Five years of spam reports - then, nothing...

Good Morning {{first_name}}!

It’s Fri(yay) - and that means it’s time for your Revenue Play - an issue where I share some real stories from real ecosystems.

Here’s a fun one that has to do with spam reports.

I once worked with a company with a 50,000-person list. They continued to mass-send, and the spam reports piled up while no one was paying attention.

Let’s dive in.

A couple of years ago, a company shared their list. It was 50,000+ contacts with zero segmentation. Diluted audiences and a variety of messages. I mean, it was the definition of mess.

The spam reports were shocking. They were some of the highest I’ve ever seen in my career. The answer was obvious. They had to stop sending immediately and reevaluate their strategy.

There were three major problems:

Not targeted, segmented, and easily digestible based on what people wanted. Nope, just everything into a mess of a send.

Step one became suppressing non-engagers, which immediately cut a huge number of readers. Client wasn’t thrilled, but sometimes the truth hurts.

That alone improved the metrics.

Rather than sending a long email that tried to capture both audiences at once, the next suggestion was to split up the content to match the audience and segment the audience on the back end to ensure only the right people got the right message.

No fancy automation needed. Just a pure understanding of subscriber needs.

A lead comes in on Instagram. Another on Messenger. Three more on SMS.

Your team switches tabs, repeats answers, and loses context while hot leads wait hours for replies. At 2am, nobody responds at all.

That’s not a people problem. It’s a process problem.

Wati brings Instagram DM, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, and web chat into one AI-powered inbox. Automations instantly respond, qualify leads, and route conversations to the right person, 24/7.

Your team stops firefighting. Your leads stop waiting. Your pipeline starts moving.

See How Wati Works

This was clearly a winner. The first send after the cleanup came back with zero spam reports. It was a huge win!

Metrics across the board came in above where they had been sitting for years. That 60% we suppressed isn't gone forever either. It's now a warm reactivation list waiting for the right moment.

Most teams only look at spam complaint rates when something has already gone wrong. Add it to your monthly reporting now, before it becomes a five-year problem. Google's threshold is 0.1%, and one complaint per thousand sends. If you are not tracking it, you do not know where you stand.

TL;DR

A clean list beats a big list. Every time. This week, a client asked me how we could double the email list. I had to remind him again - it’s really not a numbers game the way you think. Smaller is always better if the quality is there.

Need ideas for an email strategy that could potentially replicate this win here? Email me at [email protected] and let’s talk!