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Are your Spam complaints up?

by ozduc
11 replies
I have seen a few marketers talking about spam complaints with their autoresponder company going up lately. Now we all know that all the person has to do is hit unsubscribe to be taken off the list instead of hitting the spam button, after all they did sign up for your list. BUT there could be a good reason why they are hitting SPAM instead of just unsubscribing.
There has been a few posts lately about email "subject headings" being "creative" to say the least, things like "you have a payment" or "your username and password" or "notification of payment received" etc. etc. Then when you open the email it is just a blatant sales pitch with nothing to do with the heading.
Well if you've been using these types of subject headings and your spam complaints are rising you have no-one to blame but yourself.
This according to the CAN-SPAM act is #2 on the list of things that are in violation of the ACT.
2.Don't use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
CAN-Spam guide

So maybe in future, choose your email subject headings wisely.
#complaints #spam
  • Profile picture of the author NateDesmond
    Good point.

    I use honest, interesting headlines on my emails, and my complaints so far are nonexistent. My open rates are about 40% to 65%.
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    • Profile picture of the author winebuddy
      Originally Posted by NateDesmond View Post

      Good point.

      I use honest, interesting headlines on my emails, and my complaints so far are nonexistent. My open rates are about 40% to 65%.
      Same here - I just say Hi So-and-so, here is your __________. And they know its from me anyway so they open it.

      I get "please check out this product" emails every frickin' day along with the payment received emails.

      Who ARE these people? Defintely NOT Warriors.
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    • Profile picture of the author timpears
      Originally Posted by NateDesmond View Post

      Good point.

      I use honest, interesting headlines on my emails, and my complaints so far are nonexistent. My open rates are about 40% to 65%.
      That is awesome, in my opinion. You must be as rich as Bill Gates, almost.

      Seriously though, you should write a report on how you do this. I am pretty sure that you could make a bundle from it. Or did you do this already? I didn't read your signature so I might have missed it.

      I saw a product that offered this, according to their sales page, but I didn't have the money at the time, and now I have forgotten where it is. That has been my biggest issue with the list building courses, they never go into detail on how to structure your mailings. Maybe it is just me, but I am just not sure how to do that.

      Frankly, most of the lists that I am on do nothing but send me sales pitches, so they don't seem to follow the teachings I have read that say to give content in most of your mailings and send the sales pitch in amounts the content. Maybe three to one or four to one. But every list email I open is a sales pitch. O well, what you gonna do?
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      • Profile picture of the author NateDesmond
        Originally Posted by timpears View Post

        That is awesome, in my opinion. You must be as rich as Bill Gates, almost.

        Seriously though, you should write a report on how you do this. I am pretty sure that you could make a bundle from it. Or did you do this already? I didn't read your signature so I might have missed it.

        I saw a product that offered this, according to their sales page, but I didn't have the money at the time, and now I have forgotten where it is. That has been my biggest issue with the list building courses, they never go into detail on how to structure your mailings. Maybe it is just me, but I am just not sure how to do that.

        Frankly, most of the lists that I am on do nothing but send me sales pitches, so they don't seem to follow the teachings I have read that say to give content in most of your mailings and send the sales pitch in amounts the content. Maybe three to one or four to one. But every list email I open is a sales pitch. O well, what you gonna do?
        I wish I could say I was making money off this list, but I'm not... yet. It is a blog of mine, so the people opening the email are just reading my posts.

        After I have been running this blog for about six months I plan to start monetizing it.
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        • Profile picture of the author timpears
          Originally Posted by NateDesmond View Post

          I wish I could say I was making money off this list, but I'm not... yet. It is a blog of mine, so the people opening the email are just reading my posts.

          After I have been running this blog for about six months I plan to start monetizing it.
          Sorry to hear that you are not able to monetize on this list, but what ever you are doing, figure out how to use it on a site that you can monetize a little easier. Obviously you learned a good lesson, now you only need to understand what stops you from monetizing it and fix that. Then you can write that PDF and sell it.

          Hang in there.
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          Tim Pears

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  • Profile picture of the author jbode
    I see those post all the time - asking if spam complaints are up?

    To be honest, it's probably the emails your sending, don't blame anyone else... just start delivering value in your emails - that means don't use deceptive subject lines, don't do ad swaps every day and don't hard pitch products every day

    Then you shouldn't have this problem, unless you never mail your list and they forget who you are
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    • Profile picture of the author ozduc
      Originally Posted by jbode View Post

      I see those post all the time - asking if spam complaints are up?

      To be honest, it's probably the emails your sending, don't blame anyone else... just start delivering value in your emails - that means don't use deceptive subject lines, don't do ad swaps every day and don't hard pitch products every day

      Then you shouldn't have this problem, unless you never mail your list and they forget who you are
      This was exactly my point. I wasn't saying my spam complaints were up I was pointing out a possible reason why, for some of the people that have been having problems.
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  • Profile picture of the author BeenThereDoneThat
    OK,
    "After all they did sign up for your list", yeah you're right. But many times I get hooked into signing up for some list by a forced opt in. Maybe for a "free WSO". Or, there are about 10 guys that keep tricking JV partners into sharing their lists and they just keep coming over and over again, using those fake urgency lines in the headline.
    I have been using the spam button lots lately, more in the last 2 months than in the past 3 years. Here is my feelings: trick me into opening your email with a fake
    claim, I hit the spam button because you lied and wasted my valuable time. If all
    you do is spam me, I'll just unsubscribe.
    Does that sound harsh?
    Stef

    PS I'm on Winebuddy's (mike) list and he delivers good content, doesn't spam me everyday,
    never recommends a crappy CB product just to turn a buck, so, I don't ever delete his
    emails without reading them no matter what his headline says.
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    • Profile picture of the author ozduc
      Originally Posted by BeenThereDoneThat View Post

      OK,
      "After all they did sign up for your list", yeah you're right. But many times I get hooked into signing up for some list by a forced opt in. Maybe for a "free WSO". Or, there are about 10 guys that keep tricking JV partners into sharing their lists and they just keep coming over and over again, using those fake urgency lines in the headline.
      I have been using the spam button lots lately, more in the last 2 months than in the past 3 years. Here is my feelings: trick me into opening your email with a fake
      claim, I hit the spam button because you lied and wasted my valuable time. If all
      you do is spam me, I'll just unsubscribe.
      Does that sound harsh?
      Stef
      I totally agree and I may start hitting the spam button, (prior to the unsubscribe) on a few of the emails I am getting if they keep up with these deceptive headlines
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  • Profile picture of the author Sysbase
    I haven't noticed anything usual... I think it's on a case by case basis. But I could be wrong since now Aweber is approving my headlines for opt-in message manually I think.
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