Aaron Marcus sent a bulk email to actors that Comcast blocked as spam. After contacting HostGator, Gmail, and Keap, he discovered his sender wasn't whitelisted and his email signature was triggering filters. He fixed it by getting whitelisted and cleaning up his signature, then shares how to test emails across providers and keep signatures professional.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and this is something that could be devastating for you. It was for me. I did get it fixed, and so things are cool now, but I want to make sure you know about it so that you're not running into this problem because it could be a major issue. Really, really quickly on a side note before I get started, if you're watching this on my Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel on YouTube, make sure that you subscribe and click the little bell, the notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you will be notified. So, um, every once in a while I get asked by a few different companies to help them find actors or models for projects they're working on. I love doing this. I learn a lot, uh, from, from Essentially working as a casting director. And I also love doing this because I get a chance to help other actors and models get work, which is great. So there was a project, they needed some actors for this one, and I sent out an email blast to everyone in this geographic location and There were a couple of people who I knew and they never responded. And I thought that's a little unusual because I know, like, for me, if an agent contacts me and says, hey, I've got an audition for you, here's the audition date, here are the shoot dates. If I know I'm already booked out and I'm not available, or, you know, either for the audition or for the shooting date, you know, I'll contact the agent just to say, hey, thank you very much, just wanted to let you know, not available, I'm already booked out. Sometimes I will ask if I can't make the audition, I'll just ask, is it possible to do a home audition? Or if they're having callbacks, could I just come to the callback? Uh, but, but in either case, I will at least have the courtesy to let the agent know. So I didn't hear from these people and I, and I was kind of surprised. So I contacted one of them and I said, I just wanted to make sure you got my email. You know, about this audition. And they said— the guy said, nah, I didn't get it. I said, really? I'm surprised. You know, I thought I had your correct email address. So I told him what address I used. He said, no, I didn't get it. So I said, hey, you know what, while we're talking on the phone, let's do this. I'm going to shoot you an email right now. You know, I'm going to use the same address. Please just let me know if you got it. He didn't get it. And I'm sending him an email right now. So I'm thinking, this is weird. I don't know what's going on here. So I started contacting a bunch of different companies. I went to HostGator, they handle my website. I went to Gmail, that's the account that I have, spoke with them. They're saying, no, everything looks good, things are being sent out. I went to— there's a company I use called Keap, and when I'm sending out large emails at one time, and they said, no, I mean, the emails are going Out to— and they said, well, what provider do these people use for their emails? And they both happen to use Comcast. I said— so I told them, and they said, well, that's interesting. So we're seeing here that your email went out, it went to the Comcast server, but it stopped there. For whatever reason, they didn't forward it To the actors. So, so I decided, well, I guess I have to call Comcast at this point. So I called Comcast, and I use Comcast. I mean, it's a company that I work with. And they— and like, look, with any big company, it's hard to find the right person, and I'm getting bounced around, and I'm told to fill out forms. Uh-huh. To make sure that I'm not a spammer and I'm doing all this. And I've never done any spamming in my life. The only people who receive my emails are people like you who either have gone to my website and signed up to receive my emails, or you heard me speak someplace, or you heard me interviewed and you decided to sign up. I never buy lists or anything like that. I've never done spamming in my life. So, here was the windup. I finally got to the right person in the right department and they said, yeah, you're being viewed as a spammer. You're not whitelisted. And so, your emails are being blocked. And I'm thinking, there could be a lot of people with Comcast that I'm sending emails to who aren't getting them. So, once again, I'm giving this guy a lot of information, filling out some more forms, and I said, what could possibly make Comcast think that I'm spamming? And he said, well, do you have a signature in your email? I said, yeah, of course. And he said, that could be the issue. So, once again, gave out a lot of information and filled out some more forms. To make a very, very— I mean, this, this was days, days of, of investigations and, you know, filling out forms. Everything is straightened out. But what he said was, you know, sometimes there's information in a signature that can create issues. Now, you definitely need to have a signature in your emails. You need to have people know what you look like. You need a headshot in there. You need some convenient ways for people to reach you. Reach you, um, and learn more about you. So I have my headshot, I've got phone number, um, I've got my IMDb page, I've got LinkedIn, I've got Instagram, I've got Facebook, I've got Twitter, uh, links in there. Now, just, uh, just want to make sure you know, I, I use all of those things for business. I don't use it for— Personal. Personal use. So if you do have, let's say, an Instagram page or a Facebook page and, you know, you use it for personal use, it's a way of staying in touch with friends, it's not necessarily business, I wouldn't add it in there because you want to present yourself to directors, casting directors, agents, photographers, I mean, industry professionals as a professional. So I wouldn't have, you know, crazy shots on vacation, you know, on your Instagram page. Instagram page if that's what you're using for business. You know, just have 2 separate ones. So anyhow, the point is, if you do have a signature in your email, which you definitely want to have, just make sure that all the people you are sending information to are able to receive it. And it might just be a quick check of sending it out to people who have a variety of different email platforms, whether it's Gmail, whether it's Comcast, whether it's Yahoo, or even some people still use AOL. Whatever it is, just do a couple quick tests just to make sure that it's going through and that you are whitelisted, meaning that your emails are reaching the right people. Really quickly, I just wanted to mention, if you're watching this on my Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel on YouTube, make sure you subscribe. You can click the subscription button. And the notification button, the little bell, and that way every time I upload a new video, you will be notified. If you're not watching this on YouTube, definitely go to my YouTube channel and make sure you subscribe. Click the notification button. Very last thing: if you would, I would love to have you be a part of the channel. You can make a donation, be a supporter, and if you scroll down. With all the text, you'll see I've got a PayPal link, and whatever, whatever is, is good for you, I greatly appreciate whether it's, you know, $1, $5, $10, $20, whatever, whatever is comfortable for you. Love to have you be a part of this and subscribe and help support the channel. If you have any topics that you want me to discuss in a quick tip channel, just email me. It's just aaron@howtoactandmodel.com, and can't wait to talk with you soon. See ya.
