It is so much easier to send newsletters and mass group communications digitally opposed to having to print and then lug them down to the post office, or is it? In most cases the answer is yes, unless the sender isn’t aware of general rules governing the sending of bulk e-mails.There are mail policy limits set on outgoing mail which are governed by your ISP or your web-based e-mail service provider (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc) because mass e-mailing is resource intensive. Limitations vary greatly and I suggest you contact them in advance to verify their limit size.There are a few ways to approach the challenge of sending mass e-mails; some are far more efficient than others as you will see.— Break the email distribution list into smaller groups — if your limit is 100 per hour and your mailing list is say 300, you can break it into three groups of 100. This is labour intensive and inefficient as you will have to wait and then send them over the course of three hours.— Use an external vendor such as Blue Host which has a minimal monthly free or one of the other sites such as MailChimp which offers a free and paid service.There’s absolutely nothing wrong with opting for a free option vs a paid product, so long as it meets your needs. You also need to assess the features and ensure you aren’t foregoing a key component that you will need in order to be successful.MailChimp (http://mailchimp.com/pricing/free) offers both products and their free offering known as the Forever Free Plan is relatively comprehensive and should meet the needs of small and medium-size organisations. If you have less than 2,000 subscribers and don’t need to send more than 12,000 e-mail’s a month, this plan fits the bill.One of the features not included in the Forever Free Plan that I feel would be a miss for any organisation today would be the Social Pro function that allows you to learn more about the social media habits of your subscribers and carry out e-mail or newsletter blasts that would appeal to specific users.Presentation is everything, even if it’s a personal e-mail or newsletter sent to ten of your closest friends. The other notable paid option is called the Inbox Inspector, which will provide you with examples of how your newsletter will appear in various mail clients. This is important because content that looks great in Hotmail viewed using an internet Explorer browser may look dishevelled in Apple Mail or another mail client.There are templates to get you started, and signing up is painless, so why not try it out.MailChimp offers flexible payment terms, whether you’re interested in trying a paid subscription or the pay as you go option, one is sure to meet your needs. Month-to-month customers aren’t required to sign contracts so the switch back to pay as you go or Forever Free is simple.We’d love to know what topics you’d be interested in learning more about, so e-mail us at TechBuzz@btc.bm