Kerio Mail Server Mailing Lists

Many companies do regular mailings to customers: newsletters, special promotions, that sort of thing. While some still use postal mail, most now use email as the most convenient and least expensive medium.

Unfortunately, few make use of real mailing list programs. Instead, it's typical to find someone maintaining a large list of email addresses in a Word document and using cut and paste to address a mailing. Often the list is too large to do even that with one message, so there may be multiple smaller blocks maintained. Obviously this is not the right way to do it.

Even if you don't need the full features of a mailing list, you still shouldn't do it that way. See Kerio Connect Webmail Distribution lists (Contact Groups) instead.

Sometimes things are a little better: the groups are defined inside an Outlook distribution list. That's an improvement over a Word cut and paste setup, but it still doesn't have the features of a real program designed to handle mass mailings.

What are the advantages of a true Mailing List program such as is provided with Kerio Mail Server? There are several:

  • Members can subscribe and unsubscribe themselves. If the list were called "ournews", a user might send mail to "ournews-subscribe@xyz.com" to subscribe. A moderator may have to approve the subscription, but whether or not that option is set, the program will send a message back requesting confirmation. This helps to prevent unwanted subscriptions and incorrect email addresses.

  • There is no need to reveal the addresses of other recipients. Unlike the Word cut and paste method I see so often, no one receiving the mailing has to know who else received it.

  • There is no need to allow members to send messages back to the mailing list. You can allow that, but often for newsletters and the like, you want this to be a one-way communication (you should make members aware of a real email address to use for communication).

  • If you do allow members to post, it can be automatic or only with a moderators approval. This makes mailing lists an ideal medium for group discussion.

  • Mailing lists can be automatically archived. With Kerio Mail Server, the archives can be read as mail or through a news server program.

  • Delivery problems are logged and moderators are notified.

  • Boiler plate text is automatic. Usually this includes information about how to unsubscribe, how to access archives, the address of a person to contact in case of problems etc.

If you want to modify more of the default messages than just those the administration interface allows, see the "mlist-" files in (install-dir)/kerio/mailserver/reports/en directory. Keep in mind that changes made there will be overwritten by upgrades.

Internal communication

A mailing list is also very useful for internal communications. It's one way to have an "everyone" group that cannot be spammed by outsiders, too.

Setting up a mailing list in Kerio Mail Server is very easy. Simply add a list (the name you use will become an email address) in Domains->Mailing Lists. Define your policies, and be sure to create a moderator. If users will be subscribing themselves, you will want to send out one last mailing the old way, telling people how to subscribe. If this is a public mail list, you can post the subscribe address on your website. The subscribe address will be the list name plus "-subscribe" at your domain. So, if you are xyz.com and you name your list "saleslist", it will be "saleslist-subscribe@xyz.com".

AOL addresses

People with AOL addresses tend to be less technically savvy as a group.. but they do love to hit that "Spam" button. This can cause AOL to reject your email outright.

If you have that issue, this can help: AOL Postmaster Feedback Loop Information.

When an AOL member clicks "This Is Spam" for a piece of email sent from one of your IPs, this is considered a "complaint". If you are having difficulty delivering email to AOL, a feedback loop (FBL) would benefit you. Once you have created a feedback loop, we will send you a copy of each complaint generated when an AOL member reports your email as spam. Monitoring FBLs benefits both bulkmailers and ISPs, in that they help to manage mailing lists as well as providing early warnings of network security issues such as bot infestations, compromised web forms, and other such sources of spam and abuse.


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