Broadcast Best Practices

Broadcast is a powerful tool when used correctly. Please carefully read through the do's and don'ts to send emails that you would want to receive.

If you do not follow these guidelines, it can result in a high spam or bounce rate that will automatically pause your Broadcast access. This pause can be temporary or permanent.

Broadcast do's

Send plain-text messages to groups of contacts that have opted-in to receive messages from you.
Unsubscribe any contacts that have not opted-in to receive messages from you.
Email opted-in contacts you've been in touch with recently, within the last six months.

Broadcast don'ts

Send unsolicited bulk email or junk mail, or include any words in your message that could get it marked as spam.
Message anyone who's email address you collected more than six months ago, that has unsubscribed from previous messages you sent them, or that doesn't have a valid email address.
Buy, rent, or borrow lists.

What is spam?

Spam is considered unsolicited email sent to multiple people at once. Email clients provide recipients the option to report any email as Spam.

Spam laws

Highrise is required to enforce spam laws. If a recipient marks one of your messages as spam, it impacts future deliverability rates for you and anyone else using Broadcast.

Highrise follows the CAN-SPAM Act. Among several requirements, this law requires you always include an unsubscribe link and never use deceptive names, reply-to addresses, or subject lines.

Tips to avoid spam complaints

SpamAssassin suggests avoiding references to lots of money, describing some sort of breakthrough, looking like mortgage pitch, or suggesting any money back guarantee.

MailChimp references other common mistakes and things to avoid:

Using phrases like “Click here!” or “Once in a lifetime opportunity!”
Excessive use of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!
USING ALL CAPS
Using bright red or green colored fonts.
Sloppy HTML, usually from converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML.
Only including images, and no text. Spam filters can’t read images, so they assume you’re a spammer trying to trick them.
Using the word “test” in the subject line.
Sending a test to multiple recipients within the same company. That company’s email firewall often assumes it’s a spam attack.
Sending to inactive or stale lists
Sending to a purchased list that didn't opt-in

The FTC also shares tips to avoid spam complaints.

If you have a list of contacts who should be unsubscribed from past experience, you can include a Subscribed column when importing a CSV or Excel file.

When an email cannot be delivered to an email address, it bounces. High bounce rates negatively impact both your sender reputation and Broadcast's reputation. This makes it harder for you and everyone that uses Broadcast to deliver messages.

When an email bounces, Highrise will add a note to the contact's page. View a list of email addresses that have bounced from your main Broadcast page following these steps.

Steps to reduce high bounce rates

A higher than normal bounce rate can be caused by incorrect imports of email addresses, stale email addresses that haven't been updated, or other factors.

Check for typos or formatting issues by exporting your contacts and use a 3rd party to confirm all email addresses are valid.

Always make sure all your contacts are opting in to receive emails from you. If you're using a form to collect email addresses, consider a double-opt in process. This helps ensure email addresses are valid.

We recommend reconfirming your list to make sure your contact's interest and information is up to date. You can email them individually to make sure they're still interested.

We also recommend emailing your contacts in regular intervals. Email lists tend to go stale every 6 months.

If you are just getting started with sending out regular updates, only send to subscribers who have subscribed recently. You can use filters and tags in Highrise to help track this.

iContact shares more on the perils of a bounces and how to reduce your own bounce rate.

Why hasn't my Broadcast message been delivered yet?

If it's your first time using Broadcast, you may notice your message hasn't been completed or sent yet. This is because our system reviews the content of your message as an extra measure to protect from any potential spam complaints or bounces.

After this review is complete, Highrise will only send a small number of messages per hour. This is to verify your recipients are receiving the message and reacting without spam complaints. The delivery of your message will increase rapidly once you demonstrate a low bounce and spam rate.

Please note that at any point, questionable email activity, a high spam or bounce rate warrants a permanent or temporary pause to your Broadcast access.

Why was my access to Broadcast paused?

Highrise automatically pauses Broadcast access for any accounts that have a higher than normal bounce or spam percentage.

Highrise does not judge your emails and determine they are spam. Spam complaints are based on recipients marking an email as spam from their email client.

While we have our own thresholds, Mailchimp, which sends billions of emails a month, shows benchmarks by industry here.

If you exceed our thresholds, your account will be automatically paused. We will notify you and ask you to send us information regarding your intentions with Broadcast and confirmations of opt ins, etc.

Accounts will remain paused for 30 days, which allows for a fresh start versus risking being paused again after another issue. It also helps spread out spam complaints and bounces across the entire Highrise community to maintain our reputation as an email provider. This helps all Highrise customers deliver emails more reliably.

When paused, you can view any of your failed messages following these steps.

If you have further questions, contact support@highrisehq.com.

Quota of sent messages

Each account has a 30 day quota for Broadcast messages. This quota matches the total number of contacts in your pricing plan.

For example, if your paid plan only allows for 20,000 contacts, the 30 day quota is 20,000 sent messages.

The quota is shared amongst all users on your account. You can find your quota on the right-hand side of your Broadcast page.

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