14 replies to this topic

[ScottSalwolke]

I have a problem and wonder if anyone has any suggestions on how to overcome it. The word marketing is in my business name and I think because of this, many of my emails go into spam folders. I use a couple of different email addresses for my business and both go into spam folders. It consistently happens with my clients, including some who I regularly correspond with. It will be like every 5th email to them goes into their spam folder. I'm concerned this may have happened with prospects and that it could be costing me business. Should I just use a gmail address with my name in it or is there something I can do so my business emails aren't considered spam.

[Jill]

I'm no expert on this, but there are many different reasons why emails can end in the spam folders. I think one of them can be the SMTP server that you use. I had the same problem when using my own server and it's SMTP capabilities.

A few years ago, I switched to using Gmail through IMAP (so I'm still using Outlook). I still use my own email address, but I can use Google's SMTP servers to send. It seems that most of my email gets to where it's going via this method. Much more than before.

Hope this helps!

[ScottSalwolke]

Thanks Jill I'll give that a try. Its really getting to be a problem. I almost have to have clients RSVP each email just to make sure they've received it all right.

[Mikl]

This point about problems with specific SMTP servers is valid. For some years, I unknowingly used an ISP which was routinely blocked by one of the big US providers - for no obvious reason. Every time I sent an email to someone on that provider's service, it was blocked; it never even made it through to the spam folder. Then the ISP was taken over by a larger company and the problem went away.

[ScottSalwolke]

I switched to gmail, but I'm still having a problem with mail going into spam folders. Does anyone know a good source about spam filters and what they look for.

[Jill]

Have you checked to make sure your domain isn't on any email blacklists?

[ScottSalwolke]

I just did this and it does come back that I'm listed as spam on a few lists. They say my ip address is on the list. Does this mean no matter what email address I use it could be considered spam.

[chrishirst]

Your IP or the mail server IP?

[ScottSalwolke]

Your IP or the mail server IP?

My IP. I have wi-fi and my ip address is dynamically created. But if I turn off the modem and restart it to get a new IP address, this IP is also listed with some sites as spam.

[Michael Martinez]

Are you securing access to your WiFi network?

[ScottSalwolke]

Are you securing access to your WiFi network?

It wasn't originally. But after this came up I made sure to secure it.

[chrishirst]

The problem is with sending email directly from "your" IP is you really don't know who had it before and what they did with it. As your mother probably used to say to you "Put that down, you don't know where it's been"

It may have been part of a bot net, a "zombie" or virus infected and there will be no reverse DNS for it either.

Configure your mail client to send through your ISP's mail servers, for which you will probably need to add a SPF record to your DNS server, or onfigure the client to send through your own domain mail server in which case you will need to add a PTR record to your DNS for reverse lookups.

[Jill]

Then you must not be using Google's SMTP server as that wouldn't come from your IP (as I understand it).

[ScottSalwolke]

I'm not sure if I'm checking this right anymore. The numbers are starting to blur together. I just went through MXToolbox to check it and everything seemed fine now. Is there a service to check this that anyone would recommend or is MXToolbox a good one.

[chrishirst]

MX records are for incoming delivery from other mailservers and are nothing to do with outgoing mail.

And why bother with "online tools"? For such things you have a perfectly good DNS query tool already on your computer.

Open a command prompt:
Type nslookup and press enter/return key:
Type set q=mx press enter:
Type the domain name, press enter and the MX records will appear in the window.

If you want to check for reverse DNS, change to 'set q=ptr' for a POINTER lookup.