genuine bulk email

[Jeffrey Goldberg]

On Oct 12, 2007, at 7:05 AM, Robin Becker wrote:

> At present I have reduced the email to a textual format with an  
> embedded textual link. So the email looks like
>
>> Your XXXX Document,
>> Thank you for your inquiry. below is a link to the brochures as  
>> requested, in Adobe Acrobat format.
>> It includes the YYY Airport Hotel and other information which may  
>> be useful. We thank you for your query.
>> Your XXXX Document may be found here
>> http://host/path/aaaaaa- 
>> hrcc-20071012113659-20zi0rfoknv6gdi1w4bls0psd0.pdf
>> XXXX Sales Team
>
> It could be personalised a bit more,

When you personalize that give the date and IP address of the  
request. Something like

   ... the brochures you requested at TIME from IP.

> but is there anything at a system level that can be done to make  
> emails less likely to be classified as spam?

The most crucial thing is the status of IP of the host sending the mail

   o Does it have a proper DNS PTR (reverse DNS) record?
   o Are you using SPF or DomainKeys to show that that IP address
     is authorized to send mail in the sending domain's name?
   o Do you have working postmaster and abuse addresses for the  
domain you
     are sending from?
   o Do you have a static IP address?
   o Are you clear of any major blacklists?
   o Can you demonstrate that every recipient really did request the  
mail?

Each of those are far more important than whether you attach a PDF.   
(By the way, say it's PDF or even Adobe's PDF, but not "Adobe Acrobat  
format".)

> I assume that spammers try very hard and fail, so is this kind of  
> email application effectively dead in the water before it starts?

Automatic mailing is fine.  What is important is how the email  
addresses were acquired.

-j