OpenAI
PerplexityEmail marketing is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience, but it can backfire if your emails are marked as spam.
Sometimes, users may mark your emails as spam, no matter how valuable or informative they are, they are still prone to spam complaints, especially when you are dealing with an extensive subscriber list. It’s pretty challenging to keep everyone happy.
Spam complaints not only damage your reputation but can also hurt your ability to reach customers. The good news is that there are proven strategies to reduce these complaints.
In this article, we’ll explore seven actionable and simple strategies you can take to ensure your emails are not flagged as spam.
But first, let’s understand the spam complaints…
What are Spam Complaints?
Your spam complaint rate is an important measure in email marketing! It shows the percentage of your emails that recipients consider spam. Internet Service Providers or ISPs use this metric to help understand how well you’re doing with your email practices. For instance, if your spam rate is at 0.1%, that means you received one spam complaint for every thousand emails sent. It’s a great way to evaluate your email campaigns.
Google advises businesses to keep their spam complaint rate less than 0.3%. Once you hit that threshold a couple of times, email providers may block or mark your emails as spam regularly.
If you think the threshold is grotesque, you are not alone! Because average spam rates, according to a study by Techradar in the B2B market, exceed 2%. Let’s see it this way: if the threshold is strict and most businesses are not meeting it, you can easily stand out and create emails that will reach the destined inbox without getting spammed.
Now, let’s jump into the seven strategies to help you create emails that will not get marked as spam!
07 Strategies to Reduce Email Spam Complaints
The following strategies will help you reduce email spam complaints and enhance your deliverability. Let’s jump right into it:
#1: Enable the double opt-in process.
One of the best strategies to reduce email spam complaints is to build your email list carefully. When building an email list, remember its quality over quantity. A hundred subscribers who are going to read your emails and not mark it as spam are better than a thousand subscribers who will most probably either ignore your email or mark the email as spam.
Therefore, filter your email traffic with a double opt-in process. It refers to the process when the user receives another email to confirm their subscription. It increases friction and ensures only those highly interested in your products will subscribe to your email list. All these are your targeted audience who would read your emails and act accordingly instead of marking them as spam.
Double opt-in emails are usually the welcome email that follows once you enter your email somewhere, with a button to confirm your subscription. This technique eliminates accidental and those subscribers who only want to access the freebie or the lead magnet.
Most email providers offer simple settings for enabling this feature; we recommend checking out your email service’s documentation web page to set up this feature.
#2: Get explicit consent.
There is a major difference between getting consent and getting explicit consent. Basically, explicit consent is when you are one hundred percent sure that the user did not accidentally consent to receiving emails and is definitely interested in your email lists.
These inaccuracies occur due to multiple reasons, such as:
- Unclear communication: Always clearly disclose the intention behind getting the user’s email. For instance, sometimes, businesses put out a form, and the one filling it out is automatically added to the email list.
- Pre-checked boxes: Numerous businesses precheck consent boxes when collecting emails. Sometimes, users may enter their emails only to get the freebie or the advantage, and sending them promotional emails may result in higher email spam complaints.
- Email Frequency: Your email frequency may also impact the user’s decision on whether to subscribe or not. Thus, ensure that the number of emails the user will receive is explicitly stated if they consent to receiving emails. This approach minimizes confusion and helps reduce email spam complaints.
#3: Use segmentation.
Not everyone will appreciate the same kinds of content. That’s why segmentation can help you from thousands of spam complaints and help reduce the total spam rate.
As the name suggests, segmentation refers to dividing your email list into segments in order to cater to emails that they are most likely to react to. For instance, while collecting emails, you can explicitly ask for the types of emails they would like to receive in the future. This approach is highly recommended for magazines or websites targeting multiple niches or catering to a wide range of audiences.
Afterward, ensure your system is up to mark and never mix the emails up. Because if a subscriber only wants to receive emails about a certain topic, they are most likely to report it as spam if they received one on something unrelated.
#4: Clean your email list.
People change interests every once in a while. It is a common human behavior, and we can’t change that. If your subscribers have stopped responding to emails, they might report your email as spam sooner or later.
Thus, it’s imperative to remove subscribers that are no longer active. But, before you do so, make sure to send a couple of personalized emails to such subscribers and ensure if they want to keep receiving these emails or not.
If they respond, keep them on the active list; if they don’t, you can send one, two, or three follow-up emails to ensure only inactive users get excluded.
#5: Avoid misleading subject lines.
We understand the importance of a catchy subject line. But did you know going too far may do more harm than good?
