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What is a Blast Email?

Jessica Saras
Jessica Saras

A blast email is a type of electronic mailing that is distributed to a large recipient list, and is sent out over a specified amount of time. Often used by marketers, these types of bulk emails were once considered a form of spam, or junk email. Many companies now use blast emails as a legitimate tool to communicate with their customers, and as a result, blast email has become an effective type of email marketing.

Blast email and other forms of email marketing have grown increasingly popular for businesses, due to the relatively low cost and easy tracking abilities involved. In most cases, individuals must opt-in, or subscribe, to an email list to receive blast email from a particular company. Newsletters, for example, are a common form of email marketing. The company, in turn, must create and manage a large mailing list that identifies all the individuals who have subscribed to the email marketing service. Depending on the size of the company and the amount of recipients, managing this list can be quite daunting. As a result, most companies hire a third-party vendor or use software to manage mailing lists.

It is important for individuals and businesses that use blast email marketing to be careful to avoid sending messages that may appear to be spam.
It is important for individuals and businesses that use blast email marketing to be careful to avoid sending messages that may appear to be spam.

The purposes of blast emails are often to generate more sales, gain new customers, and increase traffic to the company’s website. To successfully do this, the email must capture recipients' attention, and motivate them to perform an action, such as purchasing an item online. These results can then be easily tracked through the links provided in the email, and the company can use these statistics to determine a conversion rate, or the percentage of customers who take the desired action. For testing purposes, companies often send out several different blast emails to determine which format is most effective, and may even customize email for a particular target audience.

Many companies and nonprofit groups send out blast emails as a legitimate way of reaching their audience.
Many companies and nonprofit groups send out blast emails as a legitimate way of reaching their audience.

Due to the massive growth of the Internet, most countries have passed legislation to prevent companies from sending unsolicited emails. These laws determine what is and what is not considered acceptable email correspondence, and enforce restrictions on email communications. In the United States and Europe, for example, bulk email must contain an accurate from field and subject line, and the email content must include the sender’s physical address. In addition, a blast email must also offer its recipients the opportunity to unsubscribe from the email list — and such requests must be met within a specified period of time. As a result of these laws, it is very important for companies to maintain an updated list of subscriptions and cancellations at all times, and avoid sending out email that appears to be spam.

Discussion Comments

Terrificli

@Vincenzo -- true, but for a large company with a huge email list, it can be cost efficient to pass the job of both sending emails and making sure compliance issues are met to an in-house tech guy.

Either way, you are right. Email blasts should be handled by people who know what they are doing. Whether that person is an in-house employee or one at a company specializing in sending those emails really depends on the scale of your operation, doesn't it?

Vincenzo

If you take one thing away from this article, then make sure it is this -- do not try this at home. Leave blast emails up to people who know what they are doing, so get a third party to handle your email list.

Here's the thing. People used to send out emails by simply writing an email in an email client and cutting and pasting hundreds or thousands of email addresses into the "to" field and sending the thing. Spam filters will almost always block those emails and most email clients won't send them at all for that very reason.

A third party sender eliminates that problem by effectively sending out the emails one at a time. Also, of course, those companies know what information those emails must contain and include that all in the email.

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    • It is important for individuals and businesses that use blast email marketing to be careful to avoid sending messages that may appear to be spam.
      By: adimas
      It is important for individuals and businesses that use blast email marketing to be careful to avoid sending messages that may appear to be spam.
    • Many companies and nonprofit groups send out blast emails as a legitimate way of reaching their audience.
      By: a4stockphotos
      Many companies and nonprofit groups send out blast emails as a legitimate way of reaching their audience.