In business, junk email is more than just an annoyance. Spam takes many forms; from irrelevant marketing emails about purchasing office equipment you do not need to annoying emails every time a random member of a LinkedIn group replies to a post. Junk email can really add up if you aren’t careful about managing it.

 

Importance of Email Spam Filtering

 

According to a recent study, 78% of all email sent is classified as spam. In a business environment where email is a main form of communication, this number is likely lower, but spam email always finds a way to slip through the cracks of a workplace. Other reports state that spam email costs companies $712 annually per-employee each year in lost productivity costs.

For an IT department, spam is an unnecessary nuisance that clogs up mail server space. For business owners, spam is a cost-eating issue that needs to be addressed. Knowing how to stop spam email can have an immediate impact on a businesses’ finances and personnel.

Controlling spam email should start at the employee level. Some employees are meticulous about inbox zero, and immediately unsubscribe from marketing materials and other spam messages the moment it comes through. Others will chose not to combat spam and let irrelevant emails sit in their inbox, clogging up space, making it easier to perhaps lose sight of important email communication from co-workers or clients potentially be lost in a sea of spam.

How Do Spammers Get Company Email Addresses?

Before learning how to stop spam email, it is important to understand why you are getting spam in the first place. Spam marketers and Spam bots can get your email addresses through a variety of methods. Once they obtain a directory of your company and know your domain, figuring out employee emails is a rather simple process. More often than not, company emails are a combination of first and last name in the following formats: e.example@throttlenet.com, example.example@throttlenet.com or e_example@throttlenet.com.

If your company email is through an ISP provider, it is important to remember these companies will sell your information to directories, which will result in more spam than if your email is through an exchange service. It is harder to combat spam alone if you do email through an ISP.

Sometimes, you can bring spam upon yourself. Watch what you subscribe to with your work email. Surveys and form completions often result in an unwanted sea of marketing emails.

Different Ways to Combat Spam

Figuring out how to stop spam email is one of the most common complaints and concerns businesses have when they call our help desk at ThrottleNet. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to combat spam. Depending on your company size and needs, these methods of email spam filtering can range in cost and complexity, but all can help your business win the battle in the fight against spam.

Use Free Services Like UnRoll.Me

If you are a small company, you likely won’t receive as much spam as a large, corporate company, and email spam filtering hardware may not be necessary. Unroll.me is a new, free service built to combat spam that accesses your email inbox through authentication services and scans your email address for the total number of subscriptions you have. It is important to always be mindful of where you have shared your email address in the past, but with Unroll.me those past mistakes can be pushed aside.

After the scan is complete, a list of total subscriptions, including some you may not have realized you had will pop up, allowing you to unsubscribe from those emails with the click of a mouse. Unroll.me is incredibly easy to use, and email spam filtering with it just takes minutes.

Purchase an Email Spam Filtering System

Larger businesses may opt to purchase a physical email spam filtering system, which is an add-on to a company’s email server. These filters range in cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and work by analyzing incoming email before passing them on to the email server and end-user.

There are some drawbacks to using an email spam filtering system, as they can mistakenly interpret some legitimate messages as spam, but are overall, an effective method that makes sense for certain companies.

Switch to Email in a Microsoft Exchange Environment

As noted earlier, many ISPs sell information about customer’s email addresses to marketing databases. This doesn’t happen with Microsoft Exchange email services. While Microsoft Exchange doesn’t filter out 100% of spam messages, a large portion of spam is eliminated just because it isn’t run through an ISP. ThrottleNet offers cloud email services through Microsoft Exchange, and views it as an effective, productivity-boosting resource for companies ranging in size. 

Partner With a Professional IT Service to Combat Spam

 

Knowing how to stop spam email can be frustrating. A professional IT service like ThrottleNet can apply industry-leading best-practices in email spam filtering, configuring and maintaining your current spam filters to fit your business needs. Need help fighting to combat spam? Contact ThrottleNet today to learn more.