Q: “My list is totally opt-in, yet my campaign reports show that 11 people reported me for spamming them. What gives?”

A: In your MailChimp campaign stats, you’ll see the number of people who complained about your email (by clicking on the “Report Spam” button in their email program). That number comes from MailChimp’s integration with major ISP feedback loops, like Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft Hotmail/MSN, Outblaze, Roadrunner, Comcast, and more. It’s not uncommon for subscribers who requested email from you to still report you for spamming.

There are a few reasons this could be happening…

1. They forgot you.
Did you wait too long in between collecting emails and sending your campaign? If so, some of your recipients may have just forgotten who you are.

2. They didn’t recognize you.
Was the from-name in your  email campaign instantly recognizable? Did you use the company name that they saw when they subscribed on your website? You didn’t change branding, did you? If your company name is “Acme Food Services”did you use “AFS” and assume they’d recognize that in their inbox? Was your company logo visible in the preview pane of their email program (see our Inbox Inspection tool)?

3.  Did you set proper expectations?
When people signed up for your list, were they expecting something different than what you sent them? Were they expecting a different frequency, perhaps?

4. Was the list truly “opt-in”?
Some people say, “but my list is opt-in” but what they mean is, “but I bought this list from a source who claims this list is opt-in.” If they didn’t request emails specifically from you, that’s not what we mean by “opt-in” and you totally deserve those spam complaints.