You have a long email list ready and you’re all set to send them across. But somewhere you’re still stuck, unsure if they might end up being flagged as spam!
Well, if you’ve been there, it’s essential to avoid any possibility of spamming your recipients.
But the dilemma you might face here is –
How to send bulk emails without spamming?
If you’re in the same boat, stay with us because we’re going to walk you through the answers. This article will help you know –
- Why the emails you send in bulk to your audience might be considered spamming?
- How to keep a check on spam levels? Why is it necessary?
- What do you need to know about the technical side of it?
- What are the best ways to send bulk emails without spamming?
But before we dive into these questions, let’s quickly brush up on a few fundamentals and look at some important numbers!
What Is Bulk Emailing?
As the name reveals, bulk emailing is when you send out large quantities of emails to many recipients. It can be used for legitimate purposes, such as marketing, or promoting a product/service etc.
And this brings us to one of the most common problems many businesses face with the bulk email they send out to their subscribers – BEING FLAGGED AS A SPAM!
Talking of numbers, one of the reports released by Statista has recently revealed that the global spam volume between 2011-2021 accounted for 45.56% of the total email traffic. As surprising as these numbers are, they also reveal how significant this issue is among existing users.
(Source: Statista February 2022 Report)
Spammers typically use bulk emailing to send unsolicited emails, often containing commercial messages, in an attempt to promote a product or service. Spam is a type of electronic junk mail that is sent without the recipient’s consent. It is intrusive and annoying, and can even be dangerous if it contains malware or links to malicious websites.
Reasons Why Your Bulk Emailing Efforts May Be Considered Spamming!
Now that we know what bulk emailing is, let us take a look at the reasons behind these.
#1 You Probably Don’t Have Your Recipient’s Permission 🔐
One primary reason your bulk email may be considered spamming is if you do not have the recipient’s permission. This lack of permission can come in a few different forms. Here are the 2 most common instances –
📌 If you purchased or collected email addresses and did not obtain explicit permission from the owners of those addresses to send them messages, your emails could be marked as spam.
📌 Even if you have someone’s permission to email them if you are not sending them information that they want or expect, they may still mark your message as spam.
For example, if you sign someone up for a newsletter but then begin sending them promotional material for products they have not expressed interest in, they may view this as unwanted spam and take action accordingly.
#2 They Don’t Recall Who You Are! 😬
There are a number of reasons for this. One reason is that if you are constantly sending bulk emails to people who do not remember you, it can come across as being too sales-y or promotional.
Additionally, if you are emailing someone who does not know you and they see no value in the email, they may just mark it as spam and move on. This is why it’s important to make sure that your emails are valuable and relevant to the person you’re sending them to.
If they see that you’re providing them with something useful, they’re more likely to remember who you are and keep reading your emails!
#3 Low Engagement Rate 📉
If your engagement rate is low, it could be a sign that your emails are being considered spamming. There are a number of reasons why this might be the case.
Maybe the content of your emails isn’t relevant to your subscribers, or maybe they’re not getting delivered to their inboxes because they’re being filtered as spam.
Whatever the reason, if you want to avoid being considered spamming, you need to make sure your engagement rate is high.
How To Track Spam Levels?
It’s simple: if you don’t track spam levels, you can easily become a spammer yourself.
Tracking spam levels helps you avoid spamming by ensuring that you’re only sending emails to people who have opted in to receive them. By tracking spam levels, you can avoid becoming a nuisance and instead be a welcome presence in people’s inboxes.
Checking Abuse Complaints
When you check abuse complaints, you can get valuable information about the spam level of your emails. By looking at the number of abuse complaints, you can see how many people are marking your emails as spam. This can give you a good indication of whether your emails are being sent to too many people or if they are not being targeted properly. If you see a high number of abuse complaints, it is a good idea to adjust your email marketing strategy accordingly!
Evaluate Your Emails With Spam Filtering Programs
There are a few different ways that you can go about evaluating the spam level of your emails. One method is to use a program that filters emails based on certain criteria. These programs can be effective at identifying and flagging emails that are likely to be spam. Although they might not be perfect, some legitimate emails may get caught in the filter.
Technical Know-How To Take Care Of! 👨💻
While avoiding spamming in bulk emailing may look like a simplified procedure, there are still a few rather technical aspects you need to be aware of. Below are the 4 most common ones!
Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce
When you send an email, there’s always a chance it will bounce back. A “bounce” occurs when the email can’t be delivered to the recipient for some reason. There are two types of bounces: soft and hard.
A soft bounce is usually temporary and happens when there’s a problem with the recipient’s mail server or their inbox is full. The email will eventually be delivered if you try again later.
A hard bounce means the email can’t be delivered permanently. This could be because the recipient’s address is invalid or their mail server is blocking your message. If you get a hard bounce, you should remove the email address from your list so you don’t keep trying to send messages that will never reach the person!
Sender Policy Framework
Sender Policy Framework, or SPF, is an email validation system designed to prevent spammers from spoofing your email address, especially with bulk emails. It works by verifying that the sender’s IP address matches the domain from which the email was sent. If it doesn’t match, the email will be marked as spam.
Although it is a relatively new system, it’s gaining popularity among email providers as a way to combat spam. To use SPF, you’ll need to add a special text record to your DNS settings. This record specifies which IP addresses are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain.
If you’re not sure whether your provider supports SPF, you can check by sending an email to [email protected]. If they do support SPF, you should see a message indicating that your email passed SPF checks!
Domain Keys Identified Mail
Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication standard that allows recipients to verify that the email they received came from the domain it claims to have come from.
DKIM is designed to prevent email spoofing, phishing, and other types of malicious activity. When an email is sent, the sending mail server signs it with a private key. The recipients’ mail server then uses the corresponding public key to verify the signature. If the signature matches, then the email is considered to be from the claimed domain.
