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I have a marketplace website. There are several types of emails that I am having the coders develop to be sent to users. For example, when a seller's item is sold they are alerted, when they have feedback to leave, when they receive a message on our website, etc...

What is the best way, as an administrator, to manage all of these alerts? Is it an industry standard to have the coding team build all of these into the backend of the website to automatically be sent?

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i've heard good things about mailgun – jberger Apr 25 '12 at 16:11
does a service like this allow automatic emails to include user specific information? for instance, when a seller receives an email that their item has sold, can the email have information about which product was sold as well as a link etc...? – sk24iam Apr 25 '12 at 17:55
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it seems like the api allows you to send ANYTHING in the email – jberger Apr 25 '12 at 18:53
There're tons of mail services with extensive APIs and no "industry standards". – dnbrv Apr 25 '12 at 19:58

closed as not a real question by dnbrv, Christian, Ross, Karlson, Zuly Gonzalez♦ Sep 16 '12 at 13:29

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

2 Answers

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"Managing all these alerts" is a bit of a wide net.

If you mean "content creation" I agree with Scott - there are no "standards" around transactional emails - many of the companies tailor them to match the style they represent (A financial company tx email would undoubtedly be more formal than a gamer forum, for example).

There are a few "best practices" sites around (google "transactional email examples" for a few good ones) and there's always Nielsens Usability reports ( http://www.useit.com/alertbox/confirmation-email.html )

If you mean "delivery confirmation" then outsourced mail providers like mailgun, postmark, mandrill are a consideration. Many offer visibility into the delivery process (esp. helpful when support fields new users questions about "I didn't get the email" - you can search by email recipient). Here's an unverified list of recent ones ( http://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/transactional-emailing-providers-mailjet-sendgrid-critsend ) that should get you started.

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That Nielsens Usability report is a real gem. – MikeNereson Jun 25 '12 at 17:35
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It looks like you're doing a good job identifying the specific points at which notification would be appropriate. There are no specific standards AFAIK that deal with notification, but there are probably regulatory issues regarding email that you'll want to familiarize yourself with (in the region in which you operate). And it's always a good practice to have an easy opt-out process so that people can pick and choose which if any emails they receive from you. This will greatly reduce the number of spam complaints you receive (and will thus increase the deliverability of your email).

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