Before you try to formulate ways and means to avoid spam filters for sending bulk emails, you must understand what is a spam filter and how it works. Spam filters are to keep off unwanted mails and mails that may contain virus to corrupt systems. Many people consider spam as scam. But to have an effective Internet marketing proposition, you must send bulk emails; say more than 100, to your prospects. There are certain methods and techniques for sending bulk emails to your clients by bypassing the spam filters.

Complying with certain guidelines laid by the mail servers can help you in sending bulk email that will not overload their system. You must always obey state and federal anti-spam laws. Some sites may entertain bulk email only during off-peak hours (11:00 pm to 5:00 am) and at a rate of about one per second to avoid overloading. They expect some proper message structure, which you must maintain. Some ISPs would expect bulk messages to be formatted according to RFC 2822 SMTP standards and, if using HTML, w3.org standards. Regular text emails almost always gets passed through even the most rigorous spam filters.

In some servers, you can never send more than 250 emails concurrently. The server would expect you not to embed image with your email. They strongly recommend avoiding CAPs in your mails and especially in the subject line.

Certain words like “unsubscribe” than “remove” or “go here” than “click here” works better with spam filters. Your customers are definitely dear to you but never start your mail with the word. Some strict disciplines like not to forge headers or to use ADV in the subject line can pass most of the spam filters. Use of more than one punctuation mark in the subject line also can stop the mails by the spam filter. Clean up your email address list. Make sure they do not have addresses that will bounce back.

Leaving the header blank or using CC or BCC to add the list of the email addresses will certainly block the transmission. Spam filters will always restrict mails with marketing phrases or trigger words like “ reduce your monthly payment.” Never use the priority options for sending bulk emails. Some tricks can never work against the spam filters like changing the clock setting so that your mails reach the top of the heap of other mails. Using a fake email ID for sending the bulk mails or overuse of hyperlinks can also land you in trouble.

Remember to put the date in your email subject line. It is always better to be legitimate and to look like one. Many ISPs like Gmail prefer use of a consistent IP address to send bulk mail. Send your emails from a trusted source. Use the word “FREE” instead of “F*R*E*E” to make it look more attractive. Personalizing your email with your customer’s name not only baffles the spam filter, but also gets instant attention of your buyer. Keep yourself updated with latest criteria for determining spam scores because they always keep on changing as spammers try new tactics to bypass spam filters.