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REPLY TO ALL: How can our emails get past school district spam filters?

I work at a five-person education nonprofit as the marcom/grant writer and we are SO having problems with some of our emails not being delivered to our subscribers within the school districts. Our webmaster thinks it’s because the district spam filters are out of our control. I know we paid extra a while ago for a fixed DNS to get around AOL problems. What can we do besides posting instructions as we’ve done at this website, http://clms.net/resources/leaguelinks.htm? —Katie Winchell, California League of Middle Schools

The Voices of Email had this advice:

Stephanie Miller: This is a difficult issue. District system admins set up filters to protect their subscribers from unwanted email, just as AOL and businesses do. That is a good thing! Unfortunately for you the sender, often these filters are stricter than the major ISPs so mail that makes it to AOL still gets blocked by the district system.

There are two recourses for you: First, identify the top 10 districts to your business and make phone calls to subscribers or contacts there and encourage them to ask their system administrator to allow your email messages. When you commit to a certain frequency and to using the same from address (and domain), they may be willing. Typically, it takes their subscribers (also your customers/subscribers) to ask on your behalf. This can be cumbersome, I know, but it does work. Second, you could make it clear at sign up that subscribers are more likely to actually receive your email if they use a personal address rather than their district address. Alerting them right up front will help ensure more of your file is deliverable.

Jeanniey Mullen: This issue is too important to not seek professional advice. I would recommend that you make the invest to check your sending IP’s reputation with a professional organization like Return Path or Pivotal Veracity. They can diagnose the issue for you.

Have some good advice that we missed? Please add a comment and take part in the conversation.

Have a question for the Voices of Email? Email Chad your question at chad@emailexperience.org and we’ll REPLY TO ALL by posting the answers so everyone can benefit.

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Posted on October 1, 2007 11:11 AM | Permalink

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Comments (3)

Shashi Bellamkonda:

I really wish there was a safe senders list for non-profits. I know that my daughter's school PTA in Montgomery County has similar problems with ISPs when they send out their notifications. They usually tell you to change your email adress as ISps dont add them to the safe senders list.

Posted by Shashi Bellamkonda | October 1, 2007 5:22 PM

Posted on October 1, 2007 17:22

Katie Winchell:

Thanks, Stephanie and Jeanniey, for the great advice! I really appreciate it and will share your ideas at work.

Posted by Katie Winchell | October 1, 2007 10:51 PM

Posted on October 1, 2007 22:51

Tami M. Forman:

This reply is for Shashi -- Wanted to let you know that Sender Score Certified does offer a non-profit option. We charge a $400 application fee, but the annual license is free of charge. You can get more information at www.senderscorecertified.com.

Hope that helps!

Best,
Tami M. Forman
Director, Marketing
Return Path

Posted by Tami M. Forman | October 2, 2007 10:14 AM

Posted on October 2, 2007 10:14

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the voices of email

The Email Experience Council's membership includes many of the brightest and most committed email marketing experts. We're pleased to have some of them share their insights here on these pages. Our blog contributors include:

Elie Ashery is the president and CEO of Gold Lasso, and is responsible for the company’s vision and strategy execution. Before joining Gold Lasso, he co-founded Newsletters.com in 1997, selling it to The Tribune Cos. in 2000. He then worked for IncenSoft, focusing on email marketing while there. Read more.

Amy Bills is the senior manager of field marketing at lead optimization company Bulldog Solutions. She is responsible for lead generation and the go-to-market execution of Bulldog's new products and initiatives. Amy was previously the editorial team leader of Freescale Semiconductor’s internal creative agency and a senior editor at Hoover’s Online. Read more.

Nicholas Einstein is director of strategic and analytic services at Datran Media. Specializing in email and CRM strategy, he helps some of America’s top brands leverage online channels to communicate more effectively with their customers and prospects.

Lisa Harmon is a principal at Smith-Harmon, a creative services consultancy dedicated to email marketing strategy and production. She works with marketers to increase clickthrough, maximize revenue, and infuse delight into their email creative. Lisa is also the blogger behind edm.smith-harmon.com, an ongoing commentary on the best (and worst!) in email marketing creative. Read more.

Chip House is ExactTarget's VP of marketing services, leading the teams responsible for client success. He was named to BtoB Magazine’s 2005 “Who’s Who in B-To-B,” for being a vocal proponent of legitimate commercial email and an active lobbyist regarding spam and privacy issues. Read more.

Spencer Kollas is the director of delivery services at StrongMail, helping maximize customers’ email deliverability rates. He was previously director of deliverability services for Premiere Global Services. Spencer is an active member in the Email Sender & Provider Coalition, Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group, the Anti-Phishing Work Group and, of course, the eec. Read more.

Stephanie Miller is VP of strategic services for Return Path, the leading email performance company. She works with marketers to earn a higher ROI and response from their acquisition and retention email programs—developing content, contact and segmentation strategies, along with testing, measurement and production programs. Read more.

Erick Mott is the director of marketing and corporate communications for Habeas, the leader in email reputation management services. He has a rich background in marketing and communications strategy and execution for such companies as Nokia, MarkMonitor, GlobalFluency, Cisco Systems, Creator Connection, Sun Microsystems, Philips NV, Elm Products and CBS Television. Read more.

Jeanniey Mullen is the Email Experiene Council's founder and the global EVP and CMO of global online publishing company Zinio. She is a thought leader and visionary in the email and digital marketing field. A columnist for ClickZ, she has published numerous papers and is a frequent speaker. Read more.

Charles Stiles is the VP of worldwide business development at Goodmail Systems. In his role, Charles is focused on helping generate a better understanding of the email environment and potential solutions for a better consumer experience. He currently serves as the chairman for the Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group. Read more.

Jeremy Swift is director of client relations for email service provider BlueHornet. He helped form BlueHornet’s founding team in 2000 and has been responsible for client services and marketing strategy since the company’s inception. Jeremy is known for his ability to articulate technical information in ways that clearly resonate with today’s online marketer.

DJ Waldow is an account manager at Bronto Software. He works with Bronto’s largest clients to help them achieve and surpass their marketing goals. An active member of the email marketing community, DJ posts regularly on the Email Marketer’s Club, publishes a bi-weekly email marketing best practices newsletter, and films BrontoFire.

Chad White is the Email Experience Council’s director of retail insights and editor-at-large. He founded and is the author of the Retail Email Blog, a blog dedicated to tracking the email marketing practices of the largest online retailers. Chad regularly writes major research reports on email marketing and is an Email Insider columnist for MediaPost. Read more.