I Am Not A Spammer…REALLY!

Getting reported as a spammer even when you are not can be upsetting, especially when you have received the recipients' permission to send them messages. Whatever the reasons, complaints have a negative impact on your sender reputation. Here are 4 common reasons why someone may complain about your emails, and how you can prevent it.

The subscriber is doing what comes easiest.

In web-based mail clients like AOL, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo it is all too easy to click the "spam" button to get rid of unwanted email messages. In fact, subscribers look at this as unsubscribing and are not aware of the consequences to you. Put a permission reminder message, reminding the recipient how they gave you their permission to send your messages in the header of your email. Then follow this message with a link to unsubscribe.

Opt-out requests are not handled immediately.

The CAN-SPAM Act allows 10 days for a marketer to stop sending emails to a recipient who opts out. But put yourself in the subscribers place. If you have made a request to no longer receive an email from a sender only to receive a message the following day, you probably would not like it. Honor an opt-out request immediately. If you are using an ESP (email service provider) to help you with your campaigns, you may be able to take advantage of their automatic opt-out feature.

The opt-out process is too complicated.

The unsubscribe process should take no more than two clicks to complete. Any more than that creates the opportunity for the user to click the spam button. This not only hurts your sender reputation, but can also prevent engaged subscribers from receiving your messages. For those who opt-out, it’s a good practice to display a web-based confirmation message saying “thank-you and good-bye.”

The subscriber has to opt-out via a preference center.

Making the subscriber log-in to your website to opt-out of your list can do far more harm than good. Yes, you are creating an opportunity to present them with other lists they may want to join, but this assumes they remember their log-in credentials. A subscriber who has forgotten their username and password may decide it is easier to stop your messages by clicking the spam button than to reset their account.

These are a few simple steps and workflows that most good ESPs will already have as part of their subscriber management process. By abiding by these best practices, you can let the unsubscribe button do what it is suppose to and avoid being reported as a spammer.

Andrea Murray is one of Allora Media's resident email marketing experts. With a focus on helping clients get the most out of their campaigns, Andrea has broad and deep experience optimizing delivery on multiple ESPs. Lots of people write about optimizing email marketing - Andrea does it for a living.