Google: Sending Email to Large Audiences

Overview

Sending an email to a large number of people can have some negative effects:

  • There is a greater chance of recipients reporting your email to Google as spam. If Google marks your account for sending spam, it could impede the delivery of future emails you send.
  • Google limits the number of recipients that can be on a single email. It also limits the number of emails sent and received in a day. If you reach the limit, you will no longer receive or be able to send emails for the rest of the day.

This document provides you with tips to help avoid the situations mentioned above.

Create an MCommunity Group

Add the email recipients to an MCommunity group. Sending an email to an MCommunity group counts as one email, no matter how many members are in it. This will help to keep you under your daily limit of emails.

Use a Shared Account

When you send an email from a U-M Google Shared Account, it will not be delivered from your individual account. This will help prevent your individual account from being flagged by Google as having sent spam. ITS has the ability to change a Shared Account if it gets flagged, but changing your individual account is much more complex and time-consuming.

Send With SMTP Mail

To bypass the Google daily send limit, you can also send emails using a U-M Google Shared Account, U-M’s outgoing SMTP server, and a third-party mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird.

Important: You are not restricted from signing in and/or using third-party mail clients or apps (e.g., Apple Mail, Microsoft Outlook, etc.) with your U-M Gmail account. However, ITS does not provide configuration assistance or additional support for using any third-party mail clients other than Mozilla Thunderbird. (Google also does not support the use of third-party clients.) For more information, refer to Third-Party Mail Clients or Apps and U-M Google Mail.
Last Updated: 
Monday, February 13, 2023