Our company sends out several thousand emails per day directly from our site/server. These include welcome messages, password reminders, support replies, occasional promotions, etc. The problem is that most of our emails are getting filtered to the spam/junk/bulk boxes on major ISPs and web-based email services like Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. We only send to people that have opted-in, we're not on any blacklists, we have SPF/Sender ID setup, Domainkeys setup, etc. and still our legit emails get filtered. Does this mean our messages are being filtered based solely on their content, or ??? I mean, even basic password reminder emails are getting filtered so it seems like it's based on the domain. But we have a good email "reputation" and aren't on any blacklists like I said. What is a legit marketer to do ... ?
AOL, Hotmail, Gmail filter a lot of legit messages not sure how you can bypass it if you can at all I think they can figure out whether it is coming from a person or whether it was automatically generated such as my forums confirmation emails sometimes go into peoples junk/spam folders
I can't imagine they would just filter all messages that were automatically generated. They want users to get password reminders, order confirmations and stuff like that, otherwise everyone would bitch and moan about the service.
I have the same problem with some of my web sites.... it's not easy to overcome. Try looking at your e-mail headers... I spent a lot of time on getting them right but some emails still get blocked.
Try being proactive with existing customers and suggest they add your email address to their white list. Very important, explain what a white list is and what they need to do. Maybe going thru various email clients (pc based and web based as well) would be a good thing.
One thing I found out today is that Hotmail relies on Brightmail for filtering. In our case they said Brightmail is recommending that they put all our mail in the Hotmail user's "Deleted" folder, which is freakin' ridiculous. According to what I've read this is reserved for known spammers, phishing and spoof sites, etc. I'm hoping there is just some mixup somewhere - MSN said they will get back to me within 2 days after they get more info from Brightmail. I must say MSN replied really quickly to my inquiry ... I'm also waiting to hear back from Yahoo. We have SPF/Sender ID implemented AND we sign all our outgoing messages with DomainKeys which Yahoo uses, so I have no idea why our emails aren't getting to Yahoo either. Anyone know how Gmail works? Do they rely on a 3rd-party system to help filter spam or do they do it all inhouse?
Hotmail and Yahoo are battling each other to see who can reduce spam the most and unfortunately, they are being far too aggressive as of late. 72hr deferred emails are common with Yahoo right now, and that is if your lucky. If your stuck in an AOL block. You need to bitch at them a lot and you could get out of their spam box. Mostly its flawed as they just filter more-and-more. Customers never know and think its our fault for not sending. If your sending a good amount of emails its a good idea to get spamassassin and start scoring your emails. There are also more than one spam blacklist running around, so if your not on one you could be on another(watch the bounced emails to get an idea). Loopback lines are junk, so dont bather even getting one from places like AOL(their loopback is all messed up). Track In-Reply-To email bounces and thread to emails, 24hr/72hr blocks, as well as X-Failed-Recipients for bounced emails. Anything after that is just some people dumping the emails into the spam folder and not unsubscribing, as well as anyone else that shares your same host or even class C. I have seen entire hosting IP rang being blocked or spam dumped because of other customers that the hosting company host (You may have to have a couple words with them to get that fixed). Have fun!