Sending bulk emails can seem tricky. You want to reach a broad audience, but what if your emails end up in the spam folder? What if they annoy recipients and damage your sender's reputation? Understanding how to send bulk emails lets you bypass these issues. In this blog, we’ll explore how to send bulk emails that engage recipients, increase open rates, and drive campaign success with minimal risk of being marked as spam. Keep reading to get simple cold email tips.

Inframail’s email infrastructure can help you achieve your bulk email goals so you can send campaigns that improve your business without getting bogged down by technical details.

Table of Contents

• What are Bulk Emails and How They Differ from Other Forms of Email

• How to Send Bulk Emails That Get Results

• 9 Bulk Email Best Practices to Increase Deliverability

• Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

What are Bulk Emails and How They Differ from Other Forms of Email

At its core, a bulk email is a single message sent to a large group of recipients. These recipients typically belong to a specific segment or group, and the purpose of these messages can vary widely. Take the following:

• Email newsletters

• Announcements

• Promotions

• Invitations

• Updates

The Purpose of Email Templates

When sent in bulk, these email templates aim to convey a unified message to many simultaneously. Each mentioned type has a specific purpose hidden within the unified message. Nevertheless, you might have heard the term ‘mass email’ thrown around in similar conversations. So, what is a mass email? In essence, “bulk email” and “mass email” are often used interchangeably; in many contexts, they mean the same thing. Both refer to sending a single message to a large number of recipients. Nevertheless, if we are to split hairs, “bulk email” often implies a more targeted approach; this means the content is curated for a specific mailing list segment, like “users who signed up in the last month” or “customers who purchased during the holiday sale.” 

Targeting Considerations for Mass Emails

Mass email is more general, addressing a mailing list without segmentation. That is, “mass email” can target cold audiences as long as they willingly share their email with you and you provide an unsubscribe option. We need to stress that you shouldn’t take these requirements lightly. A recent court ruling against Experian’s Consumer Information shows that not abiding by CAN-SPAM and GDPR rules can cost an arm and a leg, even if it’s just a non-existent unsubscribe link. 

The Significance of Email Deliverability and Reputation

When you account for email deliverability, sender and domain reputation, and the overall conversion rates on a campaign, the difference between bulk and mass email isn’t that insignificant. You should be splitting hairs. And this goes double if you attempt to send mass emails to unsegmented lists. Understanding the nuances between these, not as many email types but more email marketing tactics can be pivotal, especially for email marketers and software engineers who aim to tailor their messages for maximum impact. The distinctions might appear subtle, but they can play a crucial role in ensuring the effectiveness of email campaigns. 

What’s the Difference Between Bulk Email and Other Common Email Types? 

Bulk email is often confused with junk mail and transactional emails. Nonetheless, bulk email is very different from both types of email.

The One-to-One Nature of Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are triggered by a specific user’s behavior and sent to just that individual. This could be an abandoned cart email or a receipt sharing the details of their most recent purchase. Transactional emails are one-to-one emails, as they are sent from your business to one sole recipient. Bulk email, on the other hand, is often called one-to-many email as it is sent from your business to many recipients. It’s also essential to note that bulk email differs from junk mail, sent without a recipient’s permission. 

The Legality of Mass Email

Mass email is legal as subscribers have opted-in to receive messages from your brand, and CAN-SPAM requirements are met. Nevertheless, due to a lack of email targeting and message relevancy, most bulk mail is given another name: graymail. 

Targeted Email Campaigns

Graymail is an email your recipients have opted-in to receive but don’t want in their inboxes. While sending an email blast to your entire database can be tempting, all your subscribers rarely want to hear from you in the same capacity and at the same frequency. 

Instead of sending messages to everyone in your database, use advanced segmentation to target your messages to specific individuals on your list. This will help ensure only individuals interested in this type of content receive your email, which can:

• Help boost engagement

• Reduce spam complaints

• Ensure your audience continues to find value in your communications.

What Happens If You Send Too Many Emails?

Unfortunately, too much of a good thing can have consequences. Sending too many unwelcome or unengaging emails can impact your sender's reputation and relationship with your subscribers. While there’s a time and place for an email blast, we encourage you to educate yourself on the effect too many non-targeted emails can have on your email program.

Here’s a closer look at the consequences that can come along with sending too many unwanted mass emails:

Negatively Impacting Sender Reputation

Sending a sudden increase in email volume can get your IP address(es) or domain(s) blacklisted by internet service providers. Once blacklisted, your emails might be blocked by the ISP completely or be filtered into your recipients’ spam folders. Luckily, using responsibly sourced email lists, limiting spam complaints, and gradually increasing send volume over time can help ensure your business stays a trusted sender.

