Creating an email newsletter is hard work and so is ensuring that the content meets the expectation of the readers.
It can be even harder to gain an audience that is interested and engaged. So, when the list is inflated with spam sign-ups — bots using fake email addresses, it can be problematic.
To understand how to protect your brand’s email marketing efforts and audience list against bot sign-ups, you must first understand what a spambot is.
Once you have this understanding, then the next step is to learn how to protect the business against these submissions.
What Are Spambots?
A spambot is a computer program designed to find and complete sign-up forms with false information and email addresses.
At the surface level, a spam sign-up may not seem like it can hurt because it’s assumed to be a fake email address.
But that isn’t necessarily the case.
Spambots can use email addresses that are either fake or real — but collected without the owners’ consent or knowledge.
This can be detrimental to the campaign or audience list used by your business.
But what should you look for?
An unexpectedly high number of sign-ups — multiple subscriptions within a short period of time, can indicate spambot sign-ups.
Email addresses with suspicious location data can be another indication of a spam sign-up. Look for addresses with an IP address associated with a country or area other than what was indicated on the submission.
How Spambots Hurt Email Campaigns
Whether it’s a legitimate email address or a spambot, it can have an impact on the brand’s email outreach, domain reputation, and marketing efforts.
Email Delivery
A person who receives an unwanted email or an email from a business they are not familiar with are likely to hit the spam button — as opposed to opening the email and clicking unsubscribe.
This can cause issues for the email list if a spambot has submitted a legitimate email address.
As spam complaints increase, so too does the chances of the business’ domain or IP address becoming blocked by a mail provider — like Outlook or Gmail.
If a spambot has used a fake email address, the email campaign will encounter what is known as a hard bounce — an email that is undeliverable.
As this percentage of hard bounces increases, the chances of the domain or IP address becoming blacklisted — a domain or IP address known for sending spam emails, increases rapidly.
Becoming blocked or blacklisted will cause serious damage to any email campaign and should be avoided.
Campaign Metrics
If there is any amount of illegitimate email addresses or spam complaints associated with a campaign, it can hurt the overall metrics of the campaign as the open rates and click-through rates (CTR) suffer.
A decrease in these metrics can cause business owners or brand managers to question the marketing campaign, strategy, or content of the email. A true nightmare for brands and marketers alike.
In actuality, the real audience members could be quite happy with the overall subject matter of the campaigns. But the percentage of engagement could look lower than it truly is.
So, it doesn’t necessarily mean the campaign or email marketing strategy needs a complete overhaul.
How to Protect Your List & Prevent Spam Sign-ups
Understanding the damage spambots can cause an email marketing campaign is only half the battle. Discover how to protect the business’ email campaigns by preventing spam sign-ups.
reCAPTCHA-Enabled Sign-Up
Although users appreciate the simplicity of one-step actions, including a reCAPTCHA verification is essential.
reCAPTCHA is a system that allows web hosts to distinguish between human submissions and spam submissions.
For business owners, this additional step acts as a quick and simple defense against spambots, therefore protecting the integrity of the email marketing campaign.
Double Opt-In Method
A double opt-in method for new subscribers can be used in addition to or instead of a reCAPTCHA verification.
Spambots won’t follow the confirmation link found in an email — if the email is even delivered, therefore determining the submission was not legitimate.
The double opt-in method also helps to ensure the email list consists of people who are genuinely interested in the brand and content.
Honeypot Fields
A honeypot field is an additional box on a subscription form that isn’t visible to humans but is detected by spambots.
A spambot will automatically check or fill in the box as it was designed to complete each field of a form.
By doing so, the spambot becomes trapped, unable to complete the form submission.
Remove Spambot Sign-Ups
If you don’t have these preventative measures in place, then there are more than likely a few fake email addresses on the company’s email list.
But considering the negative effects that spambots can have on an email campaign’s performance, ensuring illegitimate email addresses are extinguished from an email marketing list is essential.
This can be a difficult — and time-consuming, task to undertake especially for someone who isn’t confident in what they’re looking at.
To make things easier, business owners are encouraged to work with a team who understands the importance of email marketing and protecting the brand — particularly through quality web development.
An experienced team with web development services can create safe, functional forms that are spambot-proof so your campaigns see real results and remain undisturbed by fake users.
Contact Elevation Ten Thousand today to discover how we can regain control of your email marketing lists and help to increase the success of the campaigns.
