What is considered a high spam rate that leads to ESP blocking and how should complaint rates be calculated?

Email marketer from Mailjet's Blog explains that anything above a 0.1% spam complaint rate is considered high and can lead to deliverability issues, including potential blocking by ESPs. They emphasize monitoring feedback loops to address deliverability issues promptly.

Email marketer from HubSpot suggests aiming for a spam complaint rate below 0.05% to maintain a good sender reputation. They stress the importance of list segmentation, permission-based sending, and providing easy unsubscribe options to keep complaint rates low.

Email marketer from EmailGeeks Forum states that exceeding a spam rate of 0.5% is critical and can lead to immediate blocking from most ESPs. They highlight the need for continuous list cleaning and monitoring of sending practices to avoid high complaint rates.

Email marketer from SparkPost stated that you should strive to keep your spam complaint rate well below 0.1%. They also say that anything higher can have a negative impact on your sender reputation, potentially leading to blacklisting or reduced deliverability.

Marketer from Email Geeks answers that a high spam rate is around 0.1-0.05.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that a spam rate exceeding 0.3% is a red flag and can lead to serious deliverability problems. They note that ESPs and mailbox providers use these rates to determine sender reputation and filter emails accordingly.

Marketer from Email Geeks agrees with the previous message and clarifies that complaint rates should be calculated as complaints received / emails sent to domains that support FBLs, not total emails sent, as the latter vastly underreports complaint rates.

Marketer from Email Geeks indicates that Hotmail may block around a 0.2 spam rate.

Email marketer from Reddit user r/emailmarketing mentions that a spam complaint rate above 0.1% is cause for concern. They advise that consistently exceeding this rate can lead to blacklisting and significantly damage email deliverability.

Marketer from Email Geeks agrees that big blind spots exist with domains that don't have FBLs, and that no single metric in isolation is perfect and how they relate to one another tells a story.

Email marketer from ReturnPath indicated that consistently exceeding a 0.1% complaint rate is a red flag for mailbox providers. They outline that exceeding this threshold can lead to reduced inbox placement and potential blocking of future emails.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that at a 0.1 spam rate, things have fallen apart and there is serious reputation damage.

Email marketer from Litmus shares that a spam complaint rate should ideally be below 0.02%, and exceeding 0.1% is a strong indicator of deliverability problems. They recommend that senders need to implement best practices to mitigate high complaint rates and protect sender reputation.

Expert from Email Geeks clarifies the question is about ESPs and highlights compliance actions may happen for a single complaint and points out the importance of calculating complaint percentages correctly and that some senders (B2B) may not have FBLs.

Expert from Word to the Wise Editorial Team, indicates the importance of understanding how spam filters work. While not directly specifying a rate, they emphasize the role of user complaints in triggering filters and damaging sender reputation. They underscore that excessive complaints will lead to deliverability issues and the importance of consent and relevant content.

Expert from Spam Resource, John Levine, explains that the complaint rate should be calculated as the number of complaints divided by the number of delivered messages, not the total number of messages sent. He notes that some mailbox providers use different metrics, but this is a common and useful way to track complaints.

Expert from Email Geeks notes that even calculating FBL rate based on emails sent to domains that support FBLs can be wrong because FBLs aren’t sent if mail goes into the bulk folder, so the calculation will be off because you’re using the sent rate, not the inbox rate.

Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that defining spam complaints involves looking at user actions. She highlights that even though there might be different types of user 'abuse' reports, it's crucial to analyze the reasons behind these reports. Laura suggests that one way of calculating this is that a good spam rate is about 1/10th of one percent (0.1%).

Documentation from SendGrid indicates that a spam complaint rate above 0.1% is problematic and can negatively impact your sender reputation. They advise that maintaining a rate below 0.1% is crucial for healthy email deliverability and they also advise that you should calculate your complaint rate as a percentage of delivered messages.

Documentation from Microsoft SNDS describes that complaint rates should be calculated by dividing the number of complaints by the number of emails delivered to the inbox (not total sends). They also outline that a significant percentage of spam complaints can result in filtering or blocking of future emails.

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that sender reputation plays a key role in deliverability, and high spam complaint rates will damage your reputation. Also Spamhaus will contribute to potential blacklisting and filtering of your emails by mailbox providers.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that high spam rates reported by users can severely impact deliverability to Gmail users. They suggest regularly monitoring your spam rate in Postmaster Tools and taking immediate action to address any spikes, such as reviewing your sending practices and list hygiene.