Spam is no longer just any email message that arrives uninvited in your inbox. It now includes any email message your recipient doesn’t want anymore, even the ones they opted into. Even yours.  This article explains how you can use Recognition to reduce spam complaints.

Think you know what spam is? Here’s how gatekeepers of two of the largest email destinations on your mailing list now define it:

Operationally we define spam as whatever consumers don't want in their inbox. - Miles Libbey, Yahoo!

It is really about what the consumer wants. Even if they asked to receive the email, if they do not find value in it, then it is not a good email. We want to make sure that our customers are happy. - Charles Stiles, AOL

Let’s make it crystal-clear:

Spam is no longer just any email message that arrives uninvited in your inbox. The definition now has been broadened to include any email message your recipient doesn’t want anymore, even the ones they opted into. Even yours.

Here’s how the rules have changed: Email-marketing success, at least where deliverability and the customer relationship are concerned, now requires three building blocks, in ascending order of importance:

1) Permission: This used to be the hallmark of a successful email program, but today it’s just the most basic requirement.

2) Relevance: Does your subscriber see the value in your email? Does it speak to her needs? Is it what she signed up for - content, format and frequency? "Relevance" trumps "permission" when it comes to your sender's reputation and delivery results, because relevant offers to interested recipients drive fewer spam complaints. Spam complaints are what hurts a sender’s reputation and sparks delivery challenges.

3) Recognition: This is a new concept in email marketing, but it actually trumps both relevance and permission. Sure, you got permission because you used a prechecked box on your registration page, and by some happy accident, the offers you send are relevant. But your relationship might be built on a big disconnect that threatens to blow up into spam complaints. If someone doesn’t recall actively signing up with you, doesn't recognize you or remember why he is getting the email, often he will simply treat the message as spam.

Recognition has four requirements:

• The ISP can recognize you as the sender because you use authentication.

• Recipients can recognize you from your “from” address.

• Recipients can recognize from the subject line that the message contains information they want to read.

• Recipients can recognize from the message content that they requested to receive this type of information from you.

Using Recognition to Reduce Spam Complaints

Your spam-complaint performance is a key factor in your sender reputation, which ISPs use to determine whether to accept, block or filter your email messages to a recipient’s bulk folder. Resolving complaints quickly is one way to boost your reputation. In the long run, you want to reduce spam complaints as much as you can. This is where recognition is your ally.

When I investigate senders with high volumes of spam complaints to understand what drives those complaints, I look at their performance in three areas:

• The opt-in process: It must be clear and obvious (no prechecked boxes, no automatic subscription when registering at a Web site or for a service, no forced opt-in).

• Recognition: The client must issue prompt confirmation and welcome messages and conduct a welcome program using email designed to make the message’s identity and purpose clear at a glance.

• The unsubscribe process: It must be easy to find and use, instill trust that you'll honor it, and be functional the first time (no failures) and immediate. CAN-SPAM gives you 10 days; that’s nine days too long.

If you’re just beginning to organize your email program, it’s easy to design one that accommodates permission, relevance and recognition. More likely, though, you’re revamping an existing program, tossing out what doesn’t work and retooling to meet the challenges of a more demanding email universe.

Relevance is relatively easier to build in to an existing program, because you can add segmentation using whatever data you have on your subscribers. When new programs or content offerings arise, you can include choices in your preference centers and use your existing programs to drive interest for your subscribers.

Recognition is more of a challenge, because you need to go back to the beginning and improve the way you collect addresses and welcome newcomers into the fold. Note: This will only help moving forward. Current subscribers, who are likely to be the ones causing the complaints you are reacting to, will not benefit from these changes. You might need to consider re-activation strategies to remind them of how they joined and the benefits of your email messages.

It’s worth the time it takes to upgrade your address collection and new-subscriber welcome program, because it will help you develop a database of subscribers who recognize and welcome you into the inbox. This, in turn, will boost readership and help reduce spam complaints.

5 Strategies to Boost Recognition

Your goal with boosting recognition is to reduce the chance that your recipients won’t recognize your mailings and use the spam button to make them disappear.

• Upgrade your permission practices.

  • Abandon the prechecked box.

  • Allow only one choice per subscription option. "Newsletter and Special Offers" is two different types of email and requires two checkboxes, not just one.

  • Move from single opt-in to double opt-in. Don't add names to your database that have not explicitly requested to join.

  • Never force opt-ins. Use clear and conspicuous language. Don't expect subscribers to read the fine print in your terms and conditions to find out they have been added to a list.

  • Honor unsubscribes immediately.

  • More information: 8 R's of Email Marketing Success  

• Set solid expectations at registration that tell the subscriber what kinds of email they requested. Use a dedicated subscription page that spells out the benefits of your email and requires just a little effort to join; it makes the subscription memorable before the first message appears. Provide content, format and frequency options that allow subscribers to tailor the program that works best for them.

• Show examples of past mailings. A picture is worth a thousand words. If you allow new subscribers to preview the types of messaging before signing up, they are much more likely to recognize your message when it shows up in their inboxes.

• Design a welcome program that engages newcomers immediately with confirmation and welcome messages that recap their own expectations and choices. Use a message format that makes your identity clear in the from and subject lines as well as in the message body, whether or not the recipient can immediately view images. Be sure to encourage new subscribers to add you to their address books to ensure future delivery to their inboxes.  More information: Make Your Email Stand Out in the Crowd 

• Deliver on those expectations with relevant, identifiable mailings. Leverage your brand name in both text and images. Don't rely solely on images to reinforce who the message is from.
  That last strategy might be the hardest one to carry out. But if you can incorporate all five strategies to boost recognition, your payoff will be a more stable and satisfied readership whose members are less likely to reach for the spam button.

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