How to reduce spam complaints

Spam complaints happen when recipients mark your email as unwanted or irrelevant. Even a small number can damage your sender reputation and affect your deliverability. This article walks you through practical steps to minimise complaints and maintain healthy performance.

Why do spam complaints matter?

Mailbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo monitor spam complaints to decide whether to place your emails in the inbox or the junk folder, or to block them entirely. Reducing complaints helps protect your sender reputation and makes sure your emails keep reaching the right audience.

You can monitor your complaint rates in your Personalised Deliverability Report. If you want to learn more about it, read our Personalised Deliverability Report article.

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 lets you customise the from name and email address using a feature called Mask From. This is what appears in the inbox, and it can be personalised for each send. If you want to find out how it works, learn more in our Journey and Single Send 'mask from' articles.

2. Send to contacts who expect to hear from you

Only send emails to contacts who are likely to engage. To help you spot inactive or low-quality data, check your Personalised Deliverability Report before you send.

3. Set clear expectations at sign-up

If a contact has signed up for your marketing, make sure they 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:

• Build Segments 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 stay compliant with laws like GDPR. By default, Force24 adds a locked footer to every email, which contains a working unsubscribe link. 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 spot changes in your deliverability and performance in your Personalised Deliverability Report.

7. Maintain technical compliance

You're covered by default here. Force24's standard onboarding includes all the technical setup needed for sending best practice, including:

• Custom domain authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC).
• A 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.

8. Keep your 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 data regularly.
• Use Journeys and Dynamic Segment rules to refine your targeting.

Summary

A smaller, more engaged audience almost always performs better than a large, disinterested one. Clear expectations, relevant content, an easy way to unsubscribe and regular monitoring will keep your spam complaints low and your sender reputation healthy.