Email Spam Problem

lincolnway

I have a database of opt-in and opt-out emails from prospective clients. I am having a problem with my html bulk emails getting put into spam filters.

How I know this is a problem
I set up a generic free yahoo account with out any of the additional filters on there and tried sending one html email using the mail() function in PHP from my server. This ended up in the bulk folder. If this is happening with Yahoo I am fairly confident it will happen with AOL, Comcast and some of the other big providers.

Is there a resource that will explain why or how to avoid this? My database is legitimate clients that opted in for the information so I am not attempting to spam them. I just would like to send them the information they requested without having it put into the trash/bulk folder.

etully

There is no magic bullet. If there were, the spammers could simply do it too and their junk would get through.

You could sign up for Yahoo, Comcast, and AOL accounts and keep modifying your HTML email until it gets through all three. Then you'd have a pretty good idea of how to get an email through this week. (The spam filters change from day to day so next week, you'd have to run the test all over again.)

Personally, I just send my clients a URL that they can click to open in a web browser. That has the benefit of letting me know who actually read the page.

lincolnway

Ok, I tried just sending a simple message with out html tags. It still sent the message to the bulk mail folder.

Could it be because of the php mail() function?
Could it be because of the server I am using. I use a third party company!

etully

Could it be because of the php mail() function?

No. Well, check to make sure that you are putting good email headers on the message... but no, there is no spam checker in the world that can tell that your message was sent from a PHP mail script.

Could it be because of the server I am using. I use a third party company!

Almost guaranteed. Test the theory by sending the same message from somewhere else.

MarkR

Steps to prevent this:

Use a dedicated server. Set its reverse DNS to something reasonable. Ensure that forward-resolving this host name works. AOL don't even accept messages at all from non-resolving hosts.
Don't forge messages - ensure that whatever you set in the envelope-sender and "From" fields is consistent with the true sender of the message, and compatible with the SPF records for that domain
Ensure that you don't send any real spam! Honour opt-outs, and ensure that your server isn't compromised to send real spam (Hint: Be really careful sending mail from web forms)

Mark