It is becoming increasingly “standard practice” for more and more businesses to do a lion’s share of their marketing over e-mail. This means that a small home business owner needs to learn how to manage distribution lists—including acquiring them, keeping them accurate, and learning how to NOT abuse those e-mail addresses. One thing you will find early on is that every time you send out a group or broadcast e-mail, you are likely to get several “bounces”—unless you manage and respond to those bounces, your e-mail marketing can quickly become inefficient and obsolete.
When you get an e-mail bounce, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the e-mail address is “bad”—it could mean that the person is away on vacation or the e-mail inbox is overloaded and full. It could also mean that your e-mail got caught up in the spam blocker or other such activity. You might try re-sending the e-mail and after two to three bounces, you can then consider it obsolete and delete it from your distribution lists.
If you get an automatic reply, read through it and see if it is worth your time to re-send the e-mail or make changes to your list. If a person is away from office or on vacation and that is the sort of automatic reply you get, this doesn’t mean you need to re-send the e-mail. They will still have it in their inbox when they return.
It is also a good idea to give people an “out”—include a line at the bottom of your e-mails letting people know that you are not trying to spam or be annoying and that if they want to be taken off the distribution list, to just let you know. Then, when you do get “remove me” requests, be sure to do it right away so they don’t have to send another aggravated request. Of course, you will need to keep your e-mail addresses and distribution lists in an organized way so you can find bounced and obsolete addresses to remove them. It might be a better idea to keep well-labeled, smaller distribution lists if you have many names, than one large one. Remember to send out your marketing e-mail blasts “blind copy” so you are not sharing e-mail lists with everyone!
See Also: Making the Most of Your E-mail Signature
Why E-mail is the Best Customer Service
Could You Check Your E-mail Once a Day?