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Email Marketing Anti-Spam Policies and You: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1075540
Your email marketing platform likely has a robust anti-spam policy that goes above and beyond existing spam laws. Because email marketing platforms take spam so seriously, it's important to be aware of their policies and understand how to stay in compliance, or you might risk violating a policy. This could lead to a hold (read: freeze) on your email marketing account, which isn't any fun, especially when you have to send marketing emails to your patrons!
With knowledge comes the power to make informed decisions. This article will cover:
- Emma and PatronChimp's individual anti-spam policies
- How to avoid triggering anti-spam measures
- What to do if your email marketing platform freezes your account
Neither do we!
What are these anti-spam policies?
In an effort to ensure you maintain a high deliverability rate and get the most out of sending marketing emails, marketing platforms like Emma and MailChimp have developed anti-spam policies. These policies cover things like:
- Content they require on all emails
- How to obtain permission from a Contact to send an email so they don't think your email is spam
- The conditions of approval, restriction, and compliance
- Their rights and obligations to enforce this policy
We highly recommend you read your email marketing platform's anti-spam policy to glean it's finer points:
- Emma's full anti-spam policy
- MailChimp's full anti-spam policy
How do I stay in compliance with anti-spam policies?
When an email recipient makes a report to the email marketing platform saying they don't want your emails in their inbox, it's considered a complaint. Even legitimate senders get complaints, so it's important that you, a legitimate sender, know what to do to avoid them.
Remember: if you send a marketing email that gets more than a .2% complaint rate, or over a 2% bounce rate, your account could be at risk of violating an anti-spam policy, and your ISP could be blacklisted.
This all might sound a bit intense, but we're here to help! Here are some tips to prevent spam complaints and help you stay in compliance:
Learn more about complaints/bounces from your email service provider
It's best to read what your email service provider says about these stats directly - you'll get a better idea of what these terms mean to them, and how they'll be applied to your email campaigns.
Using MailChimp? Learn more about direct complaints and bounces from MailChimp!
Using Emma? Learn more about complaint rates, bounce rates, and blacklisted ISPs from Emma!
Set up a "from" address and a custom domain
Let your Contacts know who you are. Make sure your "from" details mention the business the email is coming from, and set up a custom domain so the domain used in your tracking links matches the one in your "from" address.
Using MailChimp? Learn how to create a custom domain here.
Using Emma? Learn how to set your "from" details and set up a custom domain.
Maintain your contact lists and keep them up-to-date
It's important to regularly monitor and update your contact lists. We suggest you:
- Remove any stale contacts you haven't sent a campaign to in over 6 months
- Remove contacts who haven't opened an email from you in over a year
- Remove addresses dormant for 18 months or more, as they are at risk of becoming recycled as spam traps
Using Mailchimp? Check out their requirements and best practices for maintaining up-to-date email contact lists.
Using Emma? Emma provides great documentation about how to segment your audience and maintain good list hygiene, which you can learn more about here.
Send marketing emails to contacts who actively want to receive them
Be sure to send marketing emails to people who want to receive your emails. To ensure this,
- Get proper permission from your contacts
- Never buy, rent or borrow subscriber lists, as these are not permission-based and can contain spam traps.
- Use a Confirmed Opt-In report to stop fake signups, bots and spelling errors from sending your emails where they're not wanted.
Keep contacts informed and pace your marketing emails
A great way to prevent your contacts from making a complaint is to let them know how often you'll send emails. It's also important not to send them so many emails they become overwhelmed, and yet also to not send so few emails your contacts forget they've opted in to receive them!
What if my email marketing platform places a temporary hold on my account?
If your email marketing platform places a temporary hold on your account because your account has violated their anti-spam policy, they will get in touch with you directly and work with you to bring your account back into compliance.