Proper Care and Handling of Emails

Your email actions can affect your company email and inadvertently affect all emails on your host company’s server. Please make sure that every one on your staff is aware of the information below and that they fully understand the importance. This article will provide you with information so that you can help yourself to prevent any problems that can arise from improper email activity in the future.

The following behaviors are triggers and put up red flags for many host servers. Red flags can cause another company’s host server to put your domain and/or your entire host company’s mail server on a blacklist. Being on a blacklist will cause serious problems in sending emails out to your clients.

Red Flag #1: Sending out a PDF or another attachment to more than 20 people at a time will trigger a red flag on some host servers. If you are sending information to a larger number of people you need to use an email distribution list application like Mail Chimp or Constant Contact. These applications fly under the radar of the spam filters with no problems. DO NOT use a PDF to send info to a large number of people.

Red Flag #2: If you are using a newsletter application such as Mail Chimp or Constant Contact make sure your contact list is current. Sending out multiple repeated emails to dead email addresses through these applications will cause a lot of bounce backs. If your domain gets a lot of bounce backs too often it looks like you are spamming. This triggers a red flag on some host servers and contribute to blacklisting of your websites emails.

I’m on a Blacklist, Now What?

If you notice any suspicious activity in your email, such as bounce backs of emails you did not send, contact your host company immediately!

Suspicious bounce backs can be caused by one of two things-

1. Some one has hacked your account and is sending out emails through your email. If not caught in time, this will lead to blacklisting of your website’s emails.

2. A spoof has occurred. A spoof is when someone collects email addresses from the Internet or database and sends out emails that “look” like they are coming from you when they are not. In this situation it is up to the host company to monitor the email account.