emails rejected as spam

Question

My emails to recipients @bigpond are being rejected as spam. How do I fix this problem?

Answer 1

Hi Mary, my name is Neil, and I'm an Outlook user like you.

Sorry you're email is being rejected as spam.

The first thing you need to do is let the recipients know their server is rejecting your emails. This is because it might not be anything you are doing, but something on their own system which needs attention to allow your emails to come through OK.

The second thing you can try is switching off your computer and rebooting your router. This should force a change of IP address. Normally when you turn off/on your computer you should get a new IP address. However, on some occasions you can be given an IP address that has been previously blacklisted as a spam IP address. Any emails you send from your computer using this IP address will then be rejected by some recipients. Turning your computer off and rebooting your router will force a new IP address to be given. Then you should be OK to send emails again.

Finally, email postmasters (a postmaster is the administrator of a mail server, but often this is just a computer following protocols) all have different settings and tolerances for allowing emails through. Their spam filter settings can be quite harsh, and if a recipients Postmaster thinks your email could contain spam, it will get rejected and returned to you.

However, there are things you can do to avoid your own emails being rejected as spam. Here is a list of things you can do to prevent your emails being rejected as spam:

Write to one person, No CC, No BCC, No Additional recipients.

Address the person properly at the beginning of the email "Dear Clive" rather than "Hi m8".

Avoid a deceptive subject line.

Give a proper subject, using common words, and avoiding all of the words you see in spam email (purchase order, pro-forma, invoice, licence).

Don't send lots of emails to the same person.

Avoid very short emails.

Send from a normal email program on a normal computer, rather than another device.

Write your reply to email address at the bottom of your email or in your email signature.

Ensure your computer is set to use a proper character set (Avoid using something from a different country, like US-ACSCII, normal preference would be UTF-8).

Do not add one single image, either send more, or none.

Do not attach HTML files.

The above tips are just general guidelines and doing some of them does not mean your email will always be rejected. I often send an email with a single image, but it is usually to someone I know and have emailed in the past without issues.

I hope this helps you.

Kindest regards,

Neil