Why are people reporting my email as spam?

More and more people are hitting the ‘report as spam’ button in webmail email clients as a alternative to clicking on the unsubscribe link in the email and the reasons for this are pretty simple:

1. Laziness – scrolling down to the bottom of your email to find your unsubscribe link can just be too much for some people and with the glaring ‘report as spam’ button, this can be the easier option.
2. Lack of trust – will the unsubscribe be a simple process or will they have to remember the login from 10 years ago. Or will the request to unsubscribe be honoured?
3. Ignorance – some people simply click the ‘report as spam’ button without actually knowing what it does.

So, how can you stop this from happening?

Traditionally, you will see the unsubscribe link at the bottom of an email, sometimes hidden in the small print and sometimes as a little link. Yes, most people will go to the bottom of the email to find the link but with the prominence of ‘report as spam’ it might be time to move break form and have an unsubscribe link at the top of your email and at the bottom.

As scary as this may seem, think about what you are saying when you do this?

1. By making it easier to unsubscribe, you’re saying that you are confident that your email is relevant to them.
2. You’re making it easier for them to choose ‘unsubscribe’ rather than report you as spam with a prominent, visible unsubscribe link. Reporting as spam means that you may not be able to deliver to that domain ever again (much worse someone opting out of your email campaigns).
3. By having two unsub links, you’re covering all bases so people who want to go to the bottom will find what they are looking for.

Of course, the best way to reduce spam reports is to send relevant email that people want to stay subscribed to, but moving the unsubscribe link is worth a try too.

Reena Mistry
Client Strategy Consultant