SEO & Social Media Tips

Tips to send Bulk Mails without getting SPAMed

  1) As time goes on, spam checkers are getting stronger and smarter. There's a lot about this email that might increase its SPAM score. The subject line starts with the word "FREE" and it's in ALL CAPS, both will increase the message's SPAM score. You've also got the word "GUARANTEED" in ALL CAPS, and multiple exclamation marks (!!!), spam filters also don't like the word "Survey" (I know, right?) which is in the subject line, in ALL CAPS. So what to do? Let's change it up a little!

To Send an Email Blast:
1)      You must first begin by creating a email list in Excel.

• With Outlook, you simply open the Contacts, then click on File – Import & Export -  Export to a File (and Next) – Microsoft Excel (1997-2003) and Next – select Contacts and Next – choose where you want to save it by selecting “Browse”, the location (I like the Desktop because it’s easy to find later), and rename it  then OK to get back to the save screen – Next – then Finish.
• Once you have created the list, you will want to open it and remove any names of people and companies that you don’t want to get your email blasts.  This could be names like United Airlines, any credit card company contacts, people you think are jerks, etc.  Also, remove any names that don’t have emails.

2)      Open up a Word Document and type up your email message exactly how you would like it to look.  That means add your signature line.
3)      When you’re done, go to the Mailings Wizard and click on “Start Mail Merge”.  For 2007 Office it will look like this:

• For older versions, you want to find the Mail Merge Wizard.  You may have to search the “Help” topics to know which menu item it’s under.

4)      From the Start Mail Merge menu, click on “Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard” (usually the last choice in the drop-down menu.
5)      A sidebar will pop up that will walk you through the steps.  It will look something like this:
6)      From this menu, just click “Email Messages” and click the “Next” step at the bottom.  Go through each of the steps until you get to the final screen.  As you can see, it’s only 6 Steps.
7)      At Step 3, you will be prompted to select your Excel Email list.  You will “Browse” for it, then find it – hopefully on your Desktop.  Once you open it, the Mail Merge Wizard will prompt you to choose a Worksheet Tab – and usually show you two.  Pick the worksheet that has your contacts in it.
8)      Next, you will be taken to a “Mail Merge Recipients List” where you will match up the headings from your Email List to your Word List.  Most of the headings will be filled in correctly already.  Just double check that there are actually emails where emails belong and names and companies where they belong before you press OK and continue onto the Next Step.
9)      At Step 4, you will be able to add your address blocks and greeting lines.  Make sure you choose at least the Greeting Line feature so that each email will be customized to the person receiving the email.
10)  After you’ve completed “Step 6 - Complete the Merge”, the emails will be ready to go, but they will not be sent. You have to actually click on “Finish and Merge” in the toolbar at the top.  It will look like:

• Then click “Send E-Mail Messages.”
• Once you click “Send,” your computer will attempt to send it through your Microsoft Outlook Outbox.  That means, if you have not set up your Outlook outbox before, you will need to set that up.

Mailing Managers:
http://mailchimp.com/features/email-delivery/
Mailjet.


Mail Authetiction:
Use email authentication methods, such as SPF, and DKIM to prove that your emails and your domain name belong together, and to prevent spoofing of your domain name. The SPF website includes a wizard to generate the DNS information for your site.
Check your reverse DNS to make sure the IP address of your mail server points to the domain name that you use for sending mail.
Make sure that the IP-address that you're using is not on a blacklist
Make sure that the reply-to address is a valid, existing address.
Use the full, real name of the addressee in the To field, not just the email-address (e.g. "John Smith" <john@blacksmiths-international.com> ).
Monitor your abuse accounts, such as abuse@yourdomain.com and postmaster@yourdomain.com. That means - make sure that these accounts exist, read what's sent to them, and act on complaints.
Finally, make it really easy to unsubscribe. Otherwise, your users will unsubscribe by pressing the spam button, and that will affect your reputation.

source: onehourbookkeeper, stackoverflow