Email communication is a very sophisticated item that is changing on a daily basis and most of the time its evolving because of the heavy use of spam bots. As email administrators and software become smarter, so do the bots in efforts of finding ways around those evolving technologies. We decided to write this post to let users know what they can do to help insure their message is received by the people they are sending to. Please keep in mind this is a broad summary, if we broke down every detail it would be far too confusing and geeky!
From an IT Perspective/ Administration: These are the common items your IT administrator should do to help insure your mail gets where it needs to be.
- Make sure you have a proper reverse DNS record created
- Make sure that you are not on any blacklists
- Verify your server is not an open relay
- Verify your server is locked down
From a user Desktop Perspective: Even if your server is properly configured with the items above, if you don’t take the precautions below, your messages could still be flagged as spam.
- Use plain Text not HTML
- Avoid too many attachments
- Avoid using risky keywords or phrases
- Avoid long file names in attachments
- Avoid having too many Fwds in your email
- Avoid mass mailing using the BCC field
- Avoid various items in your signature (advertisements), etc
- File attachments size: if your file size is over 5MB there is a risk of getting your email bounced
- File attachment extensions: be sure not to use bad extensions such as .exe or several extensions such as filename.jpg.zip
What happens if I have followed all of these rules and the person is still not receiving my messages?
- Check with your IT administrator and verify that he has taken the appropriate steps.
- Have the person your sending your mail to check their spam filter, as well as their junk mail within their email application. (this is often the most confusing, because many believe their spam filter and junk mail are one in the same) -Also keep in mind they may have to engage their IT administrator to check their mail filters etc.
We hope that you have found this informative and with these steps you can make sure your emails are getting to the people you need them to!