If you are going to run a mailing list you need to be very conscious of the problems you face.
At the technical/design level you need to send emails that people will be able to read.
Plain text emails are obviously going to be legible in all email clients, but are not as attractive as HTML ones.
Unfortunately no two email clients are going to render your emails in exactly the same way.
You need to check against the most common email clients and webmail interfaces to get a “feel” for how the final product is going to look.
Bear in mind that just because an email client can display HTML does not mean that you should try to use the same methods as you would when designing a web page.
Do not include any client-side scripting (javascript etc) as this will be blocked by any good system.
Do not include forms, as these will probably be stripped out.
If you ensure that your HTML is valid you are less likely to find your email being blocked by spam filters.
If you are sending from your desktop make sure that your PC’s date and time are correct.
If you are sending from a server make sure that your mails are being sent out by a user ie. Not being sent by nobody@ or apache@
If sending from a server make sure it has reverse DNS setup – lack of a reverse can lead to email being blocked
Make sure that you keep your list clean ie. That you do not generate large numbers of bounces
Make sure that your list conforms to permission based standards:
“The difference between senders of legitimate bulk email and spammers couldn’t be clearer, the legitimate bulk email sender has verifiable permission from the recipients before sending, the spammer does not.”
Putting a simple footer in each email explaining not only how to unsubscribe but where the person subscribed from will help avoid issues
Including unsubscribe instructions is NOT enough
Subscribing people to your list without their permission is NOT acceptable
Sending mail to people/companies because you feel that they “may be interested” in your products or services is NOT acceptable
If you have an existing relationship with clients / suppliers or potential clients you may send them email, however you should always make it clear how you got their email address if you do not use some form of subscription confirmation.
If you get reported for spamming it can ruin your business.
References:
http://www.spamhaus.org/mailinglists.html
http://www.spamhaus.org/definition.html
http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil.shtml
spamming
As a sysadmin, I am always a little concerned when I catch users trying to spam from our system. Many non-internet savvy employees see email as a cheap way of sending out thousands of mailshots and spy an opportunity to send them to as many email addre…
Great post Michele,
to all the above, I would add, if you do send out bulk emails, ensure that the From address is a valid mailbox, because many of the recipients may wish to respond to the email and an invalid From address is extremely frustrating.
Tom
Very useful, thanks! I run a small mailing list for my restaurant and was happy to notice I haven’t made mistakes so far…
As a user, on the other hand, I find it extremely frustating when the automatic cancel system (click here to unsubscribe) doesn’t work. I’ve had to send separate emails on some websites after numerous attempts to unsubscribe…
Slawka – but had you actually subscribed in the first place?
Yes, I had in fact. But the point is when I clicked on the unsubscribe link it landed on an error page. Or if I sent an email, as requested, with “unsubscrine” in the subject, it came back because their disk quota had exceeded…
🙁
I Think sending mass emails is a big job so i separated it to sections :-
1- sending 1 million email by one from 1 ip is a spam 1st class . solution (use multi IPS to avoid this problem ) ask your ISP to give you ip package . if you use 4 servers with each one
ip-package 16 or higher it will be amazing .
2- recorrect you email list by postpack emails donot use wrong emails it’s make filters know you are a spammer .
3- use clear IP and hek it from dns staff .
4- use double opt list
Ahmed
If you are sending legitimate email why would you need to use those methods? They sound extremely suspect
Michele
Dear Ahmad,
I would like to know, from 1 million emails, what is a real rate of response.
Another thing, due you recommend any good apps for sending this 1 million emails.
Thank you