Proof that CAN-SPAM is working - NOT!
Nothing raises my blood pressure like seeing people who’ve opted into one of my lists on Aweber complain “SPAM”!
My sense of right and wrong sometimes gets me – and I’ve been known to spend the better part of an afternoon tracking someone down for making an erroneous (and it should damned well be illegal) SPAM complaint.
Major waste of time but that’s how I’m wired.
Single optin, double optin – it doesn’t matter. (Have you ever heard me say that double opt-in is a sham? Don’t do it unless you use it as a device to your advantage. It has no bearing on complaints, at all.)
Selling something, not selling anything – it doesn’t matter.
I’ve tried a variety of tactics and this is what I found to cut complaints to about 1/3rd -
Just add this to the bottom of your message (this is Aweber, but any good AR service should offer this – just change the variables), above the unsubscribe link:
You joined our list using email address: {!email}
From IP address: {!add_ip}
On: {!signdate long}
Reasoning with people doesn’t work – facts, apparently, do. Aweber offers a number of these variables – including region and country codes – that you can include.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve noticed that too. I think it might be people who get on a list on impulse and then can’t remember or they’re having a bad day and do that to vent. Some people don’t scroll down far enough to see that but whatever helps is good.
I’ve also seen a couple of people add a message right at the beginning saying something like: “You are receiving this email because either you or someone else who knows your email requested it. If you don’t want to get any emails from us there is a link at the bottom of this message to opt out”
Maybe that’s a buzz killer but I guess these list owners experienced the same as you and would rather have untargeted leads go away and have a smaller list than get dumb spam complaints.
Also, as far as the single or double optin thing ‘I’ve read’ that you can go single optin with Aweber but once you go double optin you can’t go back to single optin. So, maybe it’s better to stay at single optin anyway.
I was single opt in for the most part on Aweber, but my spam complaints were always in the region of 0.10% to 0.20%, and eventually Aweber forced me to move those lists to double opt in.
Didn’t make a stitch of difference to the % of complains, of course, but I guess it made them feel better.
I also added a message something like the ones mentioned already close to the top of my broadcasts (NOT the regularly scheduled emails, as those don’t seem to be as big of a deal for some reason, or at least I never see complaint stats reported on those).
Recently however, I did a rather big change on the PPC front, eliminating a lot of lower qualified leads. I was getting tons of these leads, and although they were buying, it was more of a breakeven thing. I killed that particular segment, reducing PPC to only the most targeted leads, and now, a month later, I’m finally seeing my Aweber spam stats well under 0.10%, consistently.
Kind of interesting eh?
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