Navigating email compliance as a church can be tricky. But we're here to help! First, let's look at two common problems of sending mass emails to your church: being marked as spam and having emails bounce.
Marked as spam. Subscribers can mark your emails as spam or unwanted junk mail, which will block you as a sender. If you have a spam complaint rate of 0.1% or higher, email providers will automatically flag your emails and send them to spam folders, even for people who didn't mark your emails as spam.
Bounced emails. If an email is sent but not delivered, it bounced. Emails can bounce for a number of reasons, but the most common is that an email address doesn't exist. This can happen if you import an old list or purchase one, or if an email address has a typo or is no longer active. If you have a bounce rate above 4%, email providers will start treating you as suspicious, and fewer of your emails will get delivered.
Here are some best practices to help you avoid having high bounce and spam complaint rates.
Ramp up your email subscribers. If you send an email to 10,000 people on day one, you're almost certain to get flagged as spam. When you first get started sending emails, start with a small list of subscribers, then slowly increase the number of people you're sending to. This will help build trust with email providers like Google and Yahoo.
Don't email people who haven't signed up. Recipients who don't remember signing up for your emails, like imported or old contacts, are likely to report your email as spam. Only email subscribers who signed up for your emails.
Don't contact people more than you promised. If someone signed up for updates from a one-time event, don't start sending them your weekly newsletters. It may feel like spam to them.
Limit how often you send emails. Sending too many emails can lead to more complaints, even from people who want to hear from you. So be mindful of how many emails you're sending.
Create personable, human content. Remember that you're emailing real people who want to hear from you and your church, not another mass marketing email. Keep the language natural and personable, and keep the content relevant to your audience. Emails related to payments or downloading something are more likely to be marked as spam and may feel unnatural.
Avoid spammy subject lines. Don't use all caps (LIKE THIS), too many exclamation marks, or commonly used spam terms, like "buy now", "act fast", "special offer," etc. (HubSpot has a great list of words to avoid here). It'll increase your likelihood of getting flagged by a spam filter and will make your emails feel less genuine.
Don't send emails with a lot of attachments. One or two attachments every now and then is fine, but sending too many attachments too often can flag spam filters and look suspicious.
Make sure your lists are up-to-date. If your email list is a few years old, it will likely be full of inactive emails. Clean up the list often to remove old email addresses.
Never use a purchased list. This goes against our terms of use and is what often causes high bounce rates. Only email people who subscribed to your emails.
Remove people who haven't engaged with your emails recently. If someone hasn't opened or clicked any of your emails in 6 months, they're more likely to report your email as spam.
If you have any questions, just reach out to us via chat. We'd love to help!