My typical day looks like meandering around the office greeting my TRS family and eavesdropping on their conversations. They're always busy at work providing marketing plans and solutions for clients, a major part of that being email marketing. As I make my rounds, I've more than once overheard them explaining to clients why they shouldn't send bulk mail through their personal or business email accounts. Because I think this topic is a real tail wagger, I thought I would do them a favor and write a blog about all the reasons you just can't send bulk mail through your email account.
What is Bulk Mail?
If it were up to me – I would tell you not to push the limits and just let my humans help you. However, for the sake of details, I had my people compile some information about bulk mail rules for top email companies.
- Free Gmail: Send no more than 20 messages an hour.
- G Suite: Up to 2,000 messages can be sent in one day, but the hourly limit isn't clear.
- Office365: A maximum of 30 messages per minute.
- Outlook.com: 5,000 emails a day, depending on account holder reputation.
- GoDaddy: Maximum of 250 messages per day, unless purchasing an upgraded plan.
Are you doing the math to see how long it would take you to send to your contacts using your email service? Toss the calculator aside and keep reading to learn more about why you're playing a dangerous game, even if you think you're in the clear.
Don't Ask Your Havanese to Herd Sheep
If you lived on a farm, would you want a Havanese herding your sheep or a Border Collie? Not to dog on my own kind, but you would probably want the Border Collie to take the job. Why? They're wired to be great sheepdogs! I, on the other hand, prefer to take naps and be pampered. Using your email for bulk mail/marketing purposes is just as counterproductive as asking most Havanese to herd sheep.
What the Humans say: Your email is an excellent tool for communicating with co-workers or clients, but it's not configured for sending hundreds or thousands of emails (marketing or otherwise). Your email lacks many capabilities that are necessary for bulk sending. If you attempt to send too many emails, your account could be suspended for 24 hours from sending any emails at all, or even worse – your account could be completely blacklisted.
Don't Tie a Dog to a Tree
My owners are the best and they would never tie me to a tree. I can come and go as I please, and it makes me love them even more. When sending bulk mail from your email, it's like tying a dog to a tree (and none of my TRS family is okay with that).
What the Humans say: One of the biggest rules of bulk mail (see the CAN-SPAM Act) is that you must provide the option for the recipients to unsubscribe from emails. If you don't, your emails will be marked as spam, which can ultimately put you in the doghouse…and no one likes the doghouse. Customers may not appreciate being forced to receive your emails and your email service could suspend or permanently delete your account.
Don't Make Your Customers Tuck Their Tails
If dogs see something they don't like, they're probably going to tuck their tails and run – and we know you don't want to make your clients or audience do that when they receive your marketing emails!
What the Humans say: The goal of email marketing is to create content that is engaging and useful to your audience. A big part of that is making your content visually pleasing. If you try to utilize your email for marketing campaigns, you'll find that you're very limited in your design abilities. That means that when you send an under-designed email, your customers may be looking for that "unsubscribe" button we talked about.
Don't Forget Your Watchdogs
It's a little-known fact, but Havanese are pretty good at sounding the alert when something looks amiss because we are extremely observant. The TRS team is like your very own, personal watchdog as they are constantly looking at your website and email analytics.
What the Humans say: Marketing is all about shifting with the trends. In fact, we monitor all our clients' marketing emails to see what's working, what isn't, and how we can improve. Email marketing services make this gathering of data possible as we can see how many people are opening emails, clicking on links, what links they're clicking, and more. If you send bulk marketing emails from your email, you won't have access to any of this data, leaving yourself without any information that would allow for improvement.
This is a lot to digest, but if I can drink it in like a cool bowl of water – you can too! With email marketing being so important, it's crucial that you don't just do it, but do it well. The good news is – the TRS team can help! We have all the tools and knowledge needed to make your email marketing strategy represent who you really are. Contact us whether you want to look at a marketing plan or if you just have a few questions!
Thanks for treating me to your time!
~Sadie 🐾