Solving Email Delivery Problems

Have you ever sent out an e-mail and wondered if the message was
received? Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason as to what
happens in cyberspace. Black holes do seem to swallow-up e-mail
messages.

Occasionally, you will know when an e-mail message does not
reach its destination because a failure notice is sent to you.
But, just as often, you get no notification.

Filters Dump Email

Because of all the new anti-SPAM software, your message could be
dumped before your recipient ever sees it. Each of the anti-SPAM
software programs look for specific keywords in the subject
line. If you happen to put one of those keywords in the subject
line of your e-mail, you have now sent SPAM. And logic doesn’t
always work when you try to figure out which words to avoid.
Some software can be customized for the user’s own specific
keywords.

I had this situation occur with my web master. I was following
up with her to find out if she received the updates I sent her.
The subject line was: Did You Get Updates? Her anti-SPAM program
identified “get” in the subject line as SPAM and immediately
trashed the message. Who would have known? I knew not to use
words like “Free” in the subject line, but “get” never occurred
to me.

For the last three years I have been using a mass-mailing
program to send out e-mails to about 350 members of a nonprofit
group I belong to. We have never had any problems with the
members receiving their e-mail. However, in the last six months,
some of the providers like AOL and Earthlink are interpreting
these messages as SPAM because they recognize the software I am
using. The only way I’ve gotten around this problem is to make
sure all 350 members have my e-mail address in their address
books. Otherwise, the message gets bounced.

Follow Up on Delivery

So, is there an easy way to find out if your message was
received if you don’t get an error message? Sure, pick up the
phone to confirm a message was received. But, you have to be
careful when you do this. People can misinterpret your action as
being pushy—like you need an answer right now and are not
willing to wait.

A good approach is to start off by saying, “This is just a
courtesy call. I sent you an important e-mail and I want to make
sure you got it. I know you needed the information right away
and I want to make sure you have it.” This way, it appears you
are looking out for them and are only trying to be efficient.
You won’t come across as demanding and cause the person to
become defensive.

Acknowledge Receipt of Email

As the receiver of an e-mail, you can greatly help this
situation by always acknowledging the receipt of an e-mail. Even
if you can’t get the answers right away, simply select the reply
button and let the sender know the message arrived. Make it a
habit to do this. Respond with a quick reply like, “Thanks. Got
your e-mail, but won’t have an answer for you till tomorrow.”
Or, even something shorter would work, “Got your e-mail. Will
get back to you ASAP.”

If you haven’t been in the habit of acknowledging the receipt of
an e-mail, start today. Letting someone know their e-mail
arrived is easy to do and greatly appreciated.

Conclusion

Even with all the problems we have with email delivery, it is
still the most popular method of communicating in business. Just
remember, it is not the only way to communicate. Don't count on
email 100 percent. Always follow up by phone if you think an
email never arrived.

Comments

[Postcard Printing]

Nice post. Thanks for the reminder about the flaws of email as a medium of communication. Very well pointed out.

[Jim Locke]

Unfortunately, spam filters and the federal CAN-SPAM Act have really made mass-mailing programs like the one you describe obsolete. The programs generally do not have an unsubscribe feature, as required by federal law and few if any methods to discover if your-email is being delivered or not. Futhermore, if you use the same domain name (e.g. xyz.com) for your mass mailings and your regular e-mails, you may find that your domain or mail server will "blacklisted" by one of the major Internet Service Providers (e.g. AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, Earthlink, etc.) or be placed on one of several hundred public blacklists. If you get put on one of these lists and are using the same domain name for both regular e-mail and mass-mail, you may find out that ALL of you mail will become "undeliverable" to certain recipients. To see if your domain has been blacklisted, visit http://www.mxtoolbox.com.

For these reasons, we highly recommend that you invest in one of the many online mass mailing programs available. The primary reason for this is that they enter into agreements with Internet Service Providers to guarantee delivery of your e-mail. They also provide the tools necessary to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act, send e-mail out from a domain that is different form your regular e-mail address, and provide you with an analysis of how many messages were delivered, opened, bounced, etc.

These services are relatively inexpensive and some even offer breaks for non-profits. The one my firm usually recommends is MailChimp (http://www.mailchimp.com) but ConstantContact, iContact and VerticalResponse are also great solutions. Compare the features and get the one that suits you best.