Handling spam complaints

A spam complaint happens when a recipient marks your email as spam, usually with a Report spam or Junk button. It is one of the strongest negative signals a mailbox provider gets about you, and a handful of complaints can affect where your future emails land.

Why complaints matter so much

• They come straight from recipients, so providers weight them heavily.
• They affect your sender reputation for every recipient on that provider, not only the person who complained.
• Google and Yahoo publish sender guidelines that ask senders to keep spam complaint rates low, and higher-volume senders face stricter rules. Check their current guidelines for the thresholds.

What Distro can and cannot see

Mailbox providers generally do not tell the sender which person pressed Report spam. Distro has no complaint feed for the Google account you send from, so:

• Distro does not automatically detect spam reports.
• A complaint will not appear in Distro's Bounced or Unsubscribed numbers on its own.

What Distro does catch:

• Replies asking you to stop. When a short reply clearly asks to be removed (for example "remove me" or "please stop emailing me"), Distro stops that person's sequences and adds them to your Unsubscribed list automatically.
• Unsubscribes, if you turn on the Unsubscribe link setting (it's off by default) or add the unsubscribe link to your email yourself.

How to monitor complaints

• Google Postmaster Tools shows a spam rate for your domain when you send enough mail to Gmail users. At low cold-email volumes it may show no data.
• Microsoft offers sender programs for its consumer mailboxes. Check its current documentation.
• Your own signals in Distro: rising unsubscribes, angry replies and a sudden drop in replies often travel with complaints.

When someone complains

If a recipient tells you they reported you, or replies angrily:

1. Stop contacting them. If Distro hasn't already done it, open People → Unsubscribed, select Block address, enter their email and choose the reason Spam complaint. Matching contacts become ineligible straight away.
2. Consider blocking the whole domain if several people at the same company object. Choose Whole domain when you block.
3. Reply politely, once, if appropriate. Confirm they won't hear from you again. Don't argue.
4. Review the campaign. Was the person a good fit? Was the email clearly relevant? Was it the third follow-up in a week?

How to prevent complaints

• Target tightly. Contact people whose role and company genuinely match what you offer.
• Explain why you are writing to them in the first lines.
• Make opting out easy. Turn on the Unsubscribe link setting, or say "just reply and I won't follow up". People who can opt out easily are less likely to report spam. See Unsubscribes, Do Not Contact, and when to stop.
• Keep sequences short and spaced out. Stop after a reasonable number of follow-ups. Distro's stop-on-reply ends a sequence when someone answers.
• Use your real identity. A clear name, company and signature build trust.
• Never use purchased or scraped lists. They produce far more complaints.

Laws on unsolicited email (such as CAN-SPAM, GDPR and PECR, or CASL) may apply depending on where your recipients are. Check your own obligations; this article is not legal advice.