[Technology] Computer problems, issues with bulk email addresses

[Cadiz Seagull]

We send out a monthly newletter to everyone on our database. Nothing complicated or specialist bulk mailing package, just a regular Outlook email with a word attachment sent to me with bcc to a whole bunch of addresses. There are seven batches (my server limit 250 emails an hour), two of the batches were sent without problem but the othe five were rejected with an error message too many protocol and syntax issues.

Clearly our email address database has been corrupted but I have no idea how to identify which addresses or how to correct them.

Is there anyone out there that can help? I'm happy to pay for your time. I can pm you more details if you think you can help.

And once this current issue is sorted I'm open to suggestions of a more professional way to manage the newsletters, maybe a specilalised package. Again I'm happy to pay for your advice and time.

I wouldn't say I know nothing about computers but I did fail the entry exam to the Ben's Grandad's School of Computing.

 

[BNthree]

Post an example of the error messages.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Post an example of the error messages.

I just did, Too many syntax and protocol issues

 

[MattBackHome]

We send out a monthly newletter to everyone on our database. Nothing complicated or specialist bulk mailing package, just a regular Outlook email with a word attachment sent to me with bcc to a whole bunch of addresses. There are seven batches (my server limit 250 emails an hour), two of the batches were sent without problem but the othe five were rejected with an error message too many protocol and syntax issues.

Clearly our email address database has been corrupted but I have no idea how to identify which addresses or how to correct them.

Is there anyone out there that can help? I'm happy to pay for your time. I can pm you more details if you think you can help.

And once this current issue is sorted I'm open to suggestions of a more professional way to manage the newsletters, maybe a specilalised package. Again I'm happy to pay for your advice and time.

I wouldn't say I know nothing about computers but I did fail the entry exam to the Ben's Grandad's School of Computing.

How many email addresses do you have on the database?

 

[Monkey Man]

I'm by no means an expert on this stuff but I do find it's best to use a service like Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor for group emails. It costs very little, is quicker, there are far fewer tech issues to worry about, and you can customise the design very easily.

 

[Arthur]

We send out a monthly newletter to everyone on our database. Nothing complicated or specialist bulk mailing package, just a regular Outlook email with a word attachment sent to me with bcc to a whole bunch of addresses. There are seven batches (my server limit 250 emails an hour), two of the batches were sent without problem but the othe five were rejected with an error message too many protocol and syntax issues.

Clearly our email address database has been corrupted but I have no idea how to identify which addresses or how to correct them.

Is there anyone out there that can help? I'm happy to pay for your time. I can pm you more details if you think you can help.

And once this current issue is sorted I'm open to suggestions of a more professional way to manage the newsletters, maybe a specilalised package. Again I'm happy to pay for your advice and time.

I wouldn't say I know nothing about computers but I did fail the entry exam to the Ben's Grandad's School of Computing.

To be honest I'm quite surprised these messages have ever worked to be honest.

If I'm reading this correctly you are sending an email with an attachment to 250 BCC'd 7 times?

My guess is your service provider on your side has restricted you sending due to the suspicious activity.

Who is your email service provider? Would speak to them first.

Secondly I wouldn't send out anything as an attachment, host it someone and simply provide a link to download it.

Thirdly for that volume use something like mailchimp, up to 2k contacts for free (https://mailchimp.com/pricing/free-details/). They will take care of all of the deliverability side of things including signing the messages correct with the various authentication protocols (DKIM, SPF etc).

 

[MattBackHome]

Yes Mailchimp / GetResponse / ActiveCampaign - anything like that will do small volumes like that for free (or nearly free).

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Yes I realise the way I'm doing this is pretty clumsy to say the least but Ive been doing it for the best part of 15 years sice we started and haven't had any serious problems before.

yes I want to do it more professinally with something like mailchimp but before I can do that I need to correct the errors in the databases. There are 5 of them with errors, each with between 150 and 200 addresses

 

[Argartu]

There are 5 of them with errors, each with between 150 and 200 addresses

Just restore from your backups and use a mass mailer to send it out.

...You do have backups right?

 

[Arthur]

Yes I realise the way I'm doing this is pretty clumsy to say the least but Ive been doing it for the best part of 15 years sice we started and haven't had any serious problems before.

yes I want to do it more professinally with something like mailchimp but before I can do that I need to correct the errors in the databases. There are 5 of them with errors, each with between 150 and 200 addresses

Don't understand what you mean errors in the database? Can you see that the email addresses are malformed?

If it's worked for 15 years (which as I said I'm amazed) and nothing has changed then I don't think the problem you are having now is with your data. I would guess you've pissed off your service provider.

Although if its 15 years old then the hygiene of your list will be crap I expect, email addresses are pretty much disposable these days. Another reason to use marketing software as they'll take care of your hard/soft bounces, spam complaints and unsubscribes.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

If the problem isn't with the data how come two of the seven data bases were sent without a problem. I'm sure there are errors in the email data probably caused by me deleting address who have unsubscribed which I do manually. So I may have deleted a semi colon or a comma or added a rogue character or something. The addresses are all in one block on word, I'll send you an example if you like and you'll see what I mean.

And when I get an error it doesn't identify which address, just says there are too many. I need the equivalent of a spell checker for email addresses!

And our emails are very much not disposable, we sell rural property to overseas buyers in Spain mainly to older clients who are looking to buy for retirement. It's not uncommon for us to get a message saying "we have been on your newsletter list for ten years but we are now ready to buy." Often we won't have heard from them since the day they first joined the mailing list

 

[beorhthelm]

going out on a limb here, have there been any new emails added and are they in the third batch? could be a duff syntax in an email address and process halts. 250 isnt many to scan through manually, load into Notepad (or better yet get Notepad ++) to see odd characters better. recent additions would be place to start before sweeping through them all.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Sorry to be a pain guys but I’m really struggling with this. I tried to fix it myself but made a dogs of it. So I need someone to help with two things before I lose my mind!

To sum up, I have approximately 1,250 emails all stored on one word document. Some have been corrupted, probably by me when editing by cut and paste, so the first bit of help I need is for someone to clean the list for me. I don’t mean check the recipient is correct, simply to go through the list and get rid of any incorrectly formatted addresses.

Once this is done and there are no duff ones left the next bit of help is for someone to set up something like mailchimp to work with the emails and to check I’m doing it correctly as I’ve never used anything like this before.

Can any one help? I’m happy to pay the going rate for your advice and time.