Email Marketing: How to Avoid Being Labeled Spam

Do you have an opt-in email list?  A recent survey by Q Interactive and Marketing Sherpa, called the "Spam Complainers Survey," revealed some reasons why people mark certain messages as "spam" - even when they are not spam by definition (unsolicited and unwanted email).  * 56% feel email from known senders is spam if it’s “just not interesting to me” * 50% believe “too frequent emails from companies I know” is spam * 31% are irked by “emails that were once useful but are not relevant anymore” This research should make email marketers nervous -- opt-in subscription is not enough. ISPs and hosted email services offer “report spam” tools to help customers reduce unwanted inbox messages. There are bona fide reasons why someone will naturally unsubscribe from your list - a change of job or life situation, a change of residence (why receive promotions from a local clothing store when you live on the opposite coast?) or a change of interests.  Marketers should not feel bad for losing people who don't want to hear from you (think of how your response and conversion rates will rise when you market ONLY to interested people), but the problem is email recipients may use the "report spam" button thinking that's how to unsubscribe. ISPs use the “report spam” tool to determine email delivery, but customers believe reporting spam either filters email from that sender, unsubscribes them from a mailing list or notifies the sender that the email was irrelevant to the recipient. Even when unsubscribe links were provided, 43% will use the “report spam” link instead, even when they don’t believe the email is spam - they just want to unsubscribe. TIP #1: Make your unsubscribe link impossible to miss. It might seem like your shooting yourself in the foot to remind people they can unsubscribe, but it will benefit you in the long run.  Any way you can reduce being marked as spam is beneficial, as spam reports might hurt your sender reputation with ISPs or email clients. You may consider including an optional survey to ask why your subscriber is bailing. Other reasons people may wish to stop hearing from a company are: * “The email was not of interest to me” - 41% * “I receive too much email from the sender” - 25% * “I receive too much email from all senders” - 20% Yikes! Even if one individual offer or message was not interesting, 41% would still mark it as spam! And if you send too frequently (or other marketers send too much) you're also at risk of a spam report. Tip #2: Give your subscribers options. Unfortunately, you can't predict interest or control other marketers, but you can minimize risk by allowing email subscribers to choose the kinds of content/offers to receive and how frequently you send to them.  Here is a good example of Piperlime (a sister brand of GAP): “Tell us your birthday. And while you’re at it, tell us which emails you want. That way you’ll get all the good stuff and a special treat on your big day. Talk to us.” Although their segmentation is more pertaining to what departments you are interested in, rather than what type of offers / messages, the process is the same. It's also a good idea to ask people who unsubscribe if they'd rather just update their preferences. They may want to hear from you only about sale events, not new arrivals or company news, for example. The takeaway: allow email subscribers to segment themselves so you can send more relevant messages and offers, and make it very clear to unsubscribe if they wish. Bonus for collecting feedback on why people unsubscribe, and allowing them to stay on your list but modify their preferences.