How to Send Bulk Email

Bulk email is generally referred to the emails that is sent to many recipients at one time. The number of recipients can vary. Often, this term is also looked at as junk email, reason being the term bulk is more likely known to be unsolicited emails sent to a large number of people. This concept is followed mainly by business groups and companies for marketing their products, goods and services. Though, it can also be used by individuals to send information to family or friends too, for example sending invitations, photos, etc. Using bulk email for marketing strategies and for promotions by companies can be done to reach existing clients and gain prospective clients as well. Mass email should not be associated with spam. However, a lot of spam emails are sent using this practice. This impression about bulk being spam is deep rooted. Hence, most of people receiving lots of email are hesitant about opening it. Many a time, the advertising in these emails is offensive. All these factors further make sending bulk email difficult, with additions of almost all email providers have a technology that blocks emails coming in bulk. So how do you send bulk email, to make sure it reaches all your recipients, and most importantly, is opened and read by them? The following are a few tips that will simplify sending plenty of emails.

Sending Bulk Email

Though sending emails is just like a simple message that needs to be delivered across, it is important to make sure it reaches the recipients and gives meaning to the whole purpose of sending it. Simple measures and things, when taken care of, can help in effective bulk mail sending.

Requirements
Bulk email is an effective method of sending messages to many recipients. Let us first see some considerations to send bulk email. It is important to consider the number of emails you wish to send, to determine if one email or several attached emails need to be sent to a specific target or recipients. The number of recipients is also an important factor. You will need to check if the number of people so as to analyze what system of sending bulk mail will be required, like a personal email system or any special mass email service provider. Note down if there are any special requirements. For example, personalization for increasing the click through rates. Also implementation of HTML coding.

Service Providers
Sending a huge pile of emails has various options when choosing the servicing technology to deliver it. It can be sent by using a specific designed software or an email service provider. There are 3 major options like personal email system, email service providers and bulk email software that you can choose from. Using a software to send lots of emails is effective as it manages all the contacts, creates templates for email and gives scope to branch messages to various contact groups. As for email service providers, it gives you the maximum level of customization. You can enhance the overall appearance and feel of the email. It is wise to choose service providers, keeping in mind the nature and number of emails you wish to send.

Step Wise Execution
Let us now look at sending bulk emails. A stepwise procedure for responsible and effective sending.

• The first thing to take care of is check how you write your email. It is wise to write it first, to ensure focus on your message. Include all the details that your recipients need to know. For example your phone numbers, physical address, other personal and business if required.
• Use an accurate subject line, that is relevant to your message. Using titles like ' contact urgently!' or 'do not forget', etc., only will increase the chances of blocking the message due to spam and even if it filters easily, the reader will get confused and may not even open it.
• Use accurate headers, this will help in distinguishing your bulk mail from spam mails.
• Once done, you will need to fill the fields marked as 'BCC. You will need to fill the recipients address here. This will send the email to all and also keep the address of all recipients private. It will not show all the email addresses to all the recipients.

We will now understand how to send bulk email from Gmail and Outlook.

• Gmail: You will need to have a Gmail account first. After you log on, go to settings - Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Here you can check for the option that says "Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on" and also "Enable IMAP".
• Outlook Express: Open the address box in Outlook Express, click 'new' - select new group-personalize the group name - use the select button and add email addresses by highlighting them from your address book - select 'OK'.

Tips to Remember

After these easy steps to send bulk email, I also have few email etiquette tips that will help you. It is a list of dos and don'ts for sending emails, especially in marketing.

Remember to 'Do'

• Always ask permission from your recipients, and also give an option to the recipients to unsubscribe. Honor their unsubscription requests.
• Publish your privacy policy, make sure it is easy to find and read.
• Choose a double opt-in or single opt-in subscription method, this will avoid mistakes.
• Use a real 'To' and 'From' address.
• Collect and count the bounces. You can remove the addresses that get bounced very often.
• Use a valid envelope 'Mail From'. When sending separate mails, use VERP or some other system that identifies bouncing addresses.
• Be clear of your motives, do not hide any particular information from your readers, for example, 'From: ' (i.e. sender's) email address. You don't want to violate the terms, rules and regulations of sending bulk email. Send useful information when sending email.
• Always use a legal method to gather the email addresses of your customers / recipients.
• Send your bulk mail on a regular schedule, you will be more visible to your subscribers.

Definitely 'Don't'

• Do not send unsolicited emails to any visitors to your website.
• Do not mislead subscribers with wrong and fake names, deceptive offers, etc.
• Do not add removed addresses back to the list of recipients.
• Do not send very huge messages. In case if you want some graphics or animation that is making the message heavy, put it in your web server and then link to the same.
• Do not make several attempts to send a rejected message. Make sure you wait for a reasonable time and then resend. Also resend only a few number of times.
• Do not use IFRAME HTML tags, when using HTML messages. These are generally used by viruses, so there are more chances of the message getting blocked by virus blockers.
• Also don't use 'web bugs', that is, images with a CGI query string, in case of HTML messages. These web bugs are mostly used in Spam. They may get blocked by certain mail clients.
• Do not over sell in the message. Use interesting information that will be helpful to them.
• Do not practice swapping or renting your email lists.

With simple email etiquette, you will not face difficulty in sending bulk email. Make mass email an apt and responsible communication tool. Get those smiles on your subscribers... happy mailing !