Spam complaints happen when recipients mark your email as unwanted or irrelevant. Even a small number can damage your sender reputation and impact deliverability. This guide walks through practical steps you can take to minimise complaints and maintain healthy performance.
Why Spam Complaints Matter
Mailbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo monitor spam complaints to decide whether to place your emails in the inbox, junk folder, or block them entirely. Reducing complaints helps protect your sender reputation and ensures your emails continue reaching the right audience.
You can monitor complaint rates via the Personalised Deliverability Report.
1. Use a Clear and Consistent 'From' Name
Using a recognised sender name and address helps contacts trust your emails. Keep it clear, consistent and in line with your brand.
Force24 allows you to customise the 'from name' and email address using a feature called Mask From. This is what appears in the inbox and can be personalised per send.
See: What is 'Mask From'?
2. Send to Contacts Who Expect to Hear from You
Only send emails to contacts who are likely to engage.
If you're looking to expand your audience, we work with trusted data broker partners who provide high-quality, compliant data. If this is of interest, please speak to your account manager.
To help monitor engagement and flag inactive or low-quality data, use the Personalised Deliverability Report before sending.
3. Set Clear Expectations at Sign-up
If the customer has signed up for your marketing material, make sure contacts understand:
What kinds of emails they’ll receive
How often they’ll hear from you
Why the content is valuable
When expectations are clear from the start, your audience is less likely to be surprised or disengaged later on.
4. Send Relevant Content at the Right Time
Spam complaints often happen when emails feel irrelevant or intrusive. To help avoid this:
Segment your audiences based on interest or behaviour
Use journey logic to time your sends carefully
Avoid overly salesy or misleading subject lines
Keep your tone, content and offers consistent with your brand
5. Make Unsubscribing Easy
Every email must include an unsubscribe link to remain compliant with laws like GDPR.
By default, Force24 includes a footer in every email containing a working unsubscribe link in a locked footer.
Making it easy to opt out reduces the likelihood of contacts marking your email as spam instead.
6. Monitor Complaint Rates and Respond Quickly
Even with best practice in place, it’s important to keep an eye on complaint trends and act if issues arise.
You can monitor deliverability patterns and spot any changes in performance using your Personalised Deliverability Report.
7. Maintain Technical Compliance (You're Covered by Default)
Force24’s standard onboarding includes all the technical setup needed for sending best practice, including:
Custom domain authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC)
Branded sending identity
Compliance with Gmail and Yahoo’s latest sender policies
You don’t need to worry about this unless your setup has changed.
Final Tip: Keep Engagement Clean
Disengaged contacts are the most likely to mark your emails as spam. Make it a habit to:
Focus on recent engagers
Clean your lists regularly
Use journeys and marketing list rules to refine targeting
A smaller, more engaged list almost always performs better than a large, disinterested one.
For further tips, see:
Prepare for the Google and Yahoo policy updates with these crucial steps