Spam Complaint Rate

Formula

It is typically calculated by taking the number of spam complaints and dividing it by the total number of emails delivered.

Example

Let’s say a company sends out 200 emails and receives 10 complaints. Their Spam Complaint Rate would be 10/200 = 5%.

Why is Spam Complaint Rate important?

Spam Complaint Rate is an important email marketing metric, as it measures how often a sender’s emails are irritating or unwanted to their subscribers. A high complaint rate indicates that subscribers are unhappy with the content you’re sending, which can result in them unsubscribing or even reporting your emails as spam. As a result, this can bring down your reputation as a sender, your deliverability rate, or even get you blocked by ISPs.

Which factors impact Spam Complaint Rate?

• Keep accurate lists of opted-in and unsubscribed contacts
• Use double opt-in to guarantee people have asked to receive emails
• Personalize emails with the subscriber's first name
• Identify and remove inactive subscribers
• Send emails at regular intervals
• When sending emails, ensure that the list is segmented meaningfully
• Split test subject lines to see which gets better responses
• Include an unsubscribe link in all emails
• Avoid using sent from addresses with ‘no-reply’

How can Spam Complaint Rate be improved?

There are a number of factors that can influence your Spam Complaint Rate. First of all, the size of your list is very important. If you have too many contacts who have not opted in, or are inactive, then your rate will likely be higher. The quality of your content is also very important – if it’s not well targeted or relevant to your audience, this could lead to subscribers reporting your emails as spam. Additionally, if you are not segmenting your lists correctly or if you are not sending emails at regular intervals, this can also lead to an increase in complaints.

What is Spam Complaint Rate's relationship with other metrics?

There is a direct correlation between Spam Complaint Rate and the open rate and click rate of your campaigns. The lower your complaint rate is, the higher your open rate and click rate will be. Conversely, a high Spam Complaint Rate can lead to lower open rates and click rates, as email providers may not deliver your emails to subscribers’ inboxes. This means that if you want to maximize your ecommerce metrics, it is important to keep your Spam Complaint Rate as low as possible.