HOW TO KEEP SPAM COMPLAINT RATE LOW

A high spam complaint rate can cause your email blasting provider to flag/cancel email campaign account. The goal is to keep spam complaint rate below .02% … meaning only 2 spam clicks for every 1000 emails; some email blasting providers may require an even lower spam complaint rate. This article offers tips on how to minimize spam complaint rate. Note, this article is not about ways for preventing emails from being automatically diverted to email spam/junk box; separate article.  This article shares tips for reducing spam complaint rate.

10 TIPS TO HELP MINIMIZE SPAM COMPLAINT RATE

#1. EASY OPT-OUT: Email recipients are less likely to click the spam button IF there’s an EASY and QUICK way to opt-out of future emails.

#2. DON’T SELL: Attempting to make a sale on the first email will increase likelihood of a spam click. Remember, people on a prospecting email list have never heard of your company. Introduce yourself with an enticing offer. Email recipients are less likely to click the spam button IF there is a very enticing offer. Click Here for more insights on this topic.

#3. IMAGE PERSONALIZATION: Use images that have an affinity to the recipient. The type of image that goes to a person of 70 years of age should be different than the image that goes to one of 30 years of age. Images for a single person should be different than images for married couples with children.

#4. SUBJECT LINE: Avoid spammy subject lines … such as all capital letters and/or words like FREE, ACT NOW, etc. Email recipients are more likely to click spam if subject line infers spam.

#5: AVOID SPAM TRIGGER WORDS: 100% free, Earn Cash, Dear Friend, and Urgent are just a few examples of spam trigger words that may cause an email recipient to quickly click spam. And spam trigger words can also cause Inbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo, etc) to divert email message to spam box. Click Here for more spam trigger words.

#6: RELEVANT CONTENT: Sending an email for a product/service that has zero relation to the recipient’s interest is another factor that will increase the spam complaint rate. And if you sell a variety of products, it’s best to choose a product/image that most fits the email recipient’s profile (age, gender, income, etc). Example, if you buy an email list of senior golfers, then of course the offer/presentation should have a strong relevance to senior golfers. And this point also highlights the importance of buying consumer email lists with accurate demographics (age, gender, marital status, etc) and accurate lifestyle data … not inferred / guessing / propensity models.

#7: EMAIL FREQUENCY: Bombarding prospects with email offers is a sure way to generate a high complaint rate … and possible account closure – IP damage. Patiently space out email blasts, and make sure each email blast is distinctly different from the first … different subject line, different image, different copy/creative, etc.

#8: ENGAGEMENT: Engagement and spam complaint rate are usually correlated … low engagement = high spam complaint rate; high engagement = low spam complaint rate. Thus, before executing a large-scale prospecting email campaign, it’s best to do some testing to refine the email creative – LEARN which elements/creative generates the highest engagement rate. The drip email marketing is an effective tactic for testing/learning.

#9: EMAIL CREATIVE/HTML: Coding errors in your HTML can cause bad creative renderings thus causing email recipient to click spam complaint button. This link provides more insights on this issue.

#10: ELIMINATE TRIGGER HAPPY SPAM CLICKERS: There are certain folks who habitually click the spam complaint button for any advertising related email … even if the email is super relevant. Before using your primary email blasting provider, it’s best to first use a second-tier email blasting provider to identify/eliminate these trigger-happy spam complaint clickers.

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