Spam
Black hat. Against platform rules or the law. Risks bans, fines and your reputation.
What is spam?
Spam is unwanted, unsolicited messaging sent in bulk or without regard for whether it is relevant to the recipient. It covers email, social media comments and DMs, forum and Reddit posts, text messages and fake reviews.
What separates outreach from spam is relevance, honesty and consent: a short, personal message to a well-chosen person with an easy way to opt out is outreach; the same message blasted to thousands of scraped addresses is spam.
Why spam matters
Spam filters, platform moderation and laws all target it. Beyond the penalties, spam teaches your audience to ignore or resent your brand.
Risks of spam
- Messages blocked or sent to the junk folder, and a damaged sending domain.
- Account bans on social platforms and communities.
- Fines under laws such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR.
How to avoid being treated as spam
- Contact people who plausibly need what you offer, and say why you are writing to them.
- Identify yourself honestly and include an easy opt-out in commercial email.
- Keep volumes modest and verify addresses before sending.
- Follow each community’s self-promotion rules.
- Never send from purchased lists or post the same message across many places.
Related marketing terms
Cold emailWhite hat
A cold email is a first message sent to someone you have no prior relationship with, to start a business conversation. It must follow anti-spam law.
CAN-SPAM ActWhite hat
The CAN-SPAM Act is the US law on commercial email: honest headers and subjects, a physical address and a working, honoured opt-out.
Email deliverability is how reliably your emails reach the inbox rather than spam, shaped by authentication, reputation and content.
Comment spamBlack hat
Comment spam is posting promotional or irrelevant comments, often links, on posts, videos, blogs and forums, usually at scale or by bots.
Buying email listsGrey hat
Buying email lists means purchasing contact data from a vendor to email people who never heard of you. It is legal in places and risky everywhere.
Spam traps are email addresses used to catch senders with poor list practices. Hitting them can damage your domain’s sending reputation.