Are my emails being filtered to spam?

[TerryTen]

Hi,

I'm a freelance writer and I therefore send bulk emails to hundreds of editors. This means I get a lot of returned emails but my emails are not spam as this is standard in our industry.

Today I sent 600 emails and from this I would expect back a few replies for work and a lot of out of office replies. But I'm not getting anywhere near what I would expect.

How can I tell if my emails are being filtered to spam, as I fear this might be happening.

Thanks for any guidance

 

[EQ Admin]

Hi TerryTen,

It is not standard to repeatedly send email to addresses that are invalid or do not want email from you.

Any addresses that 5xx bounce should be removed from your list.

Any emails that want to unsubscribe should be removed from your list.

Emails that were only added becuase you collected a business card or saw an email on a web page (their web site, blog, linkedin, etc) should be removed from your list.

It is OK and normal for some of them to return out of office and other vacation flavored auto responses.

Do you have any test addresses with Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and/or other email services on your list?

Did you see our responses to your previous questions?

http://www.emailquestions.com/email-discussions/6543-email-sending-service.html

http://www.emailquestions.com/email-discussions/7313-like-mail-chimp-but-no-subscribers.html

You may be able to tell if more of your email is going to spam by monitoring how the email is treated in your test/monitoring accounts, and by monitoring your open and action rates.

What is your sending IP?

Are you the only one sending from it? (shared vs dedicated)

Is it monitored for abuse? Are you on any major ISP abuse feedback loops?

Are you on any blacklists? Have you done an IP reputation check?

 

[TerryTen]

Hi Pop thanks for the detailed reply

I always trey and get a correct email after just one bounce. The problem is editors change all the time and some publication I will only send to once a year.

I don't have any test emails. How would a test email work? I take it they have to be totally independant like not have any email address that are being tested in their address book etc? Or else it will not see something as spam. Is that right?

How do I monitor 'open rates'?

How can I tell my sending IP?

How do I run a reputation text? I'm the only one using this email.

Sorry for so many questions. I'm not knowledgable about any of this

 

[TerryTen]

I've had the IP checked and it comes back as fine. But I know the response rate for the emails me send is telling me something isn't right. What else might it be?