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What are spam complaints?
Through a direct feedback loop with major ISPs like AOL and Hotmail, the application can automatically detect if many of your recipients flag your campaign as spam.

How does an email campaign get marked as SPAM?

ISPs are increasingly adding spam reporting facilities that allow their customers to mark emails they don't remember opting in for as spam. For example, AOL features a "Report SPAM" button into their email software. By clicking this button, AOL lets your support team know that one of our customers may be potentially sending spam.

What happens if my campaigns gets reported as SPAM?

When a recipient of your campaign clicks the "Report SPAM" button, 2 things happen:

   1. The recipient who made the spam complaint is immediately unsubscribed. This means you will no longer be able to send any campaigns to that individual.

   2. An email will also be sent to the contact for your account for each spam complaint received.

What is an acceptable spam report number?

Your goal should be zero. However, if your spam report number is less than 1 per 5000 emails sent, you are within today's industry norms. Keep in mind this changes over time. Ask your support personnel for assistance or additional insight.

How does this affect my account?

While discretion is used, ISPs still consider every spam complaint as an official complaint from their customers. This means that if enough recipients mark your campaign as spam, the ISP will punish the offending sender. This is done by either adding the sender to their blacklist or removing the senders' whitelist status.

This means that if enough customers get reported as spammers, there is a risk of the Email Services Provider losing their important position on the whitelist of major ISPs. To ensure this does not occur, accounts are closed if they receive a large number of spam complaints for any given campaign.

What can I do to avoid getting reported as a spammer?

You can minimize the chances of your campaigns being reported as SPAM by following best practice email marketing, including:
  • Using our double opt-in subscribe process to ensure a high quality subscriber list.
  • Informing the recipient why they are receiving this email and how you obtained their details in a clear location at the top of each email.
  • Including a single-click unsubscribe link in every campaign you send.

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