Important Question About Emailing Contacts List

[almogK]

Hi Hackers, I have a question and would be interested to get feedback and thoughts.

In my Google Apps email account I have over 7,000 contacts (possible more with my previous startup account), everyone on the contact list has had some kind of interaction with me via direct email. I wanted to send out an email to everyone telling them about something that I'm working on.

Keep it short really and email based not a newsletter

I was looking at using MailChimp but that's pretty expensive you pay per subscriber per month, this is a one time email and don't want to pay such a cost. I checked other services and it's the same.

I looked at using GMail but they limit how much you can out per day or as a batch.

So right now I developed my own small tool that does this via SendGrind, I important my contacts via CSV and connect my SendGrid API key and can create a simple text based email which is sent out.

First I wanted to know if this would feel like spam? Can anyone else use a tool like this? Would this become a spam tool? Is this approach good or bad. Anyways glad to get feedback

[hamoperator]

Mailchimp (or Mandrill if you want the API backend) is free for first 12k emails per month. If you are only sending it once, it shouldnt be an issue.

Better to use that then SendGrid since it'll less likely to hit spam folders.

It does sound a bit like spam since this will go to every single email account that has mailed you or you have mailed before. Would it be better to just use Facebook / Twitter / Linkedin + email ~200-300 people.

[almogK]

So I can't use Mailchimp as it cost per subscriber or contact, Mandrill is fine they just updated their pricing and removed the 12K free per month. This is why I went with SendGrid.

Can't use Facebook or LinkedIn I don't connect with everyone I email.