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 wrongly labeled as “spam”, and cause all sorts of blacklisting problems that are, at the very least, a horrible hassle to get straightened out. However, even though regulations like the CAN-SPAM act of 2004 are strict, there are certain measures that an organization can take to avoid being blacklisted and categorized as spam:

1. Subscription to an email list should include what is known as a “double opt in”, where the subscriber first requests inclusion on your web site by providing an email address, and then must confirm that they want the subscription by following a link in an email to that address. This prevents people from signing up for services with email addresses that are not their own.
2. Log the subscription information of your constituents - including the date that they signed up and the IP address - so that you have proof of their desire to receive your emails.
3. Test the unsubscribe link for your emails to ensure that they work and that the database removes their addresses quickly enough for future email blasts to stop coming their way.
4. Make sure the name in your email’s “From” field is recognizable and familiar so that constituents won’t automatically mark it as spam because they don’t realize that it is from your organization.
5. Make sure that if a recipient were to reply to the email that it goes to a legitimate inbox that someone monitors; include a postal address in the email message.
6. Test your email through different spam filters and see which ones grab your email. Some spam filters lock onto keywords while others look at distribution methods. However, because people can set spam filters to their own specifications, it is impossible to make a perfect email blast that will slip through everyone’s filters.

For additional resources check out:

• http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-11394.pdf