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How to configure email sending in Icegram Express?

By default, Icegram Express send emails from your WordPress site with WP Mail.

Most WordPress hosting companies do not configure it properly, and some simply disable it to prevent abuse. Since WP mail is not authenticated, users can even face spam-related issues. But, if you want to send emails to a small list of subscribers, you can continue using WP Mail as the mailer in Icegram Express.

And if you have huge subscription lists or often run campaigns, we recommend using a dedicated mail server or sign up to a third-party email service like Pepipost for smoother delivery. Or you can integrate any one of the mailers from Icegram Express > Settings > Email Sending tab.

Configure Mailers​

If you are a premium user, you can configure the below mailers to send emails from Icegram Express

This is all about configuring mailers in Icegram Express.

How Cron works in Icegram Express​

The next step to look into is CRON. For free users in order to send emails automatically after configuring the available mailers, the next step you need to do is to set up Cron on your server.

Reason: In the free version, you need to send emails manually by going to Icegram Express > Reports section or hitting the Cron URL manually.

What is Cron?​

Cron jobs are scheduled tasks that the system runs at predefined times or intervals. Typically, a cron job contains a series of simple tasks that the system runs from a script file.

Since Icegram Express 4.0, Cron is enabled by default and all emails are sent through Cron. It uses WordPress Cron or Server Cron. Cron sends emails on a regular interval and it can vary from seconds to minutes, hours or weeks, etc. Chris Lema has a wonderful share about what WP Cron is and why he doesn't use it.

How to set up Cron?​

As mentioned, WordPress Cron is enabled by default but we shouldn't rely on WordPress Cron for sending emails. Please follow the below steps to setup Cron if you do not have a Premium plan,

  1. Navigate to Icegram Express > Settings > Email Sending and copy Cron URL.

  2. Follow the steps provided in one of the below documentation for setting up Cron on the server

    a. Schedule cron emails in cPanel

    b. Schedule cron emails for in Parallels Plesk

note

In order to avoid setting this up manually, we recommend using Icegram Express Premium which supports cron. As soon as you activate the plugin, we will register your cron URL with us and we will manage it. Our cron server checks your pending queues frequently based on the interval saved in your Icegram Express > Settings > Email Sending > Send emails at most every setting field. If it is 15 mins, it will take care of the email queues you have every 15 minutes. So you just sit back and relax. You also need not worry if your hosting does not support cron, or if you don't have cPanel access. We will take care of that.

If you have opted for the 14-days trial period during the onboarding process of Icegram Express, then you don’t need to set this up till the trial expires.

How can I check if the scheduled cron jobs are properly executed?​

Plugin will send one email to admin whenever the cron job is triggered successfully.