Can I use Parish Online Email to send newsletters?

Can I use Parish Online Email to send newsletters?

No, it's not advised to use your email account to send emails out to lots of residents as part of a newsletter.

The reason for this is:
  1. The email system has a limit of 100 recipients, so you'll likely hit that quite quickly.
  2. The deliverability of those emails will be low, as you'll be seen as "spamming".
  3. If you do it wrong, you'll end up sending an email where everyone can see each others email addresses, which is a GDPR breach.
However, there are solutions for sending newsletters to your residents where your recipient database is managed in a GDPR compliant way, people can unsubscribe when they want, and the software is configured for mass-mailing.

We recommend using one of the two software packages:

Zoho Campaigns

Zoho Campaigns is Parish Online's recommended solution for setting up a newsletter. Reasons include:
  1. There's a free version you can try
  2. You can register using your Parish Online email account (Zoho login)
  3. If you want the Standard package then we can add this subscription to your Parish Online invoices.
  4. We can configure your domain so you can send as newsletter@yourparishcouncil.gov.uk (for example)
To give it a go, go to Zoho Campaigns

Email Octopus

Email Octopus is another cost-effective solution for a newsletter. Whilst we don't support it explicitly, the Parish Online team have a lot of experience of using it.

Email Octopus also has a free version.

To give it a go, go to Email Octopus

Collecting subscribers

Here's a guide on adding a subscriber popup on your website. Email Newsletter Pop-up Settings

    • Related Articles

    • Creating a Distribution List

      Overview A Distribution List is an email address solely used for sending emails out to multiple email addresses. For example, instead of entering every councillor's email address in the To field, you can create a distribution list called ...

    • Can I use newsletter software with our gov.uk address?

      Overview It's recommended to use a mass-mailing application like Mailchimp, Zoho Campaigns, Email Octopus or MailerLite for sending out regular emails to a large number of subscribers. If you try to use your own mailbox then you'll quickly hit the ...

    • Getting Started with Parish Online Email

      Overview Whether you're completely new to Parish Online's mail service, or your council is migrating from Parish Online's first generation mail service, this tutorial will guide you the process. By the end of this tutorial you will; Be able to access ...

    • Adding a new email user

      Overview When a new councillor or member of staff joins the Council, you'll want to set them up on your email. If you've got someone who has left, you will need to delete them from the email and you can then reuse their licence. If you have already ...

    • Connecting your mailbox to other email software

      Overview Your email mailbox can be added to any email software that supports IMAP. Please note that if you use Outlook, this is an external application that Parish Online has no control of, so we do not support it. See our rationale for not ...