How can I track spam complaints for my marketing emails?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that FBLs and manually unsubscribing users are good methods to track spam complaints. Suggests users can also work with an email deliverability provider to keep track of your sender reputation.
Marketer from Email Geeks recommends Laura Atkin's website wordtothewise.com for up-to-date information on deliverability and related topics.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that list hygiene is critical. Monitoring unsubscribe rates and spam complaints helps maintain a healthy subscriber list. Consistently cleaning your email list improves deliverability and protects sender reputation.
Email marketer from ReturnPath recommends using tools to monitor deliverability metrics such as spam complaint rates. Tools offer insights into inbox placement and sender reputation. Monitoring these metrics is crucial for identifying deliverability problems.
Email marketer from SendGrid explains that actively monitoring spam complaints is essential for maintaining a healthy sending reputation. ISPs use complaint rates as a primary factor in determining whether to deliver emails to the inbox or the junk folder. High spam complaint rates will lead to deliverability issues.
Email marketer from DigitalMarketer explains that implementing email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is essential for improving deliverability and reducing spam complaints. Authentication helps prove that your emails are legitimate and reduces the risk of spoofing.
Email marketer from Validity shares that monitoring complaint rates alongside spam trap hits is important. High complaint rates indicate that your emails are not resonating with subscribers, and spam traps identify issues with list acquisition or maintenance.
Email marketer from Gmass shares using Google Postmaster Tools to monitor your domain's reputation with Gmail. It provides insights into spam rates, authentication, and other deliverability metrics, and is essential if you send emails to Gmail users.
Email marketer from EasyDMARC explains that Feedback Loops provide insights into spam complaints and are crucial for identifying and removing problematic recipients. High complaint rates negatively impact sender reputation and deliverability.
Email marketer from Quora explains that maintaining clean email lists and sending relevant content improves deliverability. Actively removing unengaged subscribers prevents spam complaints and boosts reputation.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that ISP Feedback Loops are typically sent in ARF. Suggests checking out GlockApps list.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that setting up feedback loops requires technical implementation, including adding specific headers to your email. You'll need to register with each ISP that offers a feedback loop program.
Email marketer from Reddit recommends using GlockApps to check deliverability. This tool can simulate sending emails to various mailboxes and provides a report on whether the emails land in the inbox, spam folder, or are blocked.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains the importance of setting up and monitoring Feedback Loops (FBLs) with major ISPs to receive reports on spam complaints. This allows senders to identify and remove complainers from their lists, improving deliverability.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that monitoring your sending reputation is crucial. This includes tracking metrics like spam complaint rates through feedback loops and postmaster tools provided by ISPs.
Expert from Word to the Wise answers how complaint rates are usually estimated by seed testing, where one or more seed email addresses are used as a part of a larger list. It states that seed testing is most often used when onboarding with new vendors.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft details how Outlook.com determines sender reputation. High complaint rates directly impact sender reputation. They recommend using the Junk Mail Reporting Program (JMRP) to access data about user complaints marked in Outlook.com.
Documentation from Google explains that the Gmail Feedback Loop (FBL) is a tool for senders to monitor spam rates when sending to Gmail users. Senders need to implement specific headers (Message-ID) to identify campaigns. Aggregated spam reports are then available via Google Postmaster Tools.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that complaint feedback loops (FBLs) are a mechanism by which ISPs forward complaint data to senders. This allows senders to remove subscribers who mark email as spam from their lists and improve their sending reputation.