Low Engagement

If you send too many unpersonalized and irrelevant emails to your recipients, they may not want to engage with your messages. As a result, you might see a dip in engagement metrics like open rate and click-through rate. Experimenting with subject line copy, sender name, and send time can help improve open rates, but if your email content disappoints recipients, your engagement won’t budge. 

Increase in Spam Complaints

Sending unengaging or unsolicited content will increase the likelihood that your recipients will mark your messages as spam. Once you get enough spam complaints, ISPs could start blocking your messages, which could mean even the individuals who do want to receive your messages can’t accept them.

High Unsubscribe Rate

If your recipients don’t find your messages valuable, they will unsubscribe. Losing subscribers can hurt your email metrics and your ability to meet business goals. 

Related Reading

• Outreach Automation
• How to Know if Someone Opened Your Email
• Cold Email AI
• Best Time to Send Cold Emails
• How to Know if Someone Opened Your Email
• How to Follow Up on a Cold Email
• How to Send a Cold Email for Networking

How to Send Bulk Emails That Get Results

Understand Gmail’s sending limits. Be aware of Gmail’s daily email limits:

• Individual accounts: 500 emails per day.

• Google Workspace accounts: Up to 2,000 emails per day.

Exceeding these limits can get your account temporarily disabled or flagged as spam, so plan accordingly. You can read more about the limits on the Google Support page.

Add Recipients Manually: Watch Out for Deliverability Issues

You can manually add many recipients to a single Gmail email. Nevertheless, Gmail’s limits—500 emails per day and 100 recipients per email—can make this method impractical for large lists. Try creating multiple Gmail accounts if you need to send many emails. For example, if you need to send 10,000 emails and each account can handle 500 per day, you’d need about 20 accounts. With Google Workspace, which allows up to 2,000 emails daily, you’d only need 5 accounts. Remember that new Gmail accounts might have lower deliverability rates, meaning your emails might end up in spam folders instead of inboxes. 

Sending Bulk Emails with Specialized Tools

Use Bulk Email Services: Consider using bulk email sending software for a more streamlined approach. These tools are designed to handle large volumes of emails efficiently and effectively. 

Technical Considerations

Marketing vs. Cold Emails: Different tools exist for email marketing and cold emailing. Email marketing tools are used when you have the recipient’s consent, while cold emailing tools are for reaching out to people who might not expect your email. Marketing emails are sent from the tool’s server, while cold emails come from your address.

Why Tools Are Better: Using dedicated bulk email-sending software is the best way to handle large-scale email campaigns. These tools offer features that improve:

• Deliverability

• Personalization

• Tracking

Note: To send bulk cold emails, use dedicated tools to ensure compliance and effectiveness. 

Top Features of Bulk Email Sending Tools 

You must look for specific features when you use a tool to send email in bulk. Here’s a glance at them:  

User Behavior Tracking

Tracking deliverability rates, bounces, spam, and other email metrics help you gauge your email campaign’s success. All of these metrics should be easy to track via a user-friendly dashboard. Advanced reporting options in email providers may allow you to track revenue per subscriber and email. 

Email Segmentation and Personalization

Segmenting your emails guarantees that the right individuals see your emails at the right time. You should expect better engagement because the email is more relevant to your recipients. 

Split Testing

Also known as A/B testing, it is a terrific approach to determine what your audience responds to. This functionality is handy if you have trouble getting high open rates and sufficient conversions.

Automatic Bounce Handling (ABH) Feature

It is an email suppression system that automatically adds hard email bounces and complaints to a personal suppression list. If you send an email to an address that should not receive it, the tool will add them to a suppression list, and they won’t get it anymore.

Easy Integration

Ensure the tool is easy to integrate with other tools and platforms you use. This will help in further streamlining your work process. 

Customizable Email Templates

The tool has to offer easy-to-customize email templates to save time while crafting emails.

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9 Bulk Email Best Practices to Increase Deliverability

1. Use Multiple IP Addresses to Send Bulk Emails

Sending bulk emails from a single IP address is one of the quickest ways to end up on a spam list. Instead, use multiple IP addresses to improve your sender reputation and keep your emails from landing in the spam folder. You might get away with having just 2 IPs to handle your transactional and marketing messages separately at lower volumes. 

Unfortunately, as your volume scales into the millions, you might need additional IPs to keep up with your sending needs. Some companies use multiple IP addresses for messages they send, like:

• Transactional/marketing emails

• Newsletters

• Reengagement campaigns

This process can help you maintain a favorable sender reputation, as emails sent to less engaged recipients will only affect the IP address they’re sent from.

