Seventeen Best Practices for (ethical) bulk e-mail

There are good (and ethical) reasons for you to send bulk mail. You might have a newsletter that your subscribers actually want to receive and read each month. However, there are people who send bulk e-mail for unethical reasons. You want to ensure that you follow best practices to avoid antagonizing your customers or being incorrectly identified as spam.
Here are some general guidelines that you may wish to follow:

1. Only send e-mail to someone who has provided you with an e-mail address. Never buy e-mail addresses. (who knows how these e-mail addresses were obtained). If you need to build up a distribution lists you can get third parties to send on your behalf (the recipients of these e-mails have either signed up for this service or are content to see appropriate adverts within their mail).

 Ensure you validate an e-mail address (confirmed opt-in) before sending out e-mails. As part of this process you should let your subscribers see examples of the type of mail they will be receiving.
   
   
   
   Let your subscribers understand:
   
   
   
   • The volume of mail they will receive.
   
   
   • The schedule. When you will send e-mail. How often you will send e-mail.
   
   
   • Where archived mail is kept. Ideally your website will have an archive of older newsletters. You can always password protect this resource if you need to.
   
   
   
   


2. Test your e-mails against a spam filter before you send them. One options is:
   
   
   
   • http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/AvoidingFpsForSenders 

   
   
   • Alternatively the software you use to send e-mail may have this functionality built in. MaxBulk Mailer is a great example of this.
   
   
   
   


3. Always provide an easy way to unsubscribe. Record unsubscription requests (a good practice is to note the time and day the request came through). Process unsubscribe requests immediately.


4. Always provide your physical address (and perhaps an e-mail address and telephone number) in all mail that you send. This information has to be on your website as well..


5. Always send your e-mail from the same e-mail account. Ask your subscribers to add this e-mail address to their address book or whitelist.You are aiming to be trustworthy and reliable. Never use this e-mail account for anything other than the subscription service.


6. Use a generic e-mail account rather than a personal account (“news” rather than jmoore”). Your employees will change, “news” does not...
   
   
   
   • Segment your accounts if you can (and give your audience to sign up for the particular e-mails they want to receive):
     
     
     
     • News
     
     
     • Special offers
     
     
     • New products
     
     
     • Support
     
     
     
     
   
   
   
   


7. Spell check everything you send. Look through your message for grammatical errors.
   
   
   
   • The person who checks your e-mail is not the person who writes your e-mail. Try reading aloud to make sure everything makes sense and sounds good.
   
   
   • Allocate plenty of time for revisions. Your audience will appreciate a well-crafted message.
   
   
   • Stress does not focus the mind. Make sure you have a peaceful environment to work on this.
   
   
   
   


8. Validate any HTML in your message. Simple code is best. Remember some of your audience will be reading mail on mobile devices.


9. If you send an HTML message make sure to provide a text-only version. Modern e-mail readers will distinguish between the formats
   
   
   
   • Use HTML to track message delivery.
   
   
   • Use HTML to tracks clicks.
   
   
   • Use HTML to provide alternative landing pages.
   
   
   
   


10. Provide a subject line that clearly identifies the content of your message. Examples are
    
    
    
    • “Acme Corp: New products for July”
    
    
    • “Manifold Store: 10% off skin products this month”
    
    
    • “Event Architects: 5 tips for planning your staff retreat”
    
    
    • “Prairie Title: Recent changes to Illinois law”
    
    
    
    


11. Keep your message short and focused.


12. Schedule your messages and keep to the timetable.


13. Ask your audience to add your e-mail address to their whitelist or address book (it is a good idea to ask this twice).


14. Remove bouncebacks immediately from your distribution list. Bouncebacks are e-mails for which the recipient cannot be found. You may want to record bounceback e-mails in a separate database.


15. Provide a simple way users can sign up for e-mail newsletters on your website.
    
    
    
    • Name, e-mail address
    
    
    • Send confirmation e-mail to validate subscription (double opt-in)
    
    
    
    


16. Create a simple and understandable privacy policy. Make sure you promote your privacy policy. Make sure you follow your privacy policy.


17. Check the bulk mail policies and guidelines of ISPs:
    
    
    
    • AOL

    
    
    • Gmail
    
    
    • 
MSN

    
    
    • Yahoo