FeedBlitz

What FeedBlitz is

FeedBlitz is an email marketing service with a web app for lists, campaigns, RSS feed mailings and autoresponder funnels, and a family of APIs that let other software use the same machinery. Its developer site carries the tagline "Win The Inbox -- Programmatically" and a second line that sums up the pitch to partners: "We Win The Inbox - You Get The Glory." The idea is that FeedBlitz handles sending and deliverability while the business building on it keeps the customer relationship.

The developer home page describes three ways in: "Whether you need an API for your forms, a robust transactional mailing solution, or full email marketing services - FeedBlitz has the APIs you need to win the inbox for your clients, app or service." Those map onto the Simple API, the Transactional API and the complete REST API, with a separate section on personalization. The release notes also refer repeatedly to the FeedBlitz app and its UI, so the APIs sit on top of a working email marketing product rather than replacing it.

Who it is for

The transactional API page addresses its reader directly: "You are an agency, service provider, or software vendor." The company is writing for businesses whose own customers need email to work and who would rather offer email as part of their product than send those customers elsewhere. The REST API goes further and says you can "Even build a white label solution", so the audience also includes vendors who want to present FeedBlitz's sending under their own brand.

Simple API for forms and plugins

The Simple API is meant for the lightest kind of integration: getting subscribers into lists from forms, plugins and apps. The documentation's pitch is informal: "Building an integration with FeedBlitz so your users can build their lists and grow their businesses? Sweet! Start here to get your plugin or app going in just a few minutes. Seriously." For a developer writing a plugin or a signup widget, this is the part that turns a form submission into a FeedBlitz subscriber.

Transactional API

The Transactional API handles the one-to-one mail that has to arrive: "Signups, confirmations, receipts - they all need to get to the inbox." The dedicated page lists receipts, opt-in confirmations and reminders, and describes the service as "a custom API into our SMTP cloud" that applies "years of carefully nurtured deliverability excellence" to transactional email.

The page is frank about the problem it solves for agencies and vendors. Rather than "leaving your customers to struggle with the perils of shared hosting and mediocre hosting email servers", or having them blame you for deliverability problems, or hoping they sign up with yet another provider, you use FeedBlitz's API. It also names the goal of letting your customer service teams deal with real issues instead of "they didn’t get the email!" The business model is left to you: "You can bundle, you can upsell, it's up to you and your business model. But the bottom line is this: You solve the problem, you keep any marginal revenue, and you make it easy for your market."

Two release notes extend it. In April 2019 the transactional API gained the ability to resend an email, and the core send call can request delivery and read receipts, with the caveat that receiving mail servers may not send them since those notifications are optional. In January 2019 FeedBlitz added support for attachments in single mailings through the /sendmail and /newsflash resources.

Complete REST API

The REST API is the full programmatic version of the app: "Send mass campaigns in bulk without the hassle. Manage subscribers, lists, feeds and automation. Get data for your dashboards." Its release notes show how far it reaches.

• Bulk subscriber operations (June 2022): an endpoint that provides the same functionality as the bulk move, copy, delete and tag functions in the app's UI.
• Triggers (December 2021): the triggers API gained two event types, Open and Click, which fire when an open is recorded or any tracked link is clicked. The documentation suggests using them to add subscribers who engage to a group.
• RSS feeds (August 2019): the long-standing /feeds resource, which previously supported only GET and said little about a feed, was expanded, and the note calls it the RSS feed API.
• Funnels (July 2019): autoresponders, which FeedBlitz calls funnels, gained a "keepalive" parameter. By default a subscriber who finishes a funnel is done; with keepalive on, the subscriber stays after the sequence completes, so a funnel can behave like a list.
• Sender override (June 2019): individual funnel entries can override the default from name, address and reply-to values, set in the "Mail Action" section of the funnel sequence API. The example given is a new customer onboarding sequence.

Personalization and ads

The newest documentation section is "Personalization & Connected Content". The home page says you can now "incorporate external data sources, JSON objects, and more with FeedBlitz's template personalization tags", which means a mailing can pull in data from outside FeedBlitz rather than only the fields stored on a subscriber.

FeedBlitz also supports ad insertion in mailings. A May 2020 note added four shortcode tags for publishers who want to "earn income passively from your mailstream and still maintain per-list or per-mailing control"; the tags named include <$BlogItemMarqueeAd$>, <$BlogItemBannerAd$> and <$BlogItemRectangleAd$>. For newsletter publishers that carry advertising, the ads are placed from inside the mailing itself.

Pricing

The developer site does not publish a rate card, but it describes the pricing model for transactional mail: "simple fixed pricing that won't punish you for being successful." The transactional page repeats the point, saying partners need to send "without worrying about surprise bills", even if they or their clients become suddenly successful.

Documentation and support

The API documentation went online in December 2018, with a stream of release notes since, most written by Phil Hollows. Each API has its own section and a developer guide, and a "Contact us" link sits in the footer. The notes are candid about pace: the Q1 2022 update simply says there were no material changes to the APIs that quarter.

The verdict

FeedBlitz is a sensible choice for agencies, service providers and software vendors that want to give their customers dependable email, from signup forms and receipts to full campaigns, RSS mailings and funnels, without running mail servers. The REST API mirrors the app closely enough to build dashboards or a white-label product on it, and the ad shortcodes and feed support suit publishers. The caveats are that the developer documentation shows a slower release cadence in recent years and that pricing has to be obtained from the company.