You may not think you are, but others may feel differently.
I am a musician. Every couple weeks or so, I sit down and send a large number of emails (on average 150 – 200) to radio stations, magazines, etc., in order to promote my music. My email will usually consist of an attached mp3 and/or links to YouTube videos, etc., along with a bio/description about myself and my music. Though I have had many responses through email, there are still several that have never replied. It suddenly occurred to me, as well as not being interested in the music I am sending (can’t please everyone), could some of my emails be getting marked as spam?
I use a Hotmail account, which I know you say is bad. But I fear that suddenly changing my email will result in a loss of business. I used to send each email individually, personalizing each one, but since my contact list has grown, there are not enough hours in the day to do this. So I use Bcc and send them all in one go.
My question is, do my infrequent emails qualify as spam? Despite the fact that they are spread out over weeks, do the large quantities mean that only a certain number are getting through?
In short, yes. It’s likely your emails are being delivered directly into many spam folders.
Several things could contribute to this. I’ll review those and suggest what to do instead.
You might be a spammer if ...
If you send bulk promotional emails from a free Hotmail account with MP3 attachments and a giant BCC list, yes, you are probably sending spam. Get your own domain, share links instead of files, and use a real email marketing service where people sign up to hear from you.
What constitutes spam
The formal definition of spam is something along the lines of unsolicited commercial email. The informal definition is more like “any email I didn’t ask for and don’t want.”
Did your recipients ask for or formally agree to receive the email? No? Then it’s unsolicited. For many, that alone is enough to qualify as sending spam.
Is it promoting your work or business? Well, that makes it commercial.
So yes, sorry to break it to you, but according to at least one definition, you are sending spam. If anything is surprising, it’s that some of it makes it through.
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Spam and spam filters
Spam filters don’t understand things like intent or what it means to be commercial. Let’s face it, we all get a lot of email we don’t explicitly ask for, and some of it is valuable. Clearly, spam filters do a pretty good job of separating wheat from chaff.
The most common technique spam filters use is to evaluate incoming email by comparing it to characteristics of email that people have explicitly marked as spam. The filter tries to determine whether or not messages that “look like” previously identified spam should be sent directly to the spam folder.
Besides being unsolicited, what you describe has at least three characteristics commonly associated with spam: it’s from a free email service, it has attachments, and it’s sent to many people at once.
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Strike 1: Free email service
Hotmail has a bad reputation for sending spam. Not that Hotmail itself sends spam, but spammers often use Hotmail accounts — often compromised accounts — to send lots and lots of spam.
In fact, Hotmail has a generally bad reputation, which is why I strongly recommend you never use Hotmail for business. When it comes to running a business, I recommend avoiding free email accounts altogether. They carry a reputation for sending spam and a lack of respectability in the minds of many customers and prospects.
My suggestion is to get your own domain name. You can have it processed by a free service; I’d still avoid Outlook.com (Hotmail’s successor), but, for example, all my askleo.com mail used to be processed by Gmail, even though the email address was (and is) @askleo.com.
Using your own domain name, you’re also free to change who processes it, and how, at any time in the future. Some time ago, I switched from Gmail to Fastmail to process askleo.com email.
I understand your concern about losing customers. The solution here is simple: once it’s set up, start using your new email address exclusively and have your old Hotmail address forwarded to (or picked up by) your new email address.
Strike 2: Attachments
In my opinion, attachments are a bad idea when trying to reach out to prospective customers. Not only are attachments yet another characteristic of spam, but they can end up taking time and disk space away from the very people you’re hoping to engage in a positive way.
Instead, put the file on the internet somewhere and include a link to the file.
One simple solution is to use Dropbox. After installing Dropbox, copy your MP3 file into one of your Dropbox folders, and then generate a shareable link from Dropbox.
On the other hand, since you’re getting your own domain for your email (right?), you can just set up a website, store the MP3s you want to send out on the site, and link to the MP3 files in your email.
Or, if you want more visibility, you might consider a sharing service like SoundCloud. Upload the file there and share a link to it with anyone.
Strike 3: Sending many at once
Honestly, I’m surprised that you can send to 150-200 people at once. Most free email services restrict the number of recipients on a single message to something like 10. Why? Because sending to lots of people at once — particularly using BCC — is exactly what spammers do.
In other words, it’s another thing that makes it look like you’re sending spam.
Fortunately, there’s software for this.
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The best solution
The best approach to what you’re doing is what I do.
- Get an account at an email service provider like AWeber. They are specifically designed for sending broadcast messages to large numbers of recipients. Each week, I send over 23,000 copies of my newsletter using AWeber.
