How spam complaints hurt your reputation and what you can do to reduce them

The intent of this article is to assist with email delivery by helping you reduce future Spam Complaints by cleaning up your contact list(s). You are reading this article because you either:

  1. Received a Spam Alert in your inbox stating your emails have experienced a high percentage of Spam Complaints or
  2. Found it while searching for help or it was linked to another help article.

If you received an Email Alert with the subject line "Important Customer Connect Message":

  • The alert is sent when more than the industry standard of 1 in 1000 (0.1%) of emails cause a complaint. Note: Only one alert is sent per email submission.
  • The alert is sent to the login email address associated to your Customer Connect account and includes the email name & the percentage of spam complaints. Note: The percentage of complaints on the Campaign Results page may increase by the time you review it.
  • Clicking on the links within the email navigates directly to the affected email in Campaign Results, if you are logged into NCR Customer Connect. If you log in after clicking the link(s), click on the email link again so it directs you to the correct Campaign Results.

ISSUE - Spam complaints:

  • Cause loss of contacts
  • Hurt your reputation with ISPs and
  • Lead to blacklisting - a list of emails/ISPs that are deemed as spam & email delivery is prohibited
COMMON CAUSES
  • Old contact lists which include contacts:
    • that no longer wish to receive your email or have forgotten subscribing to your business.
    • who have abandoned an email address that was later converted to a spam trap. 
  • Sending email too frequently (several times a week) cause contacts to mark your email as spam because they no longer want to receive them.
  • Contacts that did not opt in, including improperly sourced contact lists (purchased, copied from directories, etc). This violates our terms of service, which may lead to account termination.
  • While we include a spam keyword checker, we less frequently see spam complaints due to key words (buy now, pharmacy, make money). 

RESOLUTION

  • Send Reconfirm emails to contacts that haven't interacted with any of your emails in 180 days
  • Inspect the source of your contacts for one of the common causes
  • Delete & unsubscribe contacts that haven't purchased in several years
  • Delete any lists that were purchased or copied from directories - Click here for instructions and review delete improperly sourced lists.
  • Make sure you aren't sending too frequently for your audience 
 
 
Note: If you have received an email alert for the Confirm or Reconfirm email campaign, these emails don't currently provide results. It's purpose is to inform you of a high number of spam complaints. Campaign Results for these emails will be provided in a future release.  
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