Help Your Email Reach Its Destination
Some email will simply never reach its destination—it might go to a bad address, get caught in a spam filter, or routed to a “junk” folder where it’s deleted or overlooked. This can be frustrating for nonprofits who work hard to nurture a list of email addresses. How can you help ensure people receive the emails you send them?
Mail server administrators subscribe to blacklists run by organizations that create a database of computers and domains known to send spam. Every time a mail server sends an email, these lists catalog the domains and IP addresses—the numeric code that designates a particular computer—and recommend which should be denied. Mail servers basically check incoming emails against these databases and reject those from a “bad” source. Getting off one of these lists is relatively difficult, and can take some time.
You can get on this list pretty quickly, however, if lots of people flag your email as spam. You can also get on it through guilt by association—if you’re using a broadcast email tool, you’re sharing an email server with other organizations and businesses whose bad behavior has the potential to negatively influence your email deliverability. The content and layout of your individual emails can also have an impact on deliverability.
Email can be flagged as spam either automatically, as by an automated scanner installed on the recipients’ mail servers or at one of the routing points along the messages’ journey, or manually when recipients mark it as spam using their email software. Preventing these from happening is one of the most critical ways to ensure your messages get through. Equally important is that if a lot of people flag your emails as spam, your entire email domain is tagged as a “spammer.” It can be very difficult to change that, which will affect all your email to all recipients, not just broadcast messages to the person who marked them as spam.
To prevent your email from being mistaken for spam, make sure it’s not actually spam. It should go without saying, though it doesn’t, that your email should provide value to recipients. Don’t send email they haven’t signed up for. Make sure you provide a way to opt out in the form of an unsubscribe link. And don’t send too many emails, messages that are content-poor, or too few messages—wait too long between emails and you run the risk of recipients forgetting they ever signed up for your list to begin with.
Prune your list regularly to remove known bad email addresses, or addresses that bounce. If someone unsubscribes, make sure they’re removed immediately. Asking people to add your email address to their contact lists can help their servers recognize your email as welcome, making it far more likely that it will be allowed through. This means you should consider sending your bulk email from the same address each time.
Bulk email is an integral part of communications and fundraising for many nonprofits. If yours is among them, you should assume that not all your messages will be delivered—that’s just the nature of the beast. But taking a few measures toward good email practices can minimize the dangers.
Be thoughtful when crafting emails, as well as when sending them. Use the right tools to ensure your domain isn’t at risk for blacklisting. And use common sense and courtesy to avoid irritating recipient—that’s a sure way to get your mail marked as spam.
