Email Deliverability

ANSWRs to your questions about maximizing or verifying deliverability, including strategies for avoiding spam, soft and hard bounces, etc.

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Article: How Can We Avoid Being Labeled "Spam"?

When sending out large email communications, an organization can run up against the issue of being labeled as “spam.” As spam filters grow more aggressive, and popular opinion against unsolicited emails grows, an organization’s email blast can become...

Article: How frequently should email be sent?

This depends on the goals for your email, the type of content you are sending and, ideally, the preferences of your email recipients. General Guidelines: Mail at least once a month. Mail less often than this, and you risk being forgotten by...

Article: What are some of the software tools commonly used for email outreach?

There’s dozens – possibly hundreds – of different email services that can help you to manage your list, create effective emails, and get them into your supporters’ Inbox. Several have particular relevance for nonprofits. VerticalResponse...

Article: What free software tools are available for email outreach?

First off, I never recommend starting with “free” (as in beer) as a requirement for software. Email outreach software is in general not terribly expensive – it’s easy to find good options for $20-$30 per month, especially if you’re not sending emails to...

Article: What’s the downside of just using Outlook to send personal emails to a bunch of people through the BCC line?

I’d advise you to look beyond Outlook and other personal email browsers if you’re going to be sending more than a few dozen emails, or sending to a list on a periodic basis. Tools like Outlook have a number of substantial disadvantages. First, putting...

Article: Are there certain days of the week or times of day that are better for sending out emails?

The best day to blast an email is the day no one else is sending email. Test, test, and test some more.  What works for an environmental group may not for a state association of small business owners.  It’s different for everyone.  Some have great...

Article: How often should you email your list?

If your goal is to update a set of people as to general happenings in a particular field or organization, a monthly eNewsletter might work well. On the other hand, many advocacy groups aim to email their full list once every week or two. These...

Article: Is There an Easy Way to Test Emails Across Platforms?

Testing email blasts before they go out is an essential step in any email marketing campaign. Because of the different email clients and services that people use, an HTML email can look very different, depending on the software that reads it. The...

Web Link: The "Mark as Irrelevant" Button

Web Link: What to Do to Make Sure Your Email Gets Into Your Supporter's Inbox

Article: What tips and techniques should I know about maintaining an accurate list, correcting or purging bounces, etc?

What tips and techniques should I know about maintaining an accurate list, correcting or purging bounces, etc? One helpful technique organizations use during their Email Signup is the "double opt-in" method, where users request to be added...

Article: I've signed up for Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL. What other tricks are there for previewing my emails in different clients?

Make sure to consider not only hosted email accounts such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or AOL, but also different local email clients and browsers. Check out our answer to To test what your email looks like in various inboxes, what are the ones you should send...

Article: To test what your email looks like in various inboxes, what are the ones you should send to?

When people receive your emails, the formatting can look different than intended based on what program is used to read your emails. To reduce the chance for error, you can test an email newsletter in multiple accounts to try to gain the perspective of...

Article: Which email clients do you need to test when you initially set up your email template?

When setting up an email template for an enewsletter, testing in a variety of clients can be the most time-consuming aspect, but also one of the most important. Because of the (sometimes very) different ways that email clients display the emails that...

Article: Any tips for discouraging people from marking you as spam instead of using the unsubscribe tool?

Check out our answer to a similar question How Can We Avoid Being Labeled "Spam"? In particular, make sure that you are explicit about what subscribing to your email list entails, and be conscious of both the content of your emails and...

Article: How do we know if our email is going into the spam box instead of the inbox?

There is not a definitive method to determine if your emails are getting thrown into recipients' spam folders, but there are a number of best practices that will help you minimize the possibility of being mistaken for spam. First, read the article on...

Article: What are the best resources for getting problems fixed if we do get targeted as spam?

This question is waiting to be answered.Can you add your knowledge to the Answr community by answering it?First Login to Answr and click the Edit icon next to the Question: and add your contribution. Check out Community Process for guidelines.

Article: Do the current tools available allow for customizing of newsletters by desired content and by geographic region?

Yes, current email blaster tools allow you to customize the content sent to subsections of your followers. This is done through list segmentation which makes a sub-section or sub-list of your mailing list based on a certain criteria. For example, if...

Article: What is an ISP?

ISP stands for Internet Service Provider and is simply the service or company that provides you access to the internet.

Article: What is an email blaster?

An email blaster is a service or piece of software that allows you to send an email to a large number of people. An email blaster differs from an email client because email blaster programs have relationships set up with email service providers...