Why is there a sudden spam rate spike across multiple clients?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that if a high spam complaint rate coincides with no IP identification, it could indicate a drop in email volume below Gmail Postmaster's reporting threshold, where smaller email samples might skew complaint rates higher.
Email marketer from Gmass explains that spam complaints can be triggered due to a high volume of sign-ups from a particular marketing campaign, with this new referral traffic being less tolerant to email.
Email marketer from Reddit responds that compromised accounts can suddenly send out large volumes of spam, causing spikes. Monitor account activity and implement stricter password policies.
Email marketer from Litmus states that dramatically increasing sending volume without proper warmup can trigger spam filters and cause complaint spikes. Ramp up sending gradually.
Email marketer from Email on Acid explains that certain words, phrases, or HTML structures can trigger spam filters. Review your email content and code for potential issues.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests splitting email streams into different subdomains to monitor stats in Gmail postmaster, which requires warming up a new subdomain.
Email marketer from HubSpot suggests that sending irrelevant content to a large segment of your audience can lead to more spam complaints. Improve segmentation and targeting strategies.
Email marketer from Mailchimp Community shares that sudden spam spikes often correlate with poor list hygiene. Ensure you're regularly cleaning your list of inactive or unengaged subscribers.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that welcome emails marked as spam are a red flag. Suggests checking email content, signup time delay, CAPTCHA functionality, and considering switching to confirmed opt-in.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that if using a shared IP, another sender's poor practices can impact your reputation, leading to spam spikes. Consider dedicated IPs or monitor shared IP reputation.
Email marketer from Sendgrid shares a problem can arise if you haven't suppressed bounced addresses. Email marketers need to remove hard bounces from sending lists immediately. Sending to invalid email addresses increases the likelihood of being flagged as a spammer, thus increasing spam rates.
Email marketer from ReturnPath explains that a sudden drop in sender reputation can trigger spam filters. Monitor your reputation and address any underlying issues.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that a sudden spam rate spike could be a signal that something is damaging your sender reputation, particularly if the infrastructure is shared among multiple clients. Things to check are authentication, list hygiene, content and complaint feedback loops.
Expert from Spam Resource shares that snowshoe spam, which involves sending spam from a wide range of IP addresses and domains, can cause temporary spikes in spam complaints if spammers target specific client lists. Also he explains that sudden spam spikes can occur when new, unknown, or poorly managed traffic sources are integrated without proper warming or monitoring. Such traffic often carries a higher spam complaint rate initially.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests looking closely at TikTok traffic as a potential source of the problem, citing previous issues with Facebook signups due to old addresses. Recommends identifying and analyzing the specific traffic for any fixable issues.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that because the issue isn't consistent across all clients, it indicates a specific problem. She recommends investigating if delivery has changed and whether fewer recipients are receiving emails in their inbox, potentially causing a relative increase in complaint rates.
Expert from Email Geeks advises to check the DKIM volume page for potential DKIM replay attacks, while noting the unusual nature of multiple clients being affected simultaneously.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Google explains that sudden spam rate spikes can be due to changes in user behavior, content issues, or authentication problems. Monitor your sending reputation in Postmaster Tools for insights.
Documentation from DMARC.org answers that non-compliance with DMARC policies can lead to email rejection or being marked as spam. Correctly implement and monitor your DMARC records.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains that incorrect SPF, DKIM, or DMARC configurations can lead to authentication failures, increasing the likelihood of emails being marked as spam. Regularly validate your authentication settings.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that a sudden increase in spam complaints could be attributed to compromised accounts, list bombing, or content issues. Review your Sender Reputation Data (SNDS) for anomalies.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that Feedback Loops (FBLs) provide information from ISPs about users marking emails as spam. Ignoring FBLs can lead to increased spam complaints over time.