Send MailPoet newsletters through Postfaro

This guide shows how to configure the MailPoet WordPress newsletter plugin to send through Postfaro.

Check first: does your MailPoet allow a third-party SMTP server?

Whether you can use an outside SMTP service with MailPoet depends on your MailPoet version and plan, and MailPoet has changed its sending options over time. MailPoet’s own documentation describes a Send With… settings tab with two choices: the MailPoet Sending Service, and Other, which includes “SMTP / Third-Party Sender”.

Before you buy Postfaro for MailPoet, open MailPoet → Settings → Send With… in your own installation and check that Other → SMTP is available. If it is not, Postfaro cannot be connected to MailPoet directly. Contact us at [SUPPORT EMAIL] before purchasing and we will tell you about the options.

Field labels below may differ slightly between versions. [verify UI path]

Before you start

• Your Postfaro setup is Ready in the panel.
• You have created a sender address for newsletters (for example [email protected]) and copied its SMTP username and password.
• You are a WordPress administrator.

Step 1 — Set the default sender

1. Go to MailPoet → Settings → Basics. [verify UI path]
2. Under Default sender, set:
   • From name: your newsletter name; and email: your Postfaro sender address, exactly — e.g. [email protected];
   • Reply-to: a mailbox you read, or leave it as the sender address (Postfaro forwards replies to the mailbox you set in the panel).
3. Save.

Step 2 — Choose SMTP as the sending method

1. Go to MailPoet → Settings → Send With…
2. Under Other, click Configure (or Activate).
3. Choose SMTP as the method and fill in:

4. Use Send a test email on the same page, then Activate / Save.

MailPoet notes that it cannot support custom SMTP configurations itself. If the test fails, use the troubleshooting table below or contact Postfaro support.

Step 3 — Sending frequency

MailPoet lets you set a sending frequency (for example “X emails every Y minutes”). You have two good options:

• Let Postfaro queue: set a frequency your web host can handle. Postfaro accepts the whole newsletter and spreads it over the following days if it exceeds your daily limit, then emails you a “Batch queued” summary.
• Let MailPoet throttle: set the frequency so that MailPoet sends no more than your current daily limit (5,000 per day, lower during warm-up). The waiting then happens inside MailPoet.

Step 4 — Keep WordPress system email off the campaign queue

MailPoet’s SMTP setting is meant for MailPoet’s own emails. Some MailPoet versions offer an option to send all WordPress emails (or WooCommerce emails) through MailPoet’s sending method. [verify UI path: MailPoet → Settings → Advanced, and the WooCommerce tab] Leave such options off, so that order confirmations and password resets do not wait in Postfaro’s campaign queue — and are not rejected because their From address is not your Postfaro sender address.

Also note that MailPoet’s subscription confirmation emails are sent with MailPoet’s sending method. On days when a big newsletter is queued at Postfaro, confirmation emails can be delayed. [CONFIRM whether a separate priority lane will be offered later.]

Step 5 — Keep your list clean

Keep MailPoet’s unsubscribe link in your footer. Postfaro additionally adds a one-click unsubscribe header and lists bounced, complained and unsubscribed addresses in the panel under Cancelled addresses, with the reason. Postfaro does not write back into MailPoet.

After each newsletter (or monthly), export Cancelled addresses from the Postfaro panel and set those subscribers to Unsubscribed or Bounced in MailPoet. [verify UI path]

Troubleshooting