What is bulk email?

If we are speaking about bulk email, it goes without saying we are speaking about email marketing.

When you send an unsolicited and unwanted email to the unknown person ー it's junk email (spam).

When you send an email to your friend ー it's just email corresponding (neither spam no email marketing).

When you send the welcome email at the right time according to your deep-laid scheme and send it to the person who has just subscribed to your blog ֠this is bulk email (email marketing).

They say bulk email is like a graymail; that some recipients from your mailing list can take such bulk messages as spam. This is due to the fact that they subscribed, for example, to notifications but you have sent them promo messages. Turn your mind to email list segmentation and split all the subscribers into interest groups.

As we have mentioned "email marketing" term above, it's worth to remark that bulk email is sent repeatedly to lots and lots of recipients at a time. Key point ー a well thought-out plan for sending email campaigns:

• Choose bulk email sender (software or online service)
• Choose user's actions to send emails (example: purchase/addition of funds/subscription)
• Choose type of bulk email that will be created and sent

Bulk email advantages

Since marketers understood they could use online technologies to reach target audience all over the world ー email marketing started. Mass mailing is the prerogative of companies and organizations. It helps them to be in the right place at the right time and increase customers loyalty with minimum efforts.

Nowadays the following types of bulk emails exist:

• Notifications
• Newsletters
• News bulletins
• Email marketing promotions
• Mailing list discussions
• Periodic or scheduled subscriber publications, etc.

But the reality is that every day an ordinary person gets dozens of newsletters. In light of such huge number of emails when our mailboxes are overloaded with incoming messages, there is a need to sort bulk email and ignore spam. As you know, spam email messages are rejected by mail services according to sender reputation.

That's one more big difference. Legitimate bulk email sender is familiar to a recipient; the sender name is clearly displayed and there is an opportunity to unsubscribe from getting news from this sender.

How to succeed in sending bulk email?

1. You should really think over your email marketing plan: what to send? when to send? and whom to send to? These are main questions to control your bulk email and avoid lots of complaints. Give people information they want to hear from you, do not try their temper and loyalty be sending digest instead of discounts list.
2. Also, mind email tracking. If you know the statistics, if you find out pros and cons of your email marketing and can see the real profit of sent email campaigns ー you are a lucky person! Nevertheless, tracking let you know whether people are interested in your newsletters and your company.
3. Subscribers must have an opportunity to unsubscribe. That's that!
4. Send emails according to a time-table, remind clients about yourself. But do not impose. It's a great skill to find a happy medium.
5. Do not be lazy to create a branded colorful email template. This is all about your sender reputation too.

Nobody knows how to completely avoid getting into spam folders. As bulk newsletters are being sent to thousands of recipients at a time, it will be better to divide campaign into smaller parts and make a time-out between these parts sending. Otherwise, internet or server providers can block your bulk mailings. A good way is to send up to 100 emails per hour and no more than 10 on time (in case you use bulk email sender software).

And the last thing we want to advise you ー never buy lists of emails (bad! bad! bad idea!), use double opt-in permission marketing, choose the reputable email service or software and communicate, listen to the customers. Don't be afraid to make changes if required.