Sending bulk email can have some undesired consequences and in more extreme cases can even be breaking laws (albeit hardly enforced) if done improperly.
Here are a few common mistakes, why they matter and what you should do to correct them.
- Sending bulk email regularly for commercial purposes with no information about how
to unsubscribe from the mailing list. For smaller lists even instructions that say to
reply with “unsubscribe” is usually enough to become compliant with
the the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Not providing such information or a
method to unsubscribe can cause people to report your emails as spam
if they no longer wish to receive them. - Using the “To” or “CC” field to list bulk recipients. Although this
may not be a spam related issue, it is a privacy issue, revealing all
bulk recipients could lead to email addresses being sold or added to
additional mailing lists leading to more unsolicited messages. It’s
recommended that you put yourself in the “To” field and use the “BCC”
field for bulk recipients as this will not reveal the recipients to
each other. - Sending bulk email using a business email address for matters unrelated to that business puts that businesses domain at unnecessary risk of
being flagged as a domain known for sending spam. Using an address dedicated to sending bulk mail and that bulk mail being for a specific purpose will prevent your direct/personal communications from being filtered out as spam along with your bulk mail.
One common practice that inherently fixes all the issues I mentioned above is to use a service like http://www.constantcontact.com where they specialize in sending compliant and safe bulk email that removes the risk of having your domain black listed. Using these services actually comes with an even better chance of your emails being delivered without being detected as spam due to an extremely high reputation in the industry.
You can read more information about bulk email with the help of the FTCs guide on the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-