Reasons for High Complaint Rates and How to Reduce SPAM Complaints
A spam complaint occurs when a recipient clicks on the ‘report spam’ button in their mailbox.
Using purchased, rented, and third-party lists. These types of lists are bad sources for email addresses because the recipients haven’t directly agreed to receive information from you, and may not be expecting your email. They’re less likely to read the emails and more likely to mark the messages as spam.
Not including an unsubscribe link. A spam complaint is a very negative action while an unsubscribe is considered less harmful. Giving recipients the option to unsubscribe or manage notification preferences (even for transactional emails) is recommended.
Old or stale recipient email addresses. Email addresses have a short lifespan. Recipients change jobs, change names, and create and delete email addresses at will. As a result, email address can become invalid over time, so only send to clean and current addresses to avoid issues with stale lists.
Sending content that isn’t relevant to your recipients. Your recipients are already inundated with massive amounts of email and spam. If your content resembles spam, doesn’t hold their interest, or isn’t related to their business relationship with you, you run the risk of the subscriber reporting your message as spam.
Sending too often. Only send transactional email triggered by an action (a purchase, password reset, username reminder, receipt, shipping notification, etc).
Reducing or Preventing Spam Complaints
Provide an unsubscribe link. It may not make sense for recipients to unsubscribe from transactional emails, and most countries only require an unsubscribe link or other unsubscribe process when sending bulk email. But by including an unsubscribe option even in your transactional emails, you can get feedback about how people are engaged with your emails and prevent sending to someone who has signaled they don’t wish to receive more emails.
Wooxy provides a List-Unsubscribe header for all emails sent through our system that include our automatic unsubscribe variable. The List-Unsubscribe header is a fallback option for recipients who don’t want to receive emails but also don’t want to classify them as spam. If you prefer, you can use your own unsubscribe process.
Send relevant content. You can also use Wooxy Split Test and Comparison Report tools to find out which emails have higher recipient engagement.
Don’t use purchased, rented, or third-party recipient lists. Using a confirmed or double opt-in process is considered an industry best practice. When you use the double opt-in method, you’re targeting only those recipients who want to hear from you. Double opted-in lists have much higher engagement levels over time which translates to more opens and clicks and fewer spam complaints and bounces. You should always ensure that you’re only sending to recipients who have a prior business relationship with you or who have consented to receiving emails from you.
Use a relevant reply-to email address. When setting the Reply-To header for your emails, be sure that you or someone in your organization has access to this email’s inbox and that the address matches the message content or your application/business.
