I want to send 50,000 – 100,000 emails but I’m not a spammer… or am I?

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I was recently asked how to send huge amounts of email and not get classified as a spammer.  The request was genuine and the recipients had opted in to receive email from the sender.  So sending out those emails shouldn’t cause them to get listed as a spammer, right?

Well, that depends on whether the recipient remembers Opting in or if they get irritated by your email and flag the email as spam anyway.  If a number of the recipients flag the email as spam it could trip the threshold for the spam system and get your email server listed on a Real-Time Blackhole List (RBL) or DNS Based Blackhole List (DNSBL).  Technically you may see this as a rejection or bounce back with an error message of 550 5.7.1 when sending an email to certain domains.    

Oh, you ask what is a RBL or DNSBL?  Well, simply it is a list of ip addresses or ip ranges that have been reported to have sent spam emails.  Many spam devices and systems, including Exchange (see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351199(EXCHG.141).aspx), can be configured to use a DNSBL and filter messages accordingly.  I’m not going to get into the details of how RBL’s/DNSBL’s work (You can Bing that or I may blog on it later).  However, if your email servers Internet IP address gets on one of these lists it’s very possible that many organizations and spam systems will start blocking all email from your IP.  And from past experience, it can be a rather complicated ordeal to get unlisted.  Some of these list providers actually charge you to remove your IP and if you get listed again the charge goes up and the longer you have to wait to get removed.  Some never remove your IP…ever.  However, most will remove your IP on request as long as it’s not a reoccurring thing. 

So how can I send 100,000 emails and guarantee to not get listed…Well, you really can’t.  You can however, outsource sending those emails to a legitimate “Opt In” only email distribution list provider.  Legitimate Opt in providers can send your emails adding the required Opt-Out or Removal procedures and most handle the Opt-Out/Removal requests for you.  Since you did not actually send the emails, your chances of getting flagged as a spammer source are dramatically reduced.

My 2 additional cents/opinion…Think twice and maybe even three or four times before considering mass emailing even through a provider. 

Think:

  • Is this email really needed?
  • How will the recipients react to this email?
  • Will the information in the email be valuable to the recipient?
  • Where did the email addresses come from?
  • Is the list really an Opt-In list?