Bypassing SPAM folders or changing spammy automated email address

Ellen M.

Hello!

Our research center has programmed an automated basic questionnaire to go out to members of an organization on an annual basis. Only a small percentage of the members fill out the survey each year, and we recently learned that many members claim they never get the emails. After revisiting a test email that I sent myself, I can see that these emails are probably triggering A LOT of SPAM filters. The email address that recipients see when Smartsheet users send an automated Smartsheet email is [YOUR NAME] via Smartsheet <automation@app.smartsheet.com.> To me, that sounds like a VERY spammy email address. Using "automation" as the handle? Come on. This makes it pretty clear that an actual human didn't send the email. Didn't Smartsheet think of this? Much of the appeal of Smartsheet is the ability to send out automatic notifications (and don't get me wrong, that capability is great). If those automated notifications aren't reaching the intended recipients, then the value of Smartsheet goes way down in my opinion.

I know that services like Qualtrics allow users to change the email that is seen by recipients. Does Smartsheet have any kind of capability that allows the same or something similar? If not, does anyone have tips on how to avoid SPAM filters with automated emails when the option to request whitelisting isn't available? When you send emails to individuals who don't know you personally, it's a little hard to convince them to add an email like "automation@app.smartsheet.com" to their contacts.

Thanks, everyone!

zealvert

Dear @Ellen M. - I can certainly understand the issues you may have been facing. I'm sharing some tips below to help you as much as possible:

1. The stage in the workflow where you decide to send emails (like 'alert someone'), has two options: (a) Automation via Smartsheet, and (b) From the Current User. Option B is the one that shows the name of the person whose email ID is associated with your Smartsheet account.
2. The Spam filters are more sensitive to what's written in the subject line, and not just the sender's email ID. For instance, the subject line "admission opportunity in XYZ University" is somewhat less prone to be treated as a spam, than this one: "a lifelong success opportunity in XYZ University", simply because the latter one seems malicious as it may accidentally lure those who are not your target audience.
3. As a preventive measure, we can broadcast a message (via any social media app, or a webpage) to permanently mark the smartsheet.com domain as not a spam.
4. The Enterprise edition of Smartsheet has the capability to alter the email domain so it appears exactly what you want (e.g., yourname@yourcompany.com, instead of yourname@smartsheet.com).

Hope this helps.