Hey everyone! I'm in the process of building a SaaS product that helps businesses send review request emails to their customers after a purchase. The issue I'm facing is finding an SMTP provider that will support this kind of email sending. My plan is to enable business owners to input their customers' names and email addresses, and then we send out a one-time email inviting them to leave a review. The email will come from my service's domain and will include an unsubscribe link along with the mailing business's address to comply with CAN SPAM regulations. However, I've noticed that most SMTP services require explicit consent from customers before sending out these types of emails. Since the businesses already have a relationship with their customers, I thought this shouldn't be a problem, but many providers seem to disagree. Can anyone suggest an SMTP service that would allow this setup? Or do you have any ideas on how I could adjust my product workflow to work around this limitation? Thanks in advance!
3 Answers
Honestly, you can use pretty much any SMTP service. They often don’t verify consent unless you utilize their built-in subscriber systems. Services like SendGrid, AWS, and Postmark should work just fine for what you're looking to do!
Have you considered checking out Resend? It's a solid option and worth a look!
You’ve got quite a few options! Most email providers like AWS SES, Mailgun, and SendGrid can technically support your needs. They won't stop you from sending emails as long as you're being low-volume and transactional. However, your deliverability could really suffer since, ultimately, it's about open rates and click-through metrics on the receiving end. If your customers are companies that have decent tech support, you might suggest they set up your service on a subdomain of theirs (like bigcustomer.yourservice.com) and leverage their email reputation. But if you're working with smaller businesses, they may not have the IT skills to do that. In cases like that, exploring SMS sends might be worth considering too!
Exactly, you might struggle with penalties from recipients’ providers since they don’t recognize an existing relationship. Stay mindful of your provider's policies for best results.
That makes sense! Most of my customers are smaller shops, so technical changes might be too much for them. I wonder how those email penalties work? Is it just that there isn’t an existing email relationship that gets me flagged? I already know some providers are fine with this from a tech perspective, but I want to ensure I'm following their Terms of Service too.