Got complaints?
The bad news: Complaints are the best way to destroy your sending reputation, deliverability and brand.
The worse news: Complainers only demonstrate the visible damage to your list and business.
The good news: Below are 6 recommended areas to think through in order to get your emails in line with customer expectations, lower complaint rates, and improve your sender reputation and sender rating (if you are a Bronto client).
1. Think permission.
The fastest way to increase complaints is to send email to people who didn’t ask for anything from you. Make sure you are only sending to permission-based lists. If you are lacking transparency here, implement changes to sign-up sources that make it clear that they are agreeing to get email. Don’t assume that people that buy from you want your emails.
For example: If a customer orders a product via your call center, explicitly ask if they would like to receive emails on future promotions, newsletters about other products, etc.
2. Think list age.
If you want to email people on a list that is over a year old (or less!) and you haven’t been sending anything until now, highly consider re-opting these folks in rather than emailing them out-of-the-blue.
3. Think frequency.
Sending inconsistently, say once every few months, can cause complaints. On the flip side, sending too often can annoy contacts as well.
For example: Should your drip campaign really be 10 emails in 15 days? Test to make sure you can’t be more effective and less offensive by emailing less.
4. Think relevance.
Do not send blanket emails to everyone on topics that only matter to a select few. Segment to narrow down your list appropriately for each send.
5. Think expectations.
Ensure that at the point of email collection, you are setting the proper expectations for your soon-to-be new subscribers. Are they aware of what emails they’ll be receiving and at what frequency? Do they know what these emails will look like?
For example: If people signed up to learn about tee times at your golf club, but you send them emails about ladies luncheons and easter egg hunts, you could receive complaints.
6. Think subject line sensitivity.
Make sure your subject lines are not spammy-sounding and are relevant to the email content. Spammy, vague subject lines will get you complaints before your email is even opened.
All of the above recommendations go back to the fundamental basis of successful email marketing: sending timely, targeted emails to people who have requested to receive them.
What do you think?
Kristen Gregory
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto
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- Up With Delivery! Down With Complaints! No matter your objectives for using Bronto - driving sales...
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Great post! Some of this stuff seems so basic to those of use in the email space. So it’s always surprising to me how many companies don’t follow these practices. Return Path has done a bunch of research in the last year on marketer practices — both in the US and the UK — and have found really shocking stuff. Lack of permission, not using data to personalize, not sending any email when requested, sending too often — you name it. Luckily we also saw bright spots. There is hope, but we definitely have to keep beating the drum on these issues.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks Tami!
I totally agree. This post should be old news, but as an email advisor, I find myself reminding clients of these important points all the time. I think, at times, strains on time and resources (as well as some short-term successes when NOT following best practices) keep marketers from ultimately producing the best campaigns they can. These 6 fundamentals, though, need to become higher priority for businesses to really win over the increasingly-savvy and intolerant consumer!
I appreciate your feedback!