| When you send an email, do you send it in a fire and | | | | again anyway). Email providers frown on sending |
| forget mode? Once you click the send button you | | | | emails once a users complains. In this day and age |
| just assume it will get to it's destination. For most of | | | | where spam is rampant, the email providers work |
| your emails, this is just fine. If an email does not | | | | extra hard to filter email and provide a good |
| make it, you will probably realize it when you do not | | | | experience from their customers point of view - not |
| receive a reply. You'll figure the Internet daemons | | | | yours. That means removing anything that looks like |
| swallowed it and the typical response is to resend | | | | spam particularly if the user told them it was spam. |
| the email. | | | | By continuing to send emails to a user who has |
| This mode works fine most of the time for you | | | | complained about you, you are just asking to be |
| personal and business emails. However it is a recipe | | | | marked as a spammer for all of your clients using |
| for disaster for any type of automated | | | | that provider. Whatever solution you use, make sure |
| correspondence. When you are sending to an email | | | | they have relationships with the email providers. |
| list, there are four primary reasons your email never | | | | Third, email service providers talk. If you are flagged |
| gets delivered to your clients inbox. | | | | as a spammer on one, it is only a matter of time |
| First is irrelevant content. All, I repeat, ALL modern | | | | before all will see you as a spammer. This is a trickier |
| email clients make it very easy to mark individual | | | | one as it comes down to your reputation. By doing |
| emails as spam with one (1) click. Once you have | | | | the recommendations above, good content, |
| been marked as spam, the email clients learn. After | | | | relationships with the large email providers, the next |
| just a few emails marked as spam (could be 1 | | | | step is to actually use rating services that monitor |
| depending on the email client), all future emails from | | | | your email reputation. There are services out there |
| you will probably be sent straight to a user's spam | | | | that you can work with that will help you maintain |
| folder. The way to combat this is to send relevant | | | | your email reputation. |
| content. If the user expects good content from you, | | | | Fourth and finally, there are a myriad of technical |
| they will not mark you as spam. Be vigilant with the | | | | details to sending lots of emails. If you miss even one |
| content of every email you send. It only takes one | | | | or do one wrong, you could be marked as a |
| errant email to get you marked as spam. | | | | spammer very quickly. To send emails you need to |
| Second, large email providers (Yahoo, Comcast, | | | | make sure the email format is correct and follows |
| Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, etc) will give you a double | | | | the correct standards (e.g., there is a difference |
| whammy when a user marks you as spam. The | | | | between sending plain text emails, HTML emails, or |
| immediate action is to put any future emails from | | | | an email with both), the IP you send the email from |
| you into the users spam folder. The bigger | | | | must be configured correctly, a reverse DNS entry |
| consequence is you have just been added to an | | | | must be setup, you must sign each email to |
| internal list for the email provider and any future | | | | authenticate (prove) who the sender is using DKIM |
| emails to other clients can be marked as spam. Think | | | | and Sender ID, your SPF record is setup correct, and |
| of this as double secret probation. Each email | | | | then you move onto the even more technical details |
| provider has a different threshold for the number of | | | | than this high level list. |
| complaints before they will start marking all emails | | | | Whatever solution you use, you need to make sure |
| from you to any of their other users as spam and | | | | it/they are capable of providing the technical details |
| your email will never make it to the inbox. The best | | | | of sending emails. It is a complicated world being a |
| way to combat this is to have relevant content. No | | | | legitimate sender; but it is very easy using the right |
| secret there. | | | | partner. Once you have the technical side covered, |
| In addition having a relationship with the large email | | | | the best mechanism for getting your emails through |
| providers is critical. With relationships you can have | | | | is building a relationship with you customers by |
| the email provider notify you of the complaint. Once | | | | sending them good, quality, relevant content. In this |
| notified you should automatically unsubscribe the user | | | | world where everyone is buried with information, |
| immediately. By doing this you remove the risk of | | | | standing out form the crowd is hard. Make sure you |
| sending to the client who complained (besides, the | | | | are one of them by having a good relationship with |
| email to that client will never make it to the inbox | | | | your clients. |