Tips for Avoiding Bulk: Maximizing Email Delivery to Your Contact List"

[krzymomof4]

Okay, so I emailed each of my contact list individually. Some people have told me that they have not gotten anything from me in quite a while. I am assuming my newsletters are going into their bulk folder or marked as spam. How do I avoid this. I checked on that spam website thingy and it said that my email was not going through as spam. I blind cc everyone. Do I need to send them out individually?

 

[tlennhoff]

Only send to 10 people at a time and make sure that you send the emails with at least an hour in between. Remind people to add you to their "safe" list/address book so that your email will not show up in the spam folders.

 

[krzymomof4]

Great tip...thanks Tasha!

 

[pamperedbecky]

Only send to 10 people at a time and make sure that you send the emails with at least an hour in between. Remind people to add you to their "safe" list/address book so that your email will not show up in the spam folders.

Oh boy, that would take me a million years. I probably have 700-800 email addresses. Some of those are old and get bounced back, so I should REALLY go through and weed those out.

I bet something like Constant Contact (which I don't use because I don't know if I can justify spending the money each month) wouldn't come across as bulk mail. I've heard if you have under a certain amount of email addresses you'd be sending it to, they give you a free trial period. I'm sure some cheffers on here use it.

 

[jlevernier]

Pampered Becky, do you send out emails? How do you keep them from going to spam?

I've noticed recently my email account switched servers (if that's correct phrasology) and now I can't send all my groups of emails before it says I've sent my quota for the day.

--Jenny L

 

[tlennhoff]

Oh boy, that would take me a million years. I probably have 700-800 email addresses. Some of those are old and get bounced back, so I should REALLY go through and weed those out.

It took a while for me to set up individual groups. Now I create an email, add the group, send it and set a time for an hour, change the group I'm sending to and resend. It is a pain. and could take a few days but then if it is going to people rather than getting lost as spam it is probably worth it. The new bulk designations are really tough to get past.

I moderate a couple yahoo groups and occasionally I show up in the spam folder for the group because I sent too many emails in a row to the group. Of course this happens because I read the emails I've downloaded once a day and tend to respond to a lot of the posts and hence "too many emails in a short time" to my own group.

 

[pamperedbecky]

Pampered Becky, do you send out emails? How do you keep them from going to spam?

I've noticed recently my email account switched servers (if that's correct phrasology) and now I can't send all my groups of emails before it says I've sent my quota for the day.

--Jenny L

Yep, I send them through email. I know some of them get through, but I do wonder. I can't send more than 100 at a time and after a few rounds of that, Comcast cuts me off because they limit how many you can send out in a 24 hour period. Then I just send out the 2nd half a day or two later. I KNOW a good number of people get them because about every month, I get 1-2 people asking to be removed. And I do get replies to them. But it does have to make me wonder who doesn't get them because they go into spam folders. Hmmm, ,maybe I should do constant contact. With the amount of emails I have, I'd have to pay $30/month. I suppose peace of mind that they actually got to their destinations would be worth it.

 

[krzymomof4]

I finally sent out an individual email to everyone on my list. I got responses back!! Some are getting them, some are not, so I will have to try to fix that. I even got 1 order out of it! I just sent out an email titled Follow Up and asked them if they were receiving my emails because it had been brought to my attention that some were not coming through. I at least have people responding that they are getting them. So I know that at least I am keeping in front of them
I have yet to figure out how to put them in groups. I wish I could figure that out. I have some that I send emails out to and forget who they are.

 

[tlennhoff]

I have yet to figure out how to put them in groups. I wish I could figure that out. I have some that I send emails out to and forget who they are.

What program do you use for your email? I'm sure someone on this forum can help you with creating groups but to do so we need to know what you use to send out email.

 

[krzymomof4]

I use outlook express. It has a contact manager folder, but I can't figure out how to just put the email addresses in there without having to add all of their information.

 

[tlennhoff]

In outlook, I'm not sure how similar express is, I select, File-New-Distribution list and that lets me creat distributions lists. What I've done is called them PC1, PC2, etc. and then I can select the contacts I want included in each distribution list/group.

 

[KellyTheChef]

Yep, I send them through email. I know some of them get through, but I do wonder. I can't send more than 100 at a time and after a few rounds of that, Comcast cuts me off because they limit how many you can send out in a 24 hour period. Then I just send out the 2nd half a day or two later. I KNOW a good number of people get them because about every month, I get 1-2 people asking to be removed. And I do get replies to them. But it does have to make me wonder who doesn't get them because they go into spam folders. Hmmm, ,maybe I should do constant contact. With the amount of emails I have, I'd have to pay $30/month. I suppose peace of mind that they actually got to their destinations would be worth it.

Becky~

Someone was just talking about this site...would only be $60 a year and he sends them out for you!

I am seriously considering this. I don't think many are getting my emails either.

I BCC groups of <20 emails. I am wondering if that's why I haven't heard from anyone in a few months.

 

[cathyskitchen]

I use our Customer Connection through our PWS - they fixed that on their end, so that it only routes 9 email addresses at a time and doesn't come out like "bulk" mail. More people tell me they get my emails now that I use the customer connection emails than when I was using my Yahoo group (where I subscribed everyone individually). Plus, it's more professional looking and directs them right to your website, where you want them to go anyway!! Just my 2 cents!!

 

[pamperedbecky]

I use our Customer Connection through our PWS - they fixed that on their end, so that it only routes 9 email addresses at a time and doesn't come out like "bulk" mail. More people tell me they get my emails now that I use the customer connection emails than when I was using my Yahoo group (where I subscribed everyone individually). Plus, it's more professional looking and directs them right to your website, where you want them to go anyway!! Just my 2 cents!!

Is it a newsletter format? I guess I've only seen the emails with certain themes/subjects like recruiting, the specialty recipes, announcing host specials, etc. Can you add your own typical newsletter "stuff?" I'd love to hear more about what exactly you put in it.

I did check out that guy who does the $60/year subscription and that is a good deal. I guess I don't even know how you're supposed to export the email address book and all that jazz. I'd have to SERIOUSLY clean mine up so I get the ones out of there that all get returned to me.