Best Practices for Bulk Emailing

Everyone receives marketing emails from companies promoting their products. Sometimes even a competitors’ marketing email can spark a new idea. When executed properly, email marketing is a powerful, yet relatively inexpensive, tool. However, if a company is lackluster about its e-marketing efforts, there are pitfalls that can have severe consequences on business communications.
E-marketing campaigns sent to large distribution lists can significantly slow down a company’s servers, or knock them out completely, making other business functions impossible. Additionally, using old, unverified lists sends emails to completely uninterested parties, instead of to actual leads, rendering the campaign ineffective. The goal is to keep on top of contacts, ensuring they’re relevant and active. Failing to do so can potentially cripple business functions across the board.

TERMS TO KNOW

Spam trap. A spam trap is a valid, deliverable email address that is exclusively used to receive unsolicited email. Most spam traps are old (18 months or more), legitimate email addresses that were abandoned at one time, then turned back on as a spam trap. Spam traps open emails, so they’re almost impossible to track and delete from a list.
Spamhaus. Spamhaus is a non-profit organization that tracks spam and related cyber threats worldwide, and is responsible for blacklisting the majority of Internet Provider addresses. Most Internet Service Providers send old addresses to Spamhaus to use as spam traps to reduce spam email. Spamhaus monitors IP address movement, and can completely block a domain, ensuring any email that contains a certain domain anywhere within the message can be blocked by spam filters.
To help avoid these serious pitfalls, this article details some preferred guidelines to make the most of e-marketing efforts, and keep business running smoothly.

DON’T USE RENTED, OLD OR UNVERIFIED LISTS

Rented, purchased or publicly available lists are typically not updated and are prime breeding grounds for spam traps. The danger with emailing a spam trap is the risk of having the company’s IP address blacklisted. If this happens, it affects everyday business emailing. Simple one-time emails can be blocked by spam filters. This can cripple a business.

USE A MARKETING EMAIL AUTOMATION PLATFORM

Because a company’s server can be slowed down by or unable to handle the sheer volume of bulk e-mailing, email automation platforms, such as Constant Contact, Real Magnet or MailChimp, are essential for e-marketing. These platforms offer easy-touse email creators with hundreds of readymade templates. They offer a deliverability testing feature to test a message for possible spam flags. Most provide detailed tracking capability and advanced analytics along with specific explanations for undeliverable email or bounce backs. But most importantly, they use the platforms’ IP address, not an individual’s address, so the company’s domain is protected.

GET PERMISSION

It is not wise to add any and all names to an e-marketing list. Start by setting up a subscription/opt-in page. An e-marketing automation platform company can help with this. Set clear expectations at signup as to what type of emails the recipient will receive and how often. Straying from these expectations can lead to list unsubscribes.
Also, avoid using pre-checked boxes for opt-ins. This can be perceived as deceptive or not a true opt-in.

MONITOR AND MANAGE UNENGAGED/UNOPENED EMAILS

As mentioned earlier, most e-marketing automation platforms will run reports to determine those who aren’t regularly opening emails.
A good strategy is to run re-engagement campaigns to determine which email addresses are still valid and still interested in certain messages. This is a list that has not been engaged in the past, so this email should really stand out. Let them know they need to open this message. Convey a sense of urgency. For example, “Response Required” in large text at the beginning. Some good subject lines for these types of emails could be “We Don’t Want to Lose You,” “Do You Still Want to Hear from Us?” “Let’s Stay Together,” or “Are You Breaking Up With Us?” Keep the message short and to the point. If the message includes a call-toaction, such as a re-opt-in/confirmation link, make sure it stands out. A link to a free report or a special offer could garner extra opens and clicks.

VALIDATE THE DISTRIBUTION LIST

Consider using a list validation service such as DataValidation, FreshAddress or BriteVerify to clean up distribution lists. They can check each address to confirm the account actually exists and is accepting email, as well as correct typos and misspellings in domain names. They also keep track of known spam traps, frequent spam complainers and bogus addresses so all can be removed from distribution lists. Most validation services can turn around a list in one to three days, and provide a detailed clean-up report of the distribution lists and how they compare to other companies, even those within the same industry.

KEEP DISTRIBUTION LISTS CLEAN

List cleaning is not a one-time activity. It’s an ongoing process. Be vigilant and disciplined. After sending a bulk email, refer to the report of undeliverable addresses, and immediately delete them. Don’t let them turn into spam traps. Additionally, update lists immediately with email address change notifications to stay on top of leads.
Ref:https://windowanddoor.com/article/junejuly-2017/best-practices-bulk-emailing