If your campaign report shows a high number of spam complaints, hard bounces, or unsubscribes, it may indicate a problem with your mailing list, the content you are sending, or both. A high rate usually means there is a broader issue than just the individual contacts who complained, bounced, or unsubscribed.
Before sending your next campaign, identify which portion of your mailing list caused the problem and make sure the remaining contacts meet our mailing list requirements.
What You Should Do Now
- Review your campaign report to see whether the warning was caused by spam complaints, hard bounces, or unsubscribes.
- Look for patterns in the affected contacts. For example, determine whether they came from the same list, group, import, sign-up source, or older portion of your database.
- Review how those contacts joined your list and when you last emailed them. Remove or exclude contacts that do not meet our requirements.
- Do not simply resend to the same unchanged audience. Correct the underlying list or content problem before sending again.
Direct Mail automatically prevents contacts who have hard bounced, unsubscribed, or reported a spam complaint from receiving future campaigns. However, automatic suppression only addresses those individual contacts. A high rate can indicate that other contacts from the same source may also be unsuitable to email.
Too Many Spam Complaints
Direct Mail considers a complaint rate over 0.1% (1 complaint per 1,000 recipients) high. Spam complaints are a serious negative signal to mailbox providers and can cause future messages to be rejected or sent to spam. Senders with a pattern of high complaint rates may also have their Direct Mail account suspended.
Common causes of high complaint rates include:
- Non-Opt-In List: Using a list that does not meet our requirements is a top reason for spam complaints. This includes purchased lists, lists acquired from a third party, and lists that have not been used in the past year. If you are moving a list to Direct Mail from another email service, carefully screen out contacts who previously unsubscribed, bounced, or complained. Delete contacts that do not meet our requirements and make sure they are not imported again.
- Recipients Do Not Recognize You: If recipients do not immediately recognize your "From" name or email address, they may report your message as spam even if they signed up in the past. Use sender information that recipients will recognize.
- Unclear or Misleading Subject Lines: Use clear, honest subject lines that accurately reflect the content of your message. Avoid wording that may cause recipients to feel misled after opening the message.
- Unexpected or Irrelevant Content: Send content that is consistent with what recipients originally signed up to receive. A major change in subject matter, sending frequency, or type of content can lead to complaints.
Before sending again, ask yourself:
- Did every recipient knowingly agree to receive this kind of email from me?
- Will recipients recognize the "From" name and email address?
- Is the content and frequency consistent with what recipients originally signed up for?
Direct Mail automatically unsubscribes recipients who report a spam complaint and excludes them from future campaigns. You should not contact these recipients again or re-import them into your mailing list.
Too Many Hard Bounces
A "hard bounce" occurs when an email message is permanently undeliverable, typically because the email address is invalid, non-existent, or deactivated. This is different from a "soft bounce," which happens when a message is temporarily undeliverable for reasons such as a full inbox or temporary server problem.
Direct Mail considers a hard bounce rate over 5% (5 hard bounces per 100 recipients) high. High hard-bounce rates can negatively affect your sender reputation. Mailbox providers and spam filters monitor bounce activity, and high levels can cause your emails to be rejected or sent to spam. High bounce rates may also result in your Direct Mail account being suspended.
Common causes of high hard-bounce rates include:
- Non-Opt-In List: Using a list that does not meet our requirements is a top reason for hard bounces. This includes purchased lists and lists acquired from a third party. As you add contacts over time, make sure you are only adding people who meet our requirements. If you use a web form to collect new contacts, make sure it is protected against bot attacks (Direct Mail sign-up forms include this protection). If you are moving a list from another email service, carefully screen out contacts who previously bounced or unsubscribed.
- Old or Stale List: Using a list that has not been mailed within the past year is another common reason for hard bounces. In addition to containing addresses that are no longer valid, stale lists may contain addresses that have been turned into spam traps. Spam traps may not bounce, but they can still damage your sender reputation. Do not import or send to old or stale contacts.
Before sending again, review the contacts that hard bounced and look for patterns. If the bounces are concentrated among contacts from a particular import, group, event, data source, or older portion of your list, review that entire source rather than only the addresses that bounced. A high hard-bounce rate often indicates a broader list-quality problem.
Direct Mail automatically excludes contacts that have hard bounced from future campaigns. You do not need to remove those individual contacts from your list, but you should still investigate and correct the underlying source of the high bounce rate.
Too Many Unsubscribes
Direct Mail considers an unsubscribe rate over 1.0% (1 unsubscribe per 100 recipients) high. An unsubscribe is not the same as a spam complaint, but a high unsubscribe rate can indicate that recipients did not expect the message, no longer find the content relevant, or are receiving email more frequently than they expected.
Common causes of high unsubscribe rates include:
- Non-Opt-In or Stale List: Contacts who did not knowingly sign up, or who have not heard from you in a long time, are more likely to unsubscribe. Make sure your list meets our requirements and do not send to contacts from lists that have not been used within the past year.
- Unexpected Content: Make sure the subject matter and type of email are consistent with what recipients originally signed up to receive.
- Sending Too Frequently: A sudden increase in email frequency can lead otherwise interested recipients to unsubscribe.
- Content Is No Longer Relevant: Review whether the message provides useful, relevant information to the audience receiving it. Consider targeting your campaign to a more appropriate segment instead of sending to everyone on your list.
Before sending again, look for patterns among the recipients who unsubscribed. If they are concentrated in a particular group, source, or older portion of your list, consider excluding or removing that audience from future campaigns.
Direct Mail automatically excludes contacts that are marked as unsubscribed from future campaigns. Do not re-import or otherwise add unsubscribed contacts back to your mailing list unless they later sign up again themselves.
What Not to Do
- Do not resend the same campaign to the same unchanged audience without addressing the cause of the warning.
- Do not re-import contacts who previously hard bounced, unsubscribed, or reported a spam complaint.
- Do not use Direct Mail to test or "clean" an old, purchased, or questionable mailing list.
- Do not assume that an email-address validation service makes a mailing list acceptable to use. Contacts must still meet our mailing list requirements.