If you intend to send an email to many recipients consider some etiquette before sending.
Many people have figured out how to send an email to many email addresses with a ; (semi-colon) or use the To button to add lots of addresses in the To or Cc fields.
However if you think about it, any one of those recipients can click Reply to All and instantly send an email to a ready made mailing list. The giving away of everyone’s email address to all and sundry could be considered as bad manners and if any one of those recipients was a little unscrupulous might even harvest those email addresses for other purposes such as SPAM.
Microsoft have confused the world with their latest branding of 'Outlook' |
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Before explaining why you may have missing emails it is worth understanding the difference between Outlook and Outlook.com....
Outlook
For years Microsoft has included the email program called Outlook as part of the Microsoft Office Suite. It offers a method for you to collect and manage all kinds of email (free or paid) and includes a Calendar, Contacts (aka People) Tasks (aka Reminders) and Notes
Up until Office 2010 the Outlook Logo has been a distinctive golden colour like these...
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Outlook 2003 |
Outlook 2007 |
Outlook 2010 |
Then in Office 2013 and Office 2016 Microsoft decided to change the program logo to blue like this...
Outlook.com
Back in 1997 Microsoft launched a free web-based email service called Hotmail. It was designed to be accessed via the hotmail website (therefore called webmail). Then on the 31st of July 2012 Microsoft re-branded Hotmail calling it Outlook.com
Not only was it confusing to give Hotmail the same name as the Microsoft email program called Outlook but the following blue logo was used:
Missing Emails
How many people I can send one email to? |
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If you intend to send one email to many recipients you may face some restrictions
Bulk Mailing
Let's start with a simple rule of thumb. If you intend to send one email to thousands of recipients it is best to avoid using your email program (e.g. Microsoft Outlook). Instead you should use a bulk mailing program like Mailchimp or Constant Contact
The advantages of this include:
- The facility to personalise each email (e.g. "Hello Mary")
- Embedding pictures and creating professional layouts
- The ability to view live statistics on who has opened the email or clicked links
- To be able to schedule a date and time to send
- No need to wait whilst it is sending
- People can unsubscribe themselves from your list (A legal requirement in Europe)
However if you intend to send one email to 20 recipients or less - you might want to consider placing all your contacts in the Bcc field and sending this way. Why is using Bcc good etiquette and how to use it?
So what are the limits?
It mainly depends on your email provider.