Overview
Email Delivery and Content
We use SendGrid for all of our email delivery. Through them we implement all of the email delivery best practices including sending all email from designated IP addresses, using authentication mechanisms such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC and from addresses that reverse to our IP addresses. All of these things help mail providers quickly determine whether we are a spammer or a legitimate email sender.
The next level of checks that mail providers do is look at both the content and the level of interaction by recipients of similar content to decide how interesting it will be to their users. Many use "spam filters" that pass the message content through a set of rules and use a score to determine if the message looks like spam (even though it is from a legitimate sender). If they think it looks like spam, they may place it in a spam/junk folder or they may just toss the message. They will also look at how other users interact with similar content. If it gets low clicks or views, they may also down rank the message and not show it to the users. We recommend using any of the industry leading services that can help provide feedback on your content to make sure it scores well.
It is also a good idea to ensure you are compliant with all CANSPAM regulations. These include doing things like providing a clear opt out process for marketing emails (which is why we check for the shortcode in all marketing emails) and also include your physical mailing address in all emails (marketing and automated).
Handling Bounces and Unsubscribes
There are two types of email bounces: soft and hard.
- A Soft Bounce is classified as one that may be intermittent, such as the recipient's mailbox is full or their mail server is not currently responding. In these cases, we'll send a bounce notification to indicate that the message couldn't be delivered.
- A Hard Bounce is where the mail server for the recipient reports back that the email address does not exist. In this case, we also send a bounce notification and the reason will indicate why (such as no such user, etc.) In these cases, our delivery provider automatically blocks future deliveries to that email address as continually sending email to known bad email addresses will reduce deliverability.
If you see the bounce reason of "Bounced Address," that indicates that the email address is already marked as having bounced previously. Look at the email history for the contact to find the first bounce and you'll then see the original reason for why the email address was marked as undeliverable.
We can clear these blocks once you've confirmed with the client that the email address is valid and that you're able to send to it from your regular email address. To make this request just put in a ticket with the email address you need researched/cleared. If you send to a blocked email address, we'll send back a bounce notification.
Spam
You may also receive bounce notifications with a reason of "Spam content detected by scanner." In these cases, the recipient's mail server determined that your email failed their spam content check. This indicates an issue with your email template or content. There are a variety of tools available where you can test your email templates for deliverability. Unfortunately we can not resolve these types of content related issues for you.
A similar thing happens if the user hits the "This is spam" button/link in their email reader. We will send you a notification, our delivery provider will block future sends to that address and we will also mark the contact as unsubscribed so they don't get future marketing emails. Like hard bounces, we can clear these upon request once you've verified that the client does in fact want to receive your emails.
Disabling Bounce Notifications
We've had instances where a franchisee uses a free site to set up fake email accounts specifically to test something within serviceminder. If you want to temporarily disable bounce notifications, you can do so by going to Control Panel > Notifications > Turn Notifications On/Off tab.
Email Retention Policy
We keep records of all emails that were sent. Customized emails (such as ad hoc emails that you compose from a contact, appointment or proposal) are retained indefinitely. The bodies for any automated or campaign emails are retained for only 30 days.
Reply and From Addressing
Email supports two return email addresses. The first is referred to as the Reply-To address. For most email readers, when you hit Reply, this address is where that reply will be addressed. When we send email for you, the Reply-To address will either be your user email address (the one you used to log in) or your organizations default email address.
The second return email address is the From address. For best delivery, the domain for the From address must match the sender's domain. For all of your email, we generate a custom virtual email address on our @serviceminder.io email domain. Any emails sent to this address will then get forwarded to you. If an email reader does not honor the Reply-To address, any replies will come to this address instead.
Every email we send includes both of these addresses, so replies could come to either. And just like your regular email is public and can be used to send spam to or from, the generated From email address we use can also be a target for spam.
FAQs
How do I see if someone has unsubscribed?
This is shown at the contact level under the "Do Not Email" checkbox. On the Contacts Grid, there is a column header labeled "Do Not Email" if you wanted to review lists.
If the "do not email" box is checked they are removed from getting ALL emails including the service emails, correct?
Do Not Email and Do Not Text are values available when you download contacts. The Do Not Email flag only applies to marketing emails, not service related emails.
How can we bulk remove leads that have bounced emails from campaigns?
Using Drip Triggers, you can set an action so that when a contact email bounces it changes their Category to Terminated, Dead Lead, or whatever other term fits your needs. You may need to make sure that your brand or your organization has the Drips add-on feature to use triggers. To learn more about Drip Triggers, please review our additional help pages about the topic.
How can we bulk clear bounced emails?
It is not possible for us to bulk clear bounced emails, but it is possible to bulk-unsubscribe any contact that has had bounced emails. Our database team can ago in and automatically mark every email that has had bounced emails as Unsubscribed in the system.
That way, when you go in and clear the bounce for any email address, they will only be opted in to the "automated email templates" that are connected to appointments/proposals/invoices/etc and will not receive any ad hoc emails that are related to marketing. But you will have to clear the bounces manually.
Why did the email bounce?
When you go to Dashboard > Tools > Email Delivery (Brand Admins can access this part of ServiceMinder, but Owners cannot) and you search the email, it will display a reason for the bounce there. Common reasons for bounces are invalid email address, mailbox full, or flagged as spam. The users who flagged a message as spam are the ones you would want to clear the bounce for but mark as unsubscribed. Most other reasons will cause the email to bounce again in the future.
Is there a way to sort them depending on why they bounced?
No, there are no sorting/filtering options for bounced emails at this time.
Troubleshooting
What can I do if someone marks my email as spam accidentally?
If you get a bounce message that says "Spam Reporting Address" that means that the recipient physically marked a message from you as spam. The only way that this can be undone is if that recipient finds the email in their spam folder, selects it, and then clicks an option like "Not Spam," "Report Not Spam," or "Unblock" to remove it from the spam list and move it back to their inbox.
If you get a different message, like "Spam Detected," that means the recipient's email server scanned your email and decided it resembled spam. In this case, you can request that a brand administrator or serviceminder team member clear the bounce in our system. We recommend that you review your email formatting before resending your message. Certain features like excessive use of exclamation points or large quantities of photos can sometimes trigger spam detectors.
