The client was sending newsletters but used an Office 365 email server, whose terms explicitly prohibit this. As a result, messages were frequently blocked, flagged as spam, and delivered extremely slowly. With high email volumes, the delays were unacceptable, so it became necessary to find a robust solution suitable for large-scale email communication.
We chose SendGrid, which is designed specifically for massive email distribution. However, we did not implement SendGrid’s full newsletter interface. Instead, we used only their SMTP infrastructure, which allowed us to maintain full control over content generation directly in FileMaker.
Newsletters are created entirely within FileMaker, including personalization, content, HTML structure, and attachments. Using a script leveraging Insert from URL, messages are sent via the SMTP protocol to the SendGrid server. Part of the solution also included registering and configuring a SendGrid account, including setting up sender information and domains.
We also optimized the email structure to meet common standards for bulk messaging, such as proper text-to-image ratios, alternative text for images, valid HTML, and other adjustments that help ensure emails reach recipients and are not marked as spam.
With this solution, the client can reliably send newsletters to hundreds or even thousands of contacts using a secure and trusted email infrastructure—while managing everything from their existing FileMaker application.
