Email Mailing Lists and Spam
Mailing lists can be an effective marketing tool when used responsibly.
Unfortunately, lots of organisations fall into the trap of sending Spam.
Spam = Unsolicited Bulk Email (definition: Spamhaus.org).
Spamhaus state on their website that senders of Spam need to know that:
- they will be in breach of the Terms of Service that they have entered into with their internet service provider (example: web hosting company) which will lead to withdrawal of service, and
- their IP address will be placed on the Spamhaus Block List (SBL).
Read more: Definition of Spam (spamhaus.org).
Read more: Definition (UK Information Commissioner's Office).
All internet service providers, including web hosting companies, have a duty to protect internet users from being bombarded by unsolicited bulk email.
Rules vary from one web host to another but when applied will in our experience include both email accounts and mailing lists.
The email traffic limits enforced by the web hosting company that we use are:
- Email sending limit per Minute = 15.
- Email sending limit per Hour = 150.
The above figures refer to the total number of emails which may be sent (whether TO, CC or BCC) in the stated time period.
1 recipient = 1 email.
So if you were to send 1 email TO yourself and BCC to 149 other recipients then that would be the same as sending 150 separate emails.
Mailing lists are offered by web hosting companies for use on a small scale.
If you want to send lots of bulk email then we recommend you use a bulk mailing service (example: MailChimp).
Your personal data is nobody's business.