Sending multiple campaigns
Outbound messaging is a great way to grab a lot of warm leads without spending too much time. However, it doesn’t mean you should do it without any strategy – each email operator has some daily limits, e.g. in Gmail it is about 200-300 emails per day. If you need to send more emails, we recommend creating multiple channels like firstname@domain.com or firstname.lastname@domain.com and sending only 100-130 messages daily from each one. Even if you send messages from different email addresses, try to have about 1.5h pause between the batches. Schedule the first campaign for 9 am, the next one for 10:30 am, then 12:00 pm etc. – spam filters not only check how many messages you send from one channel but how many are sent from a single domain.
It is also worth switching between different messages. Try not to send the same email campaign two times in a row from one domain. If one of your templates is extremely successful and you want to use it the most, prepare two versions of it for each email channel. It’s enough to rewrite some of the sentences using synonyms. The results will be the same and you will avoid being caught by spam filters.
A good practice is to use custom fields in the subject line, e.g. {{ first_name }} – this almost makes it look like each message is sent with a different subject and won’t look like an automated email.
Take care of your domain
It is very important to take care of your domain and to not spoil its reputation. When you do outbound, a good idea is to have more domains, e.g. company.com and company.co. Since they are two separate entities, you could send two batches of emails at the same time. Also, with the domain being less important you may do more risky tests, try different target groups and campaigns.
When you create a new domain, you need to use it for some time and let it build up its reputation. Send emails to your friends, existing customers and wait for their replies. Once you create a natural traffic, you will be ready to start doing outbound.
Keep your finger on the pulse
Even if you do your best to avoid being marked as spam, you still need to monitor it constantly. The easiest way is to keep an eye on your open rates. If you notice a sudden drop, it’s time for more advanced analysis of your mailbox. Check if you were caught by Gmail Spam filters, send a message to any a Gmail address which you haven’t been in touch with yet.
There are also a lot of websites and tools you can use to check your sender score. We recommend www.mail-tester.com which offers a deep analysis of both your message and your mailbox. Here you can check how the content you send is assessed by spam filters and whether your server, IP address or domain are authenticated. The test also verifies if you appear on any of the 22 most common blacklists. Do not panic if you notice your score is not 10/10 – anything over 7/10 is a really good result. Always analyze where you lost your points and try to improve on your weaknesses.
For more information, please refer to our tips on how to use mail-tester.
Important: Anyone can mark you as SPAM
Even if you follow all guidelines and best practices, prospects have the ability to mark your email as SPAM at any time. You will not get a notification about being marked as SPAM, but this will impact your deliverability. We recommend adding an ability to unsubscribe from your campaign by putting an ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the beginning or end of your messages. That way people will not have to click on the SPAM button to stop receiving emails from you, which will not hurt your sending reputation. Here you can find an article about adding an unsubscribe link to your messages.
