What could be causing high spam rates in Google Postmaster even with consent-based emailing practices?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email Geeks suspects that volume fluctuation is what could be contributing to the high spam rate. Re-permissioning should be spread out as evenly as possible, at a low percentage of normal daily volume.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that sending the same message to everyone, even consent-based subscribers, will increase spam rate if not relevant to all of the audience. Segmentation is key.
Email marketer from Email Geeks responds that lack of brand recognition could be the cause if the re-permission campaign is being sent from a new domain. Suggests using a display from like "New Company, formerly Old Company" for a while.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow notes that subscribers will mark emails as spam if it is too hard to unsubscribe. Thus making unsubscribing very simple is essential for decreasing spam rates.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that your email content triggers spam filters. Using spam trigger words or poorly formatted HTML can increase spam scores, even with a clean list.
Email marketer from SenderScore shares that a poor IP reputation may be causing a high spam rate. Even with consent, a history of sending spam from your IP address can negatively affect deliverability.
Email marketer from Validity shares that email providers are actively monitoring complaint rates as a key metric for evaluating sender reputation. A high complaint rate directly impacts deliverability.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog shares that improper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) can contribute to higher spam rates. Email providers may view emails lacking proper authentication as suspicious.
Email marketer from Email on Acid says too frequent emails can cause subscribers to mark emails as spam even if they did consent. This then increases spam rates.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that the daily breakdown of the email volume impacts the spam rate. Lagging complaints from a high volume send day can spike the FBL rate on low volume send days. The expert asks about other signal details.
Email marketer from OptinMonster shares that offering subscribers a preference center allows them to customize the types and frequency of emails they receive. This can decrease spam rates and increase engagement.
Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog shares that a likely reason for high spam rates is poor list quality. Even with consent, old or unengaged email addresses can lead to spam complaints. Regularly cleaning your email list is crucial.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks says that the spam rate performance is a "5 alarm fire".
Expert from Spam Resource explains that even with opt-in practices, maintaining clean lists by regularly removing inactive subscribers can greatly improve your sender reputation and reduce spam complaints.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that repermissioning shouldn't cause such a high complaint rate.
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that email address harvesting can impact spam rates, even with consent-based practices. Regularly review your acquisition practices to make sure they're not attracting harvesters.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from IETF explains that monitoring DMARC reports will allow insight into authentication failures and potential spoofing activity associated with your domain. Addressing these issues can significantly reduce spam rates.
Documentation from RFC explains that a missing or incorrect reverse DNS (PTR) record can cause your emails to be flagged as spam. This record maps an IP address to a domain name, which is a key factor in verifying your server's identity.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that not actively monitoring and responding to feedback loops (FBLs) can cause high spam rates. FBLs provide valuable data on user complaints, which can inform deliverability adjustments.
Documentation from Microsoft shares that being on block lists such as Spamhaus or Spamcop will drastically affect your delivery rates and increase spam rates. You need to proactively monitor these.
Documentation from Google Support explains that senders who consistently keep their spam rate below 0.10% are exempt from most spam-related issues. However, Google recommends keeping it below 0.03% to ensure deliverability.