Many major email providers now support DKIM, and it is slowly becoming a standard for commercial email senders.
Domain-Based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance
It is an authentication, policy, and reporting protocol for email that builds on the widely deployed SPF and DKIM protocols and adds a reporting function that gives email senders and receivers more visibility into what is happening with their messages.
The DMARC policy is a set of rules that dictate how email receivers should handle messages that fail to comply with SPF or DKIM. Even if one of your bulk emails fails DMARC, it will typically be marked as spam and either quarantined or rejected outright. This can have serious consequences for the sender, often leading to decreased deliverability and reputation damage.
And how to avoid these consequences?
✅ Make sure your sending infrastructure is properly configured to comply with SPF and DKIM.
✅ Monitor your email delivery closely to address any messages marked as spam
✅ Implement DMARC enforcement for your own domain to improve deliverability.
Top 10 Tips to Avoid Spamming While Sending Out Bulk Emails
Spamming is a major problem for businesses that send out bulk emails. Not only is it a huge turnoff for customers, but it can also lead to legal action against the company. There are a few things businesses can do to send bulk emails without spamming:
#1 Keep Your Content Optimized ✅
The first and foremost thing you need to do is keep your content optimized. This means making sure all of your email content is relevant and useful to your recipients. If you’re sending out an email blast with nothing but sales pitches, chances are good that some of your recipients will flag it as spam!
#2 Adhere To The Laws Governing Email Marketing Practices ⚖️
In many countries, there are laws governing email marketing and it is important to be aware of these before sending out any bulk emails. In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives customers the right to opt-out of receiving future email communications from you, and sets penalties for violations.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulates email messaging under the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL). This law applies to any commercial electronic message, including emails, that are sent to or from a computer or device in Canada.
Violations of these laws can result in significant fines. For example, under CASL, individuals and companies can be fined up to $1 million for each violation in the case of individuals and $10 million for companies. To avoid these penalties, it is important to ensure that you are familiar with the applicable laws and comply with them when sending out bulk emails.
#3 Conduct Spam Tests Before Sending 🔎
To avoid spamming while sending out bulk emails, it is important to conduct spam tests before sending. This can be done by setting up a free email account and subscribing to a few different email list providers. Once you have set up your account, send a test email to yourself and check the results in your inbox.
If you see that the message has been delivered to your inbox, then it is likely that it will also be delivered to the rest of the recipients on your list.
However, if you see that the message has been sent to your spam folder, then it is likely that some of the recipients on your list will also have their messages sent to their spam folders.
#4 Maintain Email List Hygiene ♻️
If you’re wondering how to send bulk emails without spamming, one of the most important things you can do here is to maintain good email list hygiene. This means keeping your list clean and up-to-date and removing any invalid or inactive email addresses. There are a few different ways you can go about cleaning your email lists:
☑️ Use an Email Verification Service
☑️ Remove Duplicate Addresses
☑️ Manually Check Your Lists
#5 Avoid Vague Subject Lines
Always avoid using unclear, misleading, or excessive subject lines. Your Subject line should be accurate and describe exactly what’s in the email.
So, make sure to check if the current subject lines of your current emails somewhere sound like they are unintentionally trying to trick people into opening them by using false or misleading information!
#6 Maintain the Right Balance Between Images and Text
When you are sending a bulk email, it is important to maintain the right balance between adding images and text. If you add too many images, your email may be considered spam.
On the other hand, if you add too little text, recipients may not be able to understand your message. Therefore, it is important to find the right balance between the two in order to avoid spamming while sending bulk emails.
#7 Have a Clear Sender’s Address
When finishing off sending bulk emails, never forget to include a physical address and contact information in your emails. This way, if someone does mark your email as spam, you’ll still be able to reach them via another method.
By following these tips, you can avoid accidentally spamming your recipients and ensure that your bulk emails are actually read and appreciated by those who receive them.
#8 Follow HTML Best Practices
If you want to send bulk emails without spamming, it is important to follow HTML best practices. Here are some tips:
✅ Use a plain-text version of your email as well as an HTML version
✅ Make sure that your HTML code is well-formed and uses proper nesting
✅ Keep email width between 600-800 pixels (320px for mobile view)
✅ Use images with a smaller size
✅ Avoid using elements that need Javascript or Flash as most the email clients don’t support these languages.
#9 Add a Suitable Unsubscribe Option
Adding an unsubscribe option to your bulk emails helps to avoid spamming by giving recipients the ability to opt-out of future messages if they choose. This not only reduces the number of complaints and increases deliverability rates but can also help to improve your sender reputation over time.
#10 Proofread Your Emails Before Sending – ALWAYS!
Proofreading your emails before sending them out in bulk can help avoid potential spamming issues. This is because if there are any errors or incorrect information in the email, it is more likely to be caught and flagged as spam by email providers. By proofreading your emails before sending them, you can send mass emails without spam and ensure that they are free of any potential spam triggers.
Let’s take a quick recap of these –
Why Choose Leadzen.ai For Prospecting?
When it comes to prospecting, there are a lot of factors to consider. Especially with bulk emails, you want to make sure that you’re reaching out to the right people, at the right time, with the right message. And you also don’t want to spam anyone in the process.
Leadzen.ai is a tool that can help you with all of those things. It is the world’s most advanced lead prospecting tool, designed to help sales and marketing teams quickly and easily find updated and verified leads for their business.
With Leadzen.ai, you can:-
✅ Search through billions of public records and data points to find the perfect leads for your business.
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✅Save time and money by automatically qualifying and filtering leads.
There’s no better way to find high-quality, targeted leads than with Leadzen.ai. So why wait? Sign up today and see how much easier lead prospecting can be (of course, without worrying about spamming anyone!)
