integrate Google Analytics into your email campaigns and landing pages. Even then, the data you can gather will be limited.

Another reason to use an email service provider is that some of them offer you diagnostic and analysis tools.

You can use those tools to see how your campaigns are doing. If your emails are getting marked as spam, then you can figure out what is triggering the spam check tools to flag your emails.

Compliance Issues

Email marketing is huge, and so is spam. To deal with spam, ISPs and email marketing services have introduced and implemented new legislation, requirements, and protocols.

When you are using a professional email service to send out your newsletter, you don’t have to worry about compliance with regulations in different regions.

These email service providers work very hard to ensure their service is compliant with privacy and anti-spam laws in different countries.

On the other hand, if you are sending out your own newsletter, you are less likely to know if there is something new happening in the email spam protection world.

Cost Effectiveness

Some users might think that if they run their own newsletter using a plugin, then they are saving money.

First, you need to put a value on your time. The time you spend configuring your newsletter plugin is much more valuable than the amount you pay for a good email service.

In fact, you can use one of the best email services, Constant Contact, for free for two months using our Constant Contact coupon. This free trial gives you enough time to set up and start collecting email addresses. By the time your trial ends, your email list will be paying for itself.

Similarly, Brevo offers a free account that you can use to send up to 300 emails per day. After that, you can upgrade your account to send more emails and access more tools.

Which Email Service to Use to Send WordPress Newsletter

We recommend using Constant Contact as they are the best email marketing service for small businesses and blogs.

Constant Contact is easy to use and comes with all the necessary tools like email automation, subscriber segmentation, beautiful templates, and detailed analytics.

For other providers, you may take a look at Brevo (Formerly Sendinblue) or Drip. They offer more advanced marketing features and tools.

For more details, see our detailed comparison of the top email marketing services with pros and cons.

But what if I really want to use WordPress for email newsletters?

Some users don’t like the high costs of these email marketing service providers. In that case, they usually ask us whether it’s even possible to send an email newsletter with WordPress.

The answer is YES.

If we were doing it, the only way we would set it up is by using the FunnelKit Automation plugin for WordPress in combination with WP Mail SMTP.

That’s the only solution that we have found to be reliable for sending email newsletters in WordPress.

Expert Guides on Email Marketing

Now that you know why you shouldn’t use WordPress to send email newsletters, you may like to see some other articles related to email marketing in WordPress.

• How to Create an Email Newsletter the RIGHT WAY (Step by Step)
• Revealed: Why Building an Email List is so Important Today
• How to Build Your Email List in WordPress with OptinMonster
• How to Set Up Email Newsletter Tracking in Google Analytics
• Tested and Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List Faster
• Email Marketing Mistakes WordPress Users Must Avoid

We hope this article helped you learn why you should never use WordPress to send newsletter emails. You may also want to see our guide on how to grow your email list or our expert picks for the must have WordPress plugins to grow your site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.