Look at where email leaves a typical British small business. The accounting package sends invoices. The website contact form sends enquiries. The booking system sends confirmations. The CRM sends renewal reminders. Often all of this goes through a shared Office 365 or Gmail mailbox, or straight from a web server with no authentication at all. That is how legitimate invoices end up in junk folders. An SMTP relay gives those systems a proper, authenticated route to the inbox.
New to the term? Our explainer on what SMTP is covers the basics.
What Mailpro’s SMTP relay gives you
- Authenticated sending from your domain. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC so receiving servers can verify that your emails really come from you.
- Encryption in transit with TLS 1.3.
- Visibility. See what was sent, opened, clicked or bounced in SMTP statistics, which is useful when a client says an invoice never arrived.
- Simple set-up. Enter the host, port, username and password in your software’s email settings. The FAQ on which SMTP port to use explains the options.
- Pay per send. Mailpro is priced by messages sent, not contacts, which suits transactional volumes.
Typical UK uses
- Invoices and statements from accounting and practice-management software.
- Order and dispatch emails from an online shop.
- Contact form and quote-request notifications from a WordPress site.
- Appointment confirmations from booking systems used by clinics, salons and garages.
- System alerts from IT monitoring tools.
Service emails and PECR
Most of what flows through an SMTP relay is service email: receipts, confirmations and notifications. Those don’t need marketing consent under PECR. If you start adding promotions to them, they become marketing messages and the consent or soft opt-in rules apply. Our guide to UK email marketing law explains where the line sits.
Why hosting location matters
Invoices and account emails often contain personal and financial details. Mailpro processes them on private Swiss infrastructure, outside US jurisdiction, and never sells or rents your data. The UK recognises Switzerland as providing adequate protection, so using a Swiss relay doesn’t normally require extra transfer safeguards. That is a straightforward answer when a client’s procurement team asks where their data goes.
SMTP or API?
If you control the code and want per-message status and contact sync, the email API may suit you better. If your software only offers SMTP settings, the relay is the quickest route. Many organisations use both from one account.
Deliverability you can see
In Mailpro’s own customer survey, users rated email deliverability 9.6 out of 10. What matters for you is your own results, so check bounces and spam complaints after the first week and keep your domain authentication up to date. Mailpro’s support team can help with the set-up.