SurveyMethods enables you to send survey and event-related invitations, notifications, reminders, and newsletters with your own SMTP server instead of SurveyMethods’ mail servers. This may help the deliverability of your emails and can reduce the risk of your emails getting caught by recipients’ spam filters, especially if your email is being sent within your own company.
Why are my emails caught in Spam?
When you send emails through SurveyMethods, some receiving mail systems may move your emails into a Spam folder because the domain in your email addresses (the section of the email address between the @ sign and the extension: .com, .net, etc) do not match up with the SurveyMethods domain.
For example, Bob Smith who works for ACME (a fictional company) has the email address bobsmith@acme.com. Bob launches a survey through SurveyMethods using his email address as the “From” email. To the mail servers of his recipients, his email invitations appear to be coming from acme.com but are actually coming from surveymethods.com. Some spam filters will flag these emails and move them into spam. SurveyMethods uses certain techniques to limit this risk (such as batching emails and substituting the “from” email), but there is no way to ensure 100% delivery of emails to recipients’ inboxes.
How will sending emails through my SMTP help in email deliverability?
If Bob sends all emails through his bobsmith@acme.com email account, then receiving email systems see that the domain of his email address (acme.com) matches up with the mail server sending the emails. As a result, there is a reduced chance that his emails will be flagged as spam. If he’s sending the emails internally, his company’s firewall is also less likely to flag emails coming from an acme.com email address, and his recipients are more likely to open the email.
Configuring SMTP Settings in SurveyMethods
When logged into SurveyMethods, hover over the Account icon at the top right and select My Account.
Then click on the Email Settings tab and choose “Edit SMTP Mail Settings”.
Enter your SMTP server settings and credentials.
You can get these settings from your email administrator or email client (e.g. Gmail).
Notes:
- Check the “Use my email settings for all emails” checkbox to activate your SMTP settings. Please contact your email administrator to obtain your SMTP settings.
- The SMTP server is the outgoing mail setting for your mail server account.
- The SMTP Port will be provided by your email administrator.
- Make sure you send a test email to confirm the settings are correct.
- If you are NOT using Custom SMTP, and the domain name in the From Email Address of your email communication templates (survey launch email or reminder emails) is not “surveymethods.com”, the domain name will be substituted with “surveymethods.com” to improve delivery of your emails.
SMTP Settings Status
If you have not yet configured your SMTP settings, the SMTP server status will display as “Not Set”.
Once you configure your SMTP settings and choose “Use my email settings for all emails”, the status will change to “Activated”. You can deactivate SMTP (or reactivate it if it is currently deactivated) by clicking the Change Status link.
Changing the “From” Email and “From” Name When Using SMTP
When you have SMTP enabled, the “From” name and “From” email will automatically be populated when editing the survey invitation email and reminder emails. These cannot be changed on the email configuration pages.
Instead, these are controlled by the SMTP settings and must be updated in your account email settings. You can update these by navigating back to My Account.
Then click the Email Settings tab and choose “Edit SMTP Mail Settings”.
Update the “From” name and “From” email and click Save.
Who Can Use This Feature?
This feature is available for Advanced, Professional and Enterprise users.