What are Spam Complaints?

As an initiative to to fight spam, some of the major ISPs (AOL, Hotmail, MSN, Live.com) created a system that allows people to report spam. When an email that comes through to an inbox looks like spam, the subscriber can click "Spam" or "Junk" (see screen shots below). When a person reports a message as spam, Newsberry is notified immediately. At the current moment, only AOL and Microsoft (Hotmail, MSN, and Live.com) send this information back to senders (Newsberry).




How we handle spam complaints

When a spam complaint is reported by one of your subscribers, we track this and immediately make the subscriber inactive in your list. You cannot activate this subscriber in the system. The only way for this person to become active again is by subscribing a second time.

What if spam complaints are high?

ISPs and Newsberry use spam complaints to measure the delivery practices of our customers. As a general rule, AOL and Microsoft will take action if 0.20% of their users report your campaign as spam. To make this easier to understand, that is 25 complaints for every 10,000 subscribers.

If we notice your spam complaints to be above the acceptable threshold, we will most likely close your account. Spam complaints not only affect your list, they affect the reputation of Newsberry as well. If the spam complaints are high for one account, it has the potential to affect many other accounts on Newsberry.

We can help

If your spam complaints are getting high, there are a number of reasons why. Please check our best practices guide for more information. It is our mission to help each customer improve delivery and reduce the potential for spam complaints. Feel free to contact us at any time if you have questions.