How do you avoid the "Spam Box" when sending bulk email?

Question

Hi there,

My work (a medical education center) needs to send out important legal information to past students in regards to their licenses.
We have about 1000 folks to send this info to, but it's so important that I would hate to see it go into people's "spam" or "bulk" folders.
Anyone know how to avoid this? What constitutes spam in regards to how spam-blockers sort and protect folks.

Basically, any way I can mail en masse' and avoid it being marked as spam? (it's DEFINATELY not!)

Thanks!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there's just no way to guarantee delivery of your email. If there was such a way, the spammers would be the first ones on it!

Most email filters these days are using a ranking technique known as Bayesian analysis. It is an intelligent system that learns as it runs what a user or network considers spam to be. These systems run your email through the Bayesian analysis, and grades your email based on how similar it is to past spams the company has received. If your email's probabilistic indicators cross it over the threshold grade for spam, then into the spam box you go.

So your best bet is to avoid too many words that talk about invoices, payment, paypal, registering, or pharmaceuticals, or any other words related to commerce. Also, do not blind carbon copy the entire group in one pass - your odds of defeating filtering improve if you email your students in the To: field one by one.

However my frank advice, if this is legal info that has to get there, is to snail mail it and bypass email as a technique. Unfortunately, spammers have poisoned the well for bulk email. You'll likely not get a better delivery rate than about 2/3rds at best.

Answer 2

I'm sorry there is no magic answer. As long as 1 person in a 1000 (or 10,000) responds, they are ahead of the game. You are doing all you can. At least you have a spam folder. Why not just let it fill up? BULK MAIL OPTION open mail program on right side choose options then General Preferences Then Special Folders: check these two boxes Save your sent messages in the Sent Items folder Redirect incoming unsolicited mail to the Bulk Mail folder you will never see bulk email again Wouldn't it be nice to have a button that sent a 240 volt surge back across the net to hit these guys computers?

Answer 3

Many hours are wasted due to spam email. However, by taking simple precautions while giving out your email and installing updated free software, you can prevent spam. More info available at
http://fixit.in/stopspam.html

Answer 4

very confusing factor. research into search engines like google. it can help!