The definition of spam can seem straightforward on the surface, yet it often varies significantly between recipients and senders. What one person considers unwanted junk mail, another might view as a legitimate, targeted outreach. This fundamental difference in perception is a critical aspect of email deliverability.
Understanding both viewpoints is essential for anyone aiming to land their emails in the inbox rather than the junk folder. This article explores these differing definitions and their impact on your email strategy.
The recipient's perspective: Unsolicited and unwanted
From the recipient's perspective, an email is spam primarily if it's unsolicited and unwanted. If they didn't explicitly opt-in to receive communications, or if the content is irrelevant or annoying, they're likely to consider it spam. This subjective view is powerful because recipients' actions, such as marking an email as junk or deleting it without opening, directly influence sender reputation and future inbox placement.
Spamhaus, a leading authority on email threats, states that an electronic message is spam if the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients, and the recipient has not granted verifiable permission for it to be sent. This highlights the importance of consent and relevance in the eyes of the recipient. Even if an email is legally compliant, a recipient's perception of it as spam can significantly impact your sender reputation.
Factors influencing a recipient's definition of spam include:
Consent: Did they sign up for it? Lack of explicit opt-in is a primary indicator of spam.
Relevance: Is the content applicable and useful to them personally?
Frequency: Too many emails, even if subscribed, can lead to annoyance and spam complaints (or blocklisting, which is also sometimes called blacklisting).
Content and tone: Overly promotional, deceptive, or aggressive language can trigger spam filters and recipient frustration.
The sender's perspective: Often misaligned
On the other hand, senders often define spam through a different lens, primarily focusing on legal compliance and their intent. Many legitimate businesses send commercial emails and are careful to adhere to regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S., which sets rules for commercial email, requires messages to include an opt-out mechanism, and specifies requirements for identifying the sender. If an email adheres to these legal frameworks, a sender might not consider it spam, regardless of whether the recipient actually wanted it.
Senders often confuse cold outreach with permission-based marketing. They might genuinely believe their message offers value and is therefore not spam, even if the recipient has no prior relationship or interest. This disconnect is a common pitfall that can lead to high spam complaint rates and low inbox placement.
Key aspects of a sender's definition of spam (or lack thereof) include:
Legal compliance: Adherence to regulations like CAN-SPAM, GDPR, or other regional laws.
Intent: The sender's belief that the email is relevant or beneficial to the recipient.
Data acquisition: Whether the email address was acquired through legitimate means, even if not direct opt-in.
Why the differing views matter for deliverability
The gap between recipient and sender definitions is where email deliverability challenges often arise. Mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo (ISPs) primarily rely on recipient behavior and sophisticated algorithms to determine if an email is spam, rather than solely on the sender's intent or legal adherence. This is why a perfectly legal email can still end up in the spam folder (or on a blocklist).
When recipients mark emails as spam, engage negatively (e.g., deleting without opening), or simply ignore messages, ISPs interpret this as a sign of unwanted mail. This negative engagement significantly hurts your sender reputation and makes it harder for future emails to reach the inbox. It's a key reason why emails go to spam.
Ultimately, the recipient holds the power in defining spam. Even if a sender has followed all legal guidelines, if the recipient perceives the email as junk, it's treated as such by the receiving mailbox provider. This means that a sender's focus should shift from merely not being illegal to being wanted by the recipient. This often involves ensuring proper consent and highly relevant content.
Recipient's focus
Unsolicited: Received without prior request or explicit opt-in.
Unwanted: Irrelevant, annoying, or perceived as junk, leading to negative engagement.
Impact: Directly affects sender reputation and inbox placement through complaints and low engagement.
Sender's focus
Legal compliance: Adherence to laws like CAN-SPAM Act or GDPR.
Intent: Belief that the message is valuable and relevant, even if unsolicited.
Impact: Often overlooks recipient sentiment, leading to deliverability issues.
Legal and technical definitions of spam
While the recipient's definition of spam is paramount for deliverability, it's also important to understand the formal, often technical, definitions. Email service providers (ESPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) use a combination of factors to classify emails. These include checking email authentication protocols like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM, analyzing content for spam trigger words, and evaluating sender reputation based on engagement metrics.
Legal definitions, like those found in the CAN-SPAM Act, primarily focus on commercial messages and outline requirements for senders, such as including a valid physical postal address and a clear way for recipients to opt out. Non-compliance can lead to significant fines. However, legal compliance doesn't guarantee inbox placement, as it doesn't account for recipient engagement or ISP filtering algorithms.
Technical definitions involve the criteria used by spam filters. These systems scrutinize various elements of an email, including its headers, links, images, and attachments, for patterns associated with known spam. They also cross-reference IP addresses and domains against email blocklists (or blacklists). A poor sender reputation, characterized by high complaint rates or low engagement, often results in emails being blocked or sent to the junk folder, regardless of content.
Understanding these multifaceted definitions is crucial. While legal adherence is necessary to avoid penalties, focusing on recipient-centric sending practices is what truly improves deliverability.
Achieving inbox placement
Successfully navigating the complexities of email deliverability requires recognizing that the recipient's definition of spam is the one that ultimately matters most for inbox placement. A sender's intent or legal compliance, while important, will not override a recipient's perception of an unwanted email.
Prioritizing permission-based sending, delivering relevant content, managing sending frequency, and monitoring recipient engagement are all key to ensuring your emails reach their intended destination.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Always obtain explicit consent before sending emails, using double opt-in where possible.
Segment your audience and personalize content to ensure relevance for each recipient.
Monitor your engagement metrics closely: open rates, click-through rates, and especially spam complaint rates.
Common pitfalls
Purchasing email lists, which often contain unengaged recipients and spam traps.
Sending cold emails without a clear, specific, and solicited value proposition.
Using deceptive subject lines or misleading content that doesn't match the email's purpose.
Expert tips
The subjective nature of 'spam' means you must consistently earn and maintain recipient trust.
High engagement signals like opens and clicks can outweigh minor content flags for ISPs.
Focus on building relationships, not just sending messages.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that many fail to comprehend that spam can only be defined by the recipient, never the sender, except when the sender knowingly engages in spamming activities.
2022-07-22 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that inbox providers are increasingly moving towards spam detection methods based on subscriber response, recognizing that the most effective way to identify spam is by observing how humans react to it.
Google and 
Yahoo (ISPs) primarily rely on recipient behavior and sophisticated algorithms to determine if an email is spam, rather than solely on the sender's intent or legal adherence. This is why a perfectly legal email can still end up in the spam folder (or on a blocklist).
