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IT Taming Tips

Are Your Group Emailings
Putting You At Risk?

Problem: You're running a project, small business, or organization, and email is--or should be--a big part of how you communicate with your target audience (colleagues, potential customers, members, etc.). You've been using an email client program like Outlook Express to send out group emails, but it's a tedious process involving breaking your large mailing list into small groups and sending out the message over and over.

Pitfall: Using your regular email account to send out numerous emails with large group bcc's could be setting you up to be "blocklisted" as a spammer.

Resolution: Use a subscription email management service that's designed for the task. It will make the work of sending out your bulk emails much easier, your messages will look more professional, and you'll keep your valuable domain name a little safer.

Blocklist Blues
Especially since the dawn of the CAN-SPAM act in 2004, I've noticed the major ISPs (Internet Service Providers) increasing their anti-spam efforts in general, but in particular, broadening their use of "blocklists." A blocklist is essentially a blacklist of IP (Internet Protocol)mail server addresses from which a given ISP will refuse to accept mail.

If my ISP for hosting my domain and email accounts is GoDaddy, for example, and you want to send email to my addresses but the address of your outgoing mailserver is on a blocklist being used by GoDaddy, you're out of luck. Your messages to my addresses will be bounced back to you bearing a telltale error code like 553: "mail rejected due to excessive spam."

Assuming you're innocent and not a deliberate spammer, why on earth would the address of the outgoing mail server for your domain end up on a blocklist? Making the logical deductions from the incidents I've observed, I'm guessing it's because you've been using your regular email account to send out numerous emails (a newsletter, perhaps) with large group bcc's. The activity of your mail sever in sending those large distributions of a single message has been observed and interpreted as the mark of a spammer.

With patience and perseverance, I may be able to get my ISP to unblock your domain. But why run the risk of causing us both that kind of grief? If you're regularly sending out emails that go to 50 or more people at a time, you should protect your own domain name and transfer the risk by using a subscription email management service.

Your Email Strategy: Vertical or Horizontal
Email management services come in two basic flavors:
  • those that use listserv/discussion group technology ("horizontal")
  • those that use email marketing technology ("vertical")
To choose the best type of service for your purposes, you need to think about which model will best serve your goals.

Listserv/discussion group technology is a horizontal communications model along the lines of a public forum. It provides a means by which the members of email lists post comments and questions to all the people on the list, so that a large audience or community of people can exchange ideas and discuss questions about a specific topic.

A contrasting vertical communications model is embodied in email marketing technology, a tool for publishing along the same lines as sending out a print newsletter or magazine. The service allows you to set up a Subscribe link on your Website so people can automatically subscribe to your mailing list, which is maintained as a data base on the server. Using a Web interface, you can access that data base along with templates to construct bulk email campaigns and send them out using the provided service that operates in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act. You send out mailings to your subscribers, but the subscribers are not using your list to communicate with each other (and do not have access to each other's email addresses via your list).

Getting Started
Whichever model best suits your needs, you'll find numerous services--ranging from the free to the pricey--available on the Web. You might start by checking to see if the ISP that hosts your domain offers the type of service you need. Shop carefully, and you can soon be up and running with an email communications strategy that advances your goals with minimal hassle and enhances your professional image.