Am I better off using Google Mail servers to ensure my email isn't marked as spam?

Question

I'm starting an E-Card business. And although mine is completely legitimite, I know they can be frequently flagged as spam.

These are for people's birthdays and such, and it is important that they have the best chance of reaching the recipient.

Am I better off using Google mx servers for my mail? Or is there a service that could help with this? My host is in good standing with the big guys, but they are getting bigger and bigger each day.

Answer 1

I would not recommend using Google's servers. I would instead recommend you use some sort of mail sending service (Postmark and SendGrid come to mind).

If you send via Google you will have the following problems:

• The "From" header will be forced to be your google account
• You are limited to only 200 a day
• If they think you are sending too many, they will just cut you off.

I can vouch for PostMark. I have used them and have nothing but great things to say about them.

Answer 2

I wouldn't use Google for this purpose.

Perhaps if you use DomainKeys and DKIM in each e-mail, it will make the message appear less spammy. It would be worth a shot to look into it I think.

Answer 3

I use Google Apps - free - as my professional mail provider, and have been satisfied so far.
This is the header of a test mail I sent to another account (not on Google) :

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
X-Original-To: [email protected]
Delivered-To: john@com
Received: from mail-iw0-f175.google.com (mail-iw0-f175.google.com [209.85.214.175])
by mydomain.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF569020E12
for <[email protected]>; Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:24:36
Received: by iwn2 with SMTP id 2so642875izn.32
    for <[email protected]>; Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:24:34
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.231.33.137 with SMTP id h9zr1025957ibd.91.1285730674654;
Received: by 10.231.193.8 with HTTP;
X-Originating-IP: [72.14.240.41]
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:24:34
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Subject: test
From: John Smith <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

I changed my own data (domain and names) with a search replace, in order to keep the original structure.
The From is intact, and besides the Google servers, there is no much trace of a google account. I.e. unless the recipient looks at the message source, she will not notice it comes from Google.

I use the free Google Apps subscription.

I would recommend to use the Google Apps mail. It requires a credit-card at first, but you can then cancel the subscription or keep it to have more space / advantages.
I guess this is a way for Google to have an identity proof, which a spammer would be unlikely to give.

Again, very satisfied so far. I would recommend you to visit the Google page here, in order to assess if the conditions fit your requirements, and decide if you need the free or the paid membership.