Email Delivery Increase

by 6 replies
7
So I have an application that basically users can sign up to receive content by email. What I have found is that as opposed to unsubscribing the users begin to flag the emails as SPAM through services like Hotmail and Comcast. This has resulted in my IP being flagged as SPAM through them so now if someone wants support through my helpdesk or something and they are a hotmail or comcast user I can't email them back without switching to a completely different email client, address etc.

The programming basically is done by having a php script identify the email address that has subscribed for the content and then pushes the appropriate content through the mail() function in the PHP.

I am wondering if there is a better way to limit my exposure to this for my server IP and to better ensure delivery of the email without making huge changes to my application.

I know of services like AWEBER and the like, but that is really not what I need. I need a service that can mass deliver emails for me in essence. I don't need fancy reporting about clickthroughs etc. I also need to store a lot of the user data in my on tables to ge tthe application to work right.

Is there a such thing as like an email forwarding service where I can program the email to send to one email address with certain characteristics and the email will be forwarded to the subscriber limiting my risk of IP address being flagged for SPAM?
#programming #delivery #email #increase
  • You can have proper links to opt out from the email list so that they dont click the spam button.

    Also maybe you should change the way the email is addressed, or written. Include more personal details like Name etc so that the recipient knows that the email was actually addressed to them.
    • [1] reply
    • You can report it or block those emails where you are getting delivery and if you are using free emails then you wont be able to do anything righ tnow
  • Hotmail/Microsoft are notorious for filtering email where they let the first one through but if the user does not click on the email to read it, then all subsequent emails will be filtered. Your best bet is to condition your email through starting slowly and increasing your volume over time. There are abuse emails for all the majors where you can appeal to them to take you off their black lists. There are also public blackhole servers where you should check your ips for being listed and appeal there. It is equally important to encourage your freemium email customers to open and read the emails you send them. Also encourage them to check their spam boxes and mark your emails as NOT spam.
  • In my thank you / signup page I always ask that my users check their folder for spam.
    You can appeal with microsft / hotmail if you feel that you are abiding by the can spam rules (unsub link, good description, not emailing 50 times a day etc.
  • The best option if you are not using a service like aweber,2checkout etc is to let your members know that they should also check their spam folder and once they mark it as NO spam they should receive your periodic emails in their inbox.
    • [1] reply
    • You've already received some very good suggestions. But one thing you might not be aware of is that when using the php mail function your email headers reflect the main server IP. If your on a shared server and this IP is listed in any way or the other domains on the server also send email using that format you'll get blocked due to the total send rate of the server.

      Make sure you have ...

      1: Dedicated IP for your domain
      2: Use smtp to send the messages
      3: Your hosting provider is setting SPF & DomainKeys for your account.
      4: The "From" email address is on your domain doing the sending.
      5: Be sure to educate your subscribers as mentioned in other replies.

      With that in place AND if your send rate is low you'll see a huge improvement in delivery.

      Hope this helps!
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed

  • 7

    Email Delivery Increase

    So I have an application that basically users can sign up to receive content by email. What I have found is that as opposed to unsubscribing the users begin to flag the emails as SPAM through services like Hotmail and Comcast. This has resulted in my IP being flagged as SPAM through them so now if someone wants support through my helpdesk or something and they are a hotmail or comcast user I can't email them back without switching to a completely different email client, address etc. The programming basically is done by having a php script identify the email address that has subscribed for the content and then pushes the appropriate content through the mail() function in the PHP.