Why is my transactional email spam rate high, and how can I troubleshoot it?

Email marketer from Stack Overflow explains that using a dedicated IP address for transactional emails can improve sender reputation. It isolates your email traffic from other senders, allowing you to build a positive reputation over time.

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares Neil Kumaran's statement about Gmail spam reporting being based on complaints from active users for inboxed emails, attributing the spam report to when the email was received. However, Alison notes that this doesn't always align with observed behavior.

Email marketer from Litmus explains that sending too many emails can lead to recipient fatigue and increased spam complaints. They advise carefully managing email frequency and segmenting your audience to send relevant content at appropriate intervals.

Email marketer from HubSpot explains that irrelevant or poorly crafted content can significantly increase spam rates. They advise focusing on providing value to recipients and avoiding spam trigger words to improve deliverability.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains the need to review your bounce logs to troubleshoot reasons your transactional emails may have been marked as spam, also to clean the list.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that regularly cleaning your email lists by removing inactive or invalid addresses can reduce bounce rates and spam complaints. They advise implementing a double opt-in process to ensure recipients genuinely want to receive your emails.

Email marketer from Gmass explains that using URL shorteners in transactional emails can trigger spam filters. They recommend using full, transparent URLs to improve deliverability.

Email marketer from Mailjet explains that monitoring your sender reputation is crucial. They advise using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score to identify potential issues and maintain a good sender reputation, which directly impacts deliverability.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that setting up feedback loops can help track complaints, if they are not already visable through the ESP

Email marketer from Email on Acid explains testing your emails before sending them can help identify potential deliverability issues. They recommend using email testing tools to check for spam triggers and ensure proper rendering across different email clients.

Expert from Email Geeks says that if complaints happen on days when no emails are sent, this might indicate a Google issue where complaints are reported with a delay.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that using the same 'd=' for Mailchimp and transactional emails makes it impossible to distinguish complaints between the two streams. Possible causes for spam rate increases include problematic signups, DKIM replay issues, or increased spam filtering.

Expert from Email Geeks confirms that Neil Kumaran's statement about Gmail spam reporting doesn't match the behavior she has observed either.

Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the impact of engagement (or lack thereof) on deliverability, even for transactional emails. She highlights that if recipients are not engaging with transactional emails (e.g., not opening or clicking), mailbox providers may start filtering them as spam. She recommends focusing on ensuring the transactional emails are valuable and relevant to the recipients.

Expert from Email Geeks explains Gmail does not use a traditional FBL, and complaint data is only visible in Postmaster Tools.

Expert from Email Geeks explains Google might track spam for emails going to Google Workspace, but due to legal reasons, they likely don't share that data.

Expert from Email Geeks recommends registering the transactional DKIM subdomain for GPT to clarify which mail stream is causing the problems.

Expert from Spam Resource warns about negative SEO attacks and list bombing that can cause major deliverability issues. Steve explains that one of the symptoms of these type of attacks include increased complaints, and that actions can be taken in these situations such as using rate limiting and CAPTCHA.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that maintaining a spam rate below 0.1% is crucial for avoiding deliverability issues. They advise regularly monitoring spam rates and taking immediate action if they exceed acceptable thresholds.

Documentation from RFC explains the importance of a properly configured reverse DNS (rDNS) record. An rDNS record maps an IP address back to a domain name, helping to verify the legitimacy of the sending server.

Documentation from Microsoft explains how Outlook's junk email filter identifies and blocks suspicious emails. They advise following best practices for email deliverability to avoid being flagged as spam by Outlook users.

Documentation from SendGrid explains the importance of email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Properly configuring these ensures that your emails are recognized as legitimate and reduces the likelihood of being marked as spam.