You manage email lists. Have you ever wondered why many of your emails get reported as spam? I had this situation recently and found it puzzling. All of the people on my email list were people who had definitely opted in to my list using industry standard "double opt-in" methods. What was surprising to me was that, even when people said they wanted my emails, they still complained about my message being "spam". This got me thinking about what was going on.

User reporting of spam

1. The message goes to a "spam" folder.
2. A notification of potential goes to one of the spam databases (e.g. SpamCop)

Email services refer to on line databases such as "SpamCop" to try and weed out spam before it reaches your in-box.

Consequences of reporting spam

There are consequences for you, as a sender of emails, when people hit the "report spam" button. This is best illustrated with an example.

Example

Let's say, for example, that I have 1,000 people on my email list. All of these people definitely want my emails. I know this because they opted in (twice) to my list. I go ahead and start sending emails to all of these people. Let's say the 1st 10 people who receive the email, have forgotten that they signed up to my list and decide to hit the "report spam" button in their email client. SpamCop now receives 10 "complaints" or flags that my email message may be spam. The remaining 990 emails now struggle to get delivered as Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo and everyone else look at the SpamCop database that shows my message could be a suspect for spam. Obviously this could have a big effect for both you as the email sender and for other people on you list who really do want to get your message.

Why do people report messages as spam?

I asked around my circle of friends and did some research on line. There are some obvious reasons as follows:

1. People simply forget that they signed up to your mailing list.
2. They are having a bad day with their email box receiving loads of other spam. Your message gets reported in the haste of frustration of having lots of junk mail.

In asking around, I found some reasons that were not so obvious to me:

1. The recipient of your message may no longer be interested in your subject matter. Rather than hit the "unsubscribe" button, they hit the "report spam" button. Why? Some reasons might include a general suspicion of "unsubscribe" links or perhaps that "report spam" buttons are generally more accessible (top of page) than "unsubscribe" buttons that are usually placed at the bottom of emails.
2. The person doesn't understand the technical differences between delete, unsubscribe, report as spam. One of my friends always hits the "report spam" button because "it stops any further similar messages being delivered" to her email box.

The 2 points above really surprised me but make perfect sense when you put yourself in the shoes of a not to technically aware internet user. The "report spam" button "just works". For those of us trying to run on line businesses that rely on emails for communication, we need to be aware and mange this as best we can.

Some ideas

I now believe that it is very likely that, for every emailing that I do, some people will always hit the "report spam" button. This is inevitable, it's just human nature. However, there are some things that I believe will greatly reduce the amount of people reaching for the "report spam" button:

1. Verified opt-in. This means that users need to double confirm that they definitely want to be added to my list.
2. Email regularly (but not too regularly). Generally, I try to keep mailings to not more that one a week. This way, people remember my mailings from the previous week but don't get annoyed with more frequent (e.g. daily) messages.
3. Transparent unsubscribe. I always have an unsubscribe link at the bottom of my messages. Perhaps I'll move these towards the top of the page.