Sending email to lots of people is usually a hassle. Some paste 200 email addresses into the “TO:” field, prompting a heinous “Reply All” thread, others just spam repeatedly without any option to unsubscribe. Email marketing websites try to solve this problem for mass emailers, but most fail.
One that definitely doesn’t fail is MailChimp. I’ve used them repeatedly for clients and previous employers with nothing but good experiences. They make it easy to send emails to one person, or 10,000. Their staff is completely anal about usability, standards and design, which is usually lacking in the email marketing space. Their customer support (thanks, Dan!) should be an example for all (read: personal calls from vacation).
At one point, “an associate” sent a campaign to about 8,000 recipients with two broken links (our bad). A frantic IM to customer support resolved the issue as they just switch out the bad link reference for the good one. Life Career saver.
While they lack some needed features in list management, sorting and client-side accounts, it’s a stellar service for anyone ranging from individuals through medium-sized PR firms.