That’s because dishonest subject lines create unrealistic expectations, which, if broken, may lead the users to report your emails as spam. Therefore, it’s essential to write email subject lines carefully. Ensure you are not promoting unreal deals or writing something that may entice the user to click on the email only to find there is nothing related in the email body.
#6: Refrain from “unsubscribe friction.”
Unsubscribe friction refers to creating additional friction to confuse and stop a user from opting out. This involves tactics like hiding the unsubscribe link, making the unsubscribe button hardly visible, using confusing language or steps, making the process too long, etc., basically, everything that creates friction and makes it more difficult for the subscriber to opt out.
When subscribers can’t unsubscribe, they are left with only the option to mark emails as spam, and that’s exactly what you don’t want.
Thus, make it crystal clear and a one-click process for those who want to unsubscribe. Make sure the link is prominent—not too small or difficult to catch. If you want your user to change their mind, you can use a persuasive message on the following screen or ask them to reconsider their decision to ensure they did not unsubscribe by mistake.
#7: Set up email authentication protocols.
Another major reason for your emails landing in spam is the absence of email authentication protocols. These protocols work together to ensure the email is authentic and isn’t altered in the process. There are three main email authentication protocols:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): It specifies which mail servers are allowed to send emails from your domain. Once the receiving server gets the email, it checks to see if the incoming email comes from a domain listed in the SPF records of the sending server.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): It puts a sign on the email to verify its authenticity, when the receiving end gets the email, it looks for the DKIM to ensure the email has not been altered in transit.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): It decides what to do with emails that fail authentication.
Learn more: What are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC? [Everything You Need to Know]
The process of adding these protocols to your email varies depending on your email provider. Check out the following guides to set up email authentication on your favorite ESP and webhost:
If you need help regarding email authentication setup, feel free to contact us for expert assistance.
Install Post SMTP Plugin [for WordPress users only]
Post SMTP is the #1 WordPress SMTP plugin. It lets you connect to an SMTP server and also provides many other useful features that help you optimize your email deliverability.
Post SMTP supports all popular SMTP service providers such as Gmail SMTP Server, Microsoft 365 SMTP, Brevo, Mailgun, SendGrid, SendPulse, Mandrill SMTP, etc.
Additionally, using Post SMTP, you can:
- Track every email sent from your WordPress site
- Securely authenticate your SMTP mailer using OAuth 2.0
- Set up a secondary SMTP mailer to ensure email delivery
- Automatically retry sending any failed emails.
- Receive daily, weekly, or monthly email health reports.
- View and resend emails with attachments directly from the log screen.
- Get failure alerts on admin email, SMS, or Slack.
- Track emails from anywhere using the Post SMTP mobile app.
- Email open tracking to optimize your email campaigns
- Stay informed about email delivery failures through the Chrome Extension.
To set up the Post SMTP plugin, check out our guide on How To Configure SMTP For WordPress To Send Emails [3 Easy Steps].
Conclusion
Reducing email spam complaints is crucial for maintaining a positive sender reputation and ensuring your messages reach the intended inboxes.
You can significantly reduce email spam complaints by implementing strategies such as enabling double opt-in, obtaining explicit consent, using segmentation, cleansing your email list, avoiding misleading subject lines, minimizing unsubscribe friction, and setting up proper email authentication protocols.
Remember, effective email marketing is about building trust and delivering value to your subscribers. Consistent, transparent, and targeted communication will not only help you avoid the spam folder but also build stronger relationships with your audience.
To take your email deliverability to the next level, try Post SMTP.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to lower spam complaint rate?
To lower spam rate, enable the double opt-in process to increase friction and make it simple to unsubscribe to reduce friction. Ensure to get explicit consent from the user and use segmentation to tailor emails to a specific audience. Cleanse your email list timely and avoid creating misleading email titles. Lastly, set up email authentication protocols to ensure all your emails reach the intended inbox.
How do you monitor spam complaints?
It’s essential to keep an eye on spam complaints, so make it a habit to check the feedback loop in your email marketing platform regularly. This way, you’ll know precisely when recipients flag your emails as spam, letting you address any concerns with your email content or sending practices that may lead to higher complaint rates.
Can using images in emails increase spam complaints?
Absolutely! Including a lot of images in your email, particularly when there’s hardly any text, can raise the risk of your email getting marked as spam or leading to spam complaints. This is because spam filters often link image-heavy emails with spam. Thus, if you are using more images, ensure to carefully explain the image or add a relevant chunk of text to bypass spam filters.