2. Use a Preference Center to Send Bulk Emails

The best way to know what topics your subscribers care about and how frequently they want to hear from your brand is to ask them. Create an email preference center so that when an individual subscribes to your email list, they can opt-in and out of specific forms of communication.

Personalized Email Subscriptions

For example, maybe an individual only wants to know when you’re having sales but doesn’t care to receive your monthly newsletter and weekly marketing emails. The preference center allows them to self-select which of these emails they receive, allowing you to send more targeted emails without pestering your recipients.

3. Ensure You Have Explicit Permission to Email Your Recipients

We don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but gather subscribers responsibly and ensure everyone on your list has given you explicit permission to email them. Avoid purchasing lists and stay CAN-SPAM compliant.

4. Practice Good List Hygiene and Have a Sunset Policy

Regularly “scrub” your email list by removing inactive, bounced, and non-engaging email addresses. Proper email list hygiene will help you improve your sender reputation, boost engagement rates, and reduce the chances of landing on an email deny list. 

If recipients haven’t engaged with your emails after a set amount of time, consider “sunsetting” them from your lists by reducing the emails they receive or dropping them altogether. This will help:

• Improve your overall engagement rates

• Keep spam complaint rates in check

• Decrease the number of spam traps you send to

5. Authenticate Your Email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

In the past, implementing SPF and DKIM was all it took to get emails delivered to the primary inbox providers. Now, you’ll also want to implement DMARC, which allows you to specify how an ISP should handle emails that weren’t authenticated using SPF or DKIM. Sometimes, simply publishing a DMARC record can result in a positive reputation bump.

6. Regularly Check Your Reputation and Blacklist Status Regularly

Keep tabs on both your sender reputation and your brand’s presence on deny lists as either could be preventing your emails from landing in recipient’s inboxes. Helpful sites for checking and monitoring your sender reputation:

• SendScore.org

• BarracudaCentral.org

• TrustedSource

• Google Postmaster Tools

• ​​Microsoft SNDS

Resources for checking blacklisted IPs or domains:

• Barracuda Reputation Block List

• Invaluement 

• MXToolBox

• MultiRBL

• Spamcop

• Spamhaus

• SURBL

7. Don’t Send Your Subscribers Too Much Mail

2020 Global Messaging Engagement Report revealed that more than half of U.S., U.K., Germany, France, and Japan recipients would unsubscribe if they started receiving emails daily. Plus, sending frequency and message irrelevance were the top two reasons contacts opted-out of promotional communications. Keep an email marketing calendar to track all your messages and ensure you aren’t hitting one specific audience too often.

8. Leverage Reengagement Campaigns

Unengaged audiences can hurt your email program’s performance, but before you kick your inactive recipients to the curb, try using a re-engagement campaign to win them back. Start by creating your email list of recipients who haven’t opened one of your emails in a certain amount of time—ideally around one to two months—and then explicitly ask them: do you still want to receive our emails?

Providing Clear Opt-In/Out Options

In the body of your email, give your readers two explicit ways to opt-in or out of your future communications so you can proactively remove unengaged email addresses. For individuals who re-subscribe to your list, take them to your email preference center so they can set the cadence they’d like to hear from you.

9. Ensure It’s Something Worth Sharing

Before hitting send on a mass email, use this checklist to ensure this is a spam-free message all the subscribers on my list will find interesting:

• Will my subscribers want to read this email?

• Is my email a positive reflection of my brand?

• Does my email have one clear call-to-action?

• Does my email deceive or mislead my subscribers in any way?

• Has my email content passed a spam testing tool?

• Am I getting the right message to the right subscriber at the right time? 

If your email passes the test and follows the other best practices outlined above, you’re all set to send it!

Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

Cold emailing is a powerful tool for reaching your prospects. You need the proper email infrastructure to run effective cold email campaigns. That’s where Inframail comes in. At Inframail, we revolutionize cold email infrastructure. Our service offers unlimited inboxes at a single flat rate, taking the stress out of emailing large volumes of prospects. We provide:

• Microsoft-backed deliverability

• Dedicated IP addresses

• Automated technical setup to help agencies, recruiters, and SDRs scale their outreach efforts efficiently.  

Benefits of Using Inframail for Cold Emailing

Inframail streamlines the entire process of setting up your cold emailing infrastructure. Our service allows automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setups. We provide dedicated email servers for each user, and our 16-hour priority support daily helps you resolve issues quickly. Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail handles the complex setup while you focus on reaching more prospects. 

Scalable Email Infrastructure for All

Whether you're an agency looking to scale outreach, a recruiter connecting with candidates, or an SDR driving sales, Inframail provides a robust email infrastructure without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs.

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