HOMEIf any emails sent from your account receive an above average number of spam complaints, it will result in your account being automatically suspended. You'll still be able to log in to your account, but you won't be able to send any emails until the issue is resolved. If it can't be resolved, your account will be permanently closed.
This article is to provide some information on how and why account suspensions happen, and to let you know what to expect if you find yourself in this situation.
We handle account suspensions differently for emails sent by clients in your account.
Acceptable limits for complaints
Our spam complaint rate limit is 0.5%, which is very high for industry standards. That's why we start sending you warning emails well before you reach that percentage, and why accounts are automtically suspended when that limit is exceeded.
A spam complaint is recorded when one of your recipients reports your email as spam. Complaint rates are monitored through our system and calculated as a percentage of all the delivered emails for a single campaign.
Industry standard for spam complaints is less than 0.02%. That's about one complaint for every 5,000 recipients.
Spam complaint thresholds are based on industry standards established by internet service providers (ISPs).
Why complaint rates matter
Besides affecting your deliverability, receiving spam complaints also impacts others using this system because it damages our relationships with ISPs, such as Gmail, Outlook, Comcast, AOL.
As an email service provider (ESP) it's our job to stop potential issues which can damage the reputation of our sending IPs, or the application itself. If enough of our customers are reported as spammers, we can be added to blacklists which makes deliverability harder for everyone.
Warning emails
When our system detects higher-than-normal complaint rates for a particular email, it triggers warning emails to be sent:
- First warning: If you send an email that receives more than a 0.2% complaint rate, we'll send an initial warning to let you know which email it is, as well as advice to help you address the situation.
- Second warning: If complaints continue to be received for the same email, we'll contact you again.
- Account suspension: A third email is sent if complaints exceed 0.5%. This is to notify you that your account has been suspended. To appeal the suspension you'll need to contact our compliance team.
We recommend reviewing your email marketing program even after the first warning email because, if complaints do result in account suspension, you'll need to work with our compliance team to help investigate the situation before we can allow you to start sending again.
We understand that even legitimate senders get complaints so, provided you are doing the right thing, don't be alarmed if you get a warning email from us. We're here to help.
Suspension for client-sent emails
We handle complaints a little differently if they're a result of emails your clients have sent. Our system can detect when an email is sent for a client by an account administrator, versus someone with client-level access to your account.
If a client-sent email results in the client being suspended from sending, the suspension will not affect any other clients in your account — the first time.
If another client account is suspended, even if it's years later, your entire account will be suspended, and access for all client-level users will be locked until the issue is resolved.
The reason we handle things this way is to ensure that account administrators are properly educating people who they have given permission to send, or manage lists.
If you use the multi-client version of Campaign Monitor as a white-label reseller, you can share our non-branded help document that covers permission with your clients.
Account access during suspension
During an account suspension you will still be able to log in to your account and access your data, for example, view reports or export subscriber lists, but sending is disabled. This includes sending of journey emails, or transactional emails, which will be paused until your account is reactivated.
If more than one of your clients has been suspended, as mentioned above, all clients will be suspended. Client-level account users will see a generic "account unavailable at the moment" message while the suspension is being reviewed.
Suspension review process
If your account is suspended we will have already emailed you, or the primary contact for your account, with instructions on how to proceed. A suspension does not mean that you are a spammer, but it does indicate significant problems with your email marketing program that need to be addressed.
Here are some things our compliance team will require from you to review the case:
- The email campaign itself, to see if it has a clear relevance to the recipients.
- As much detail as you can provide about the email and the list, or lists, it was sent to. Information about how people opted-in is essential.
- Evidence that you have followed our permission guidelines and Terms of Use. And, if applicable, explained them to your clients.
If you have truly made every effort to follow the rules and have worked with your clients to explain our policies, a we can re-activate accounts in many cases.