Whenever a client sends a bad email campaign, their recipients will click the “Report Spam” button in their email programs. Most people think nothing of it.  They figure it just teaches their Spam filter to throw away the email.  But what really happens behind the scenes is this:

1.     A complaint is sent to their ISP (like AOL, Yahoo, Comcast, Earthlink, etc).  The report has a copy of the email in it.
2.    The ISP scans the emails header, and tracks down the originating server (if you use Emercury.net to send the campaign, the ISP traces it to us).
3.     The ISP sends us a feedback loop (FBL) warning.
4.     If an email campaign causes too many Spam complaints (about one per thousand recipients), the ISP blocks future emails from the sending server.

Feedback Loops (FBL) like the one described above are being used more and more by large ISPs.  The reason is simple.  ISPs are dealing with billions of pieces of Spam daily.  They cannot sort through what is legit and what is not. Technology can only sort through so much.  So they put the ultimate decision in the hands of the recipients. If a recipient says it’s Spam (even if they opted-in for it) then it is spam.  That is the end of the story. Of course people make mistakes, which is why they set thresholds for complaint levels before blocking senders.  But the point – technical and legal definitions of Spam do not matter anymore. All that matters are what recipients think is “unwanted”. So your clients better be sending material people specifically requested.

This is why email marketing services (like Emercury.net) are setup to receive FBL alerts from ISPs, and then we automatically clean complainers from your list.  Too many complaints from one campaign, and we can get blocked. And since you are sharing our system with many other users from around the globe, we have to be rigorous about monitoring FBL complaints.

You know how they say “You are more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash”?  The same concept applies with abuse complaints.  You may think your client is safe and sound as long as they are not sending nasty pharmaceutical or online gambling Spam. But it is far more likely you will get blocked by ISPs because of complaints from your own subscribers about seemingly innocent newsletters. So it is important to know what makes people complain, and how to prevent it.

*Did You Know - a safelist is an email mailing list that people join (of their own free will) which enables them to send email offers to all the other members in exchange for agreeing to receive email from those other members. So you get to mail, but you have to agree to receive mail too. And no one gets spammed.

Warning Signs Your Client Is Spamming
A guide for creative professionals (with clients who misbehave) –
Part I (of MANY)…

Emercury.net is an email marketing solution originally created in 2002, to help creative agencies (web developers, freelancers, advertising agencies, etc.) to send professional HTML email campaigns, on behalf of their clients.

We have helped numerous agencies assist their clients with email.

Unfortunately, we have had to shutdown many agencies for their clients’ bad email marketing practices: sloppy list management, poorly designed emails, purchased lists, and old lists. These bad practices get the client and the agency reported for Spamming, and sometimes they get blacklisted. In some cases, we have seen their mistakes tarnish their reputation and follow them even when they move around from server to server, or switch email marketing services.

Luckily, most email marketing nightmares like this are preventable. You just need to know what the warning signs are, and how to deal with them.

What exactly is Spam?

Seems like a silly question. We all get Spam, and we all know what it is. But do you know the technical definition? You need to know it, so that when challenged by a stubborn client, you can easily explain why they are Spamming.

Email is Spam when it is:
1. Unsolicited (meaning the recipient did not opt-in for it), and,
2. Sent in bulk (meaning its part of a larger collection of messages that all have substantively identical content).

Source:  www.spamhaus.org/definition.html

Keep in mind those two criteria. Some clients will argue that, “I send unsolicited emails to prospects all the time from my computer.” And you can tell them that is not Spam, because it was not sent in bulk to 500 other prospects.

Some clients will tell you, “But I get Spam all the time! How come I can’t send it too?” Initially, that sounds like an extremely stupid reply, and it use to make me want to punch them in the gut. But I have learned during the years most newbie email marketers actually think Spammers are doing something that technically makes it legal and acceptable to send Spam. Like there is some kind of “Spam license” you can apply for, or “Spam system” you can use to make it okay. But if you explain to them that most Spam is actually sent illegally, via virus-infected, hijacked computers called “botnets,” they get the picture.

*Did You Know – the United States still leads all countries in Spam.  So although countries like China, Russia, and Brazil are touted as being the origin of the new wave of Spam, they have a long way to go to catch up to the United States.