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Spam signups can clutter your database, disrupt your marketing efforts, and even impact your email deliverability. Especially since Google, Yahoo and others have made their latest changes combating spam emails. As businesses strive to engage genuinely interested customers, preventing these unwelcome entries becomes crucial. If you're facing a surge in spam signups on your website's newsletter form, here are a few strategies to help you secure your sign-up processes and maintain the integrity of your email marketing campaigns.
Spam signups are typically generated by bots that automatically fill out forms on the internet with irrelevant or malicious data. However, they can also come from individuals seeking to exploit system vulnerabilities or gain unauthorised access. Identifying the source of your spam entries is the first step in effectively combating them.
One of the most common and effective methods to reduce spam entries is integrating CAPTCHA technology into your signup forms. CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) requires users to perform a task that a bot would find difficult to complete. This could be identifying distorted text, solving a simple math problem, or selecting specific images from a grid.
A double opt-in process not only helps in reducing spam but also ensures that your subscribers genuinely want to receive your newsletters. After filling out the signup form, subscribers receive an email with a link to confirm their subscription. This extra step verifies that the email address is valid and that the owner of the email address has intentionally subscribed. If you’re using an email marketing software such as MailChimp or Klaviyo most of these with have allow you to set this up with a simple click of a button.
A honeypot is a hidden field on your form that is invisible to human users but visible to bots. Since bots tend to fill in every field, they will fill out the honeypot field as well, allowing you to easily identify and filter out these responses. Make sure this field is hidden in a way that it doesn't affect the user experience for human visitors.
Email verification tools check the validity of the email addresses submitted on your signup forms in real-time. By ensuring that only legitimate email addresses are accepted, you can significantly reduce the amount of spam and improve the quality of your marketing engagements.
Modifying your form settings can also help reduce spam:
Stay proactive by regularly reviewing the effectiveness of your anti-spam measures and adjusting them as needed. New types of bots and spam techniques are continually emerging, so keeping your defences updated is crucial.
Reducing spam signups is essential for maintaining clean data, ensuring effective audience engagement, and protecting your website from potential harm. By implementing these strategies, you can significantly decrease the number of spam signups and focus on building relationships with your real users.
At Glass House Marketing, we understand the challenges that come with digital marketing and are here to help you streamline your processes and secure your online platforms. If you need assistance implementing these strategies or improving your overall digital marketing tactics, contact us today for expert help!