When people start getting into the world of servers and email service providers, especially in bulk emailing and sending newsletters and customer forms and information, terminology and technology can be confusing. When business customers are told by an email service provider they need an SMTP relay service this level of confusion can definitely increase.
While it may sound complicated an SMTP relay service is very common and it is used as a standard part of most email accounts. To understand just how it works and how it helps you email get delivered to the one unique email address it is going to is actually amazing if you stop and think about it.
SMTP Basics
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which was the name given to the system that allows your email to send from your account to that of the recipient. It is not able to process incoming mail, but that is not its purpose, rather it uses special protocols to determine which email it is being sent to using the specific email identification address.
The Relay
All standard email systems provide clients with a limited number of outgoing emails per day which will vary from email services. In many cases it is 250 or more, but in some it may be less.
If a business was not using an SMTP relay service to send bulk mail after 250 limit is reached the outgoing email would simply shut down. With the SMTP relay service instead of just your server and the recipient’s incoming email server communicating, bulk email is routed through a third option, the SMTP relay service.
However, this SMTP relay service is more than just a way to prevent outgoing mail delays. It also has the ability to allow you to send out as much mail as you need on a daily basis without triggering the server spam protocols. Without this those large bulk email blasts would end up getting the company emails stopped and halt all email delivery from identified accounts.
Using an SMTP relay service for large volumes of emails such as newsletters and promotions as well as transactional emails is critical. These services can also allow for tracking, which is an essential consideration in determining the effectiveness of your campaign.