- Ask your stations and recipients to sign up. This is analogous to signing up for my newsletter. That means they proactively ask for your mailings and confirm that they want it.
- You send out your messages using AWeber, and a significantly higher percentage of them land in recipients’ inboxes.
This is one of the best ways to manage your marketing message. And, since they asked to get your email, these people are by far your best prospects.
And you’re not sending them spam.
“But… but,” I can hear you sputtering, “Why would they ask to get my email?”
Because if they don’t want it, then sending it to them anyway is, once again, the very definition of spam.
You need to give them a reason. In your business, I don’t know what that is, but in general, it boils down to making your messages valuable to them. Make it something that they would want. (Not something you want them to want, but something that they want.)
Failing that…
The second-best solution
Short of that, you could use a less rigorous email service provider that doesn’t require the double opt-in confirmation step. Some providers let you do this. Or you could set up a Google Group or a Groups.io group for the purpose.
What’s important is that you use a service specifically designed to send broadcast email.
And yes, without that confirmation step, you are technically still sending spam. Your deliverability (the measure of how many messages make it to inboxes) will suffer as a result.
Do this
- Use an email address on your own domain.
- Send links rather than attachments.
- Use a tool for sending bulk email — ideally one where your subscribers subscribe and confirm their request.
This will all be better than sending emails with attachments to lots of BCC’d recipients directly from your Hotmail account. That’s just wrong.
Here’s an example: subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.
“one that doesn’t require the confirmation step that Aweber does.”
Apparently Aweber does not always require a confirmation step. The largest sources of my spam come from Aweber and I can guarantee that I never signed up with these scammers.
From some of the statements, at least one of them thinks I am in Canada (not).
I have forwarded some of the emails to their spam handling address (with the headers) but never received even a confirmation that they existed.
In Canada, if you don’t first send out an email that needs to be replied to, agreeing to receive these emails from you , then you run afoul of anti spam legislation. If caught, there are some very stiff fines involved. Better to do your research, and do it right.
Hi Leo
I have a slightly different issue – and one which I see no way of resolving.
I am newsletter editor for a local association and send out around 100 e-mails at a time to our members. Although my ISP is BT (British Telecom) who only allow 20 e-mails at a time, I use an e-mail address with One.com (who host our association) website to actually send the e-mails (One.com allow 250 I think – more than enough for my needs).
All has gone very well until a few weeks ago when I started to get messages back saying:
This is the mail system at host mailrelay4.public.one.com.
####################################################################
# THIS IS A WARNING ONLY. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE. #
####################################################################
I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message has not yet
been delivered to one or more recipients. It’s attached below.
delayed: btinternet.com->MX:
421 Too many messages (1.5.7.1)
I then realised that of the perhaps 100 e-mails that I send (I b.c.c. to the members), only those to the 14 members with btinternet.com addresses are being ‘delayed’ (although a number never get delivered at all!).
So BT’s problem seems to be with receiving 14 e-mails from One.com in a single batch.
I have raised a complaint with BT, but their help desk is in India and I was quite clear that the person who rang me back did not have a clue what I was talking about!
You might try Mail Chimp as Leo suggested. It is free for up to 2,000 recipients and 12,000 mailings a month.
http://mailchimp.com/pricing/entrepreneur/
I would not expect them to change their policy. As I outline in the article this is one of the signs of a spammer – even if you’re not one. If you’re sending to many I strongly suggest using some of the alternative approaches outlined in the article.
Leo,
Does your specific warning against Hotmail (as opposed to generally discouraging free e-mail for business use) extend to Outlook.com ? Or was it meant for the old Hotmail only ?
Outlook.com is the new branding for Hotmail. The interface and service has gone through many changes since the Hotmail days. It seems they are still having many the same problems, and in fact, with their overly aggressive antihacking measures, it also is having new problems.
For example:
https://askleo.com/how-do-i-prevent-hotmail-from-locking-me-out-when-i-travel-overseas/
To be fair, other free email service providers have similar problems. It’s just that Hotmail, Outlook.com etc seem to have the most problems and generate the most questions on Ask Leo!
All free email services in general. Outlook.com hasn’t yet achieved Hotmail’s level of poor reputation, fortunately. Certainly I strongly recommend not using free email services for business at all (get your own domain).
Hi Leo,
“Yes, sending 150-200 individual messages is probably better, but as you’ve experienced, it’s also a big pain in your email assets.
Fortunately, there’s software for this.”
Kindly give us an example of how to got one of them.
Thanks
The article lists ’em.
Leo mentions getting your own domain. It’s very inexpensive. Most top level (.com, .net, .co.uk etc. are top level domains) cost less than $20 a year. I pay $12 a year for mine.