What SMTP+ is and when to use it

SMTP+ is a SMTP relay service built right into your MailUp account. SMTP+ makes MailUp a truly complete email delivery solution in that you can now use it not just to create and send email marketing campaigns and triggered messages, but also to send transactional, and personal emails. For example:

You can configure your ecommerce store to use SMTP+ as the SMTP server to send transactional messages from the online store
You can set your WordPress blog to do the same
You can even configure your email client (e.g. Outlook) to send messages through SMTP+

The main advantages of using a service like SMTP+ are higher deliverability and tracking. Let's take a closer look...

Not for promotional campaigns

SMTP+ is not to be used for bulk promotional campaigns but only for personal or transactional messages. For more details, please contact support@mailup.com

Transactional emails with MailUp: SMTP vs API

With MailUp you have two options when it comes to sending transactional emails:

SMTP+, our SMTP relay, discussed here
REST API: see the API documentation

Standard SMTP vs. MailUp's SMTP+

	Regular SMTP server	MailUp's SMTP+
Deliverability	Potentially low (1)	High
Statistics	None	Detailed at user level
Scalability	Limited (2)	High
Header/footer	Must be in the message	Can be automatically added
Notifications (e.g. bounces)	To the sender	Customizable (e.g. sent to IT staff)
Triggered Emails	None	Unlimited
Recipients database	None	Automatically created
Unsubscriptions	Manual	Automated
Bounce management	Manual	Automated
Feedback Loop managament	None	Automated
Sending messages in CCN	Limited	Unlimited. The BCC recipient receives the message with the address in the To field
Sending attachments	Limited	Up to 10MB

(1) You are at the mercy of your SMTP server's reputation, which is affected by all the companies that are using it. For example, if your Web hosting company has deliverability issues, you would be negatively affected

(2) Your ISP's or Web hosting company's SMTP server is not intended for "heavy" use: it may even have volume/rate limits in place.

Higher deliverability

All emails will now go through MailUp, leveraging the system's high deliverability. Take an ecommerce Web site, for example. It typically sends emails through the Web hosting company's SMTP server. That server, however, may be used by companies that do not follow email marketing best practices, and might therefore suffer from a low reputation, with the result that emails end up in the Junk folder. Important messages such as an Order Confirmation message may never be seen by the customer. By switching to SMTP+, that online store will no longer be sending messages through the Web hosting company's SMTP server, but rather through MailUp, enjoying much higher deliverability.

Tracking

Messages sent through SMTP+ are tracked. You can tell the system how to aggregate messages (e.g. based on the date, the message subject, the sender, etc.) and see

Other information

List configuration: we recommend that you create a separate List for messages sent via SMTP+, or a separate account if you are sending non-bulk messages (i.e. transactional or personal emails) in order not to deliver to the "Promotions" tab in Gmail.
Pricing: SMTP+ is part of your MailUp account. There are no additional fees, unless you need to configure a separate account for SMTP relay.
Gmail "Promotions" tab: Google places most bulk messages in the Gmail "Promotions" tab: if you're sending transactional emails, you will need a different MailUp configuration to tell Gmail not to do so. This requires that you set up a separate MailUp account. Contact us if you need more information about this account configuration.

SMTP+ v2

Over the last several months we've worked hard on a new version of our SMTP relay service that would provide better performance, higher scalability, and enhanced functionality.

Version 2 of SMTP+ accomplishes all three of these goals, and becomes available to all MailUp users in June of 2015.

What's new in SMTP+ v2

Here is a short list of what's new.

Summary	Details
Faster mailing speed	Thanks to a completely rethought mailing engine, messages are sent within a few seconds (compatibly with your subscribed sending speed).
MailUp merge tags support	If the message contains merge tags (also called Dynamic fields), they are replaced with the corresponding values that exist in the MailUp account's recipient data.
Custom merge tags support	You can include value pairs in the header of the message, and have those values replace the corresponding merge tags in the body of the message at send time.
Message scheduling	In the header of the message, you can now include a parameter that will tell the system to park the message and send it at a later time.
Message header pass-through	If there are special headers in the message, you can contact us and ask that they are preserved (we ask you to contact us so that we can confirm that there will be no conflicts).
Better queue status report	Quickly see how many messages have been sent, how many are queued up, and how long it will take to send them.
Message-level configurations	You can now configure directly in the header of the message (and therefore at the message level) parameters such as whether a header and/or a footer should be included. In SMTP+ v1, these parameters could only be configured at the overall List level.
Reports based on custom parameter	You can now aggregate messages based on a custom ID (e.g. a customer ID that exists in your system, not in MailUp) and therefore generate more meaningful reports.

Using SMTP+

Please refer to the following pages for details on how to...

Configuring applications and email clients to use SMTP+