What can I do if I am locked out?

You have collected contacts, created an appealing emailing with the help of the templates, and then comes the disappointment: A warning appears at the edge of your screen, alerting you to a sending limit. In this article, you will learn what you can do in such a case and how to avoid this situation in the future.

Why am I locked out?

Exceeding the following criteria may lead to a temporary limitation or blocking of access to IONOS Email Marketing . The specified limits refer to the total transmission volume of a campaign.

Criterion	Allowable limit	Explanation
Undeliverable emails	≤ 8%	Emails that come back from the addressed recipient because the email address does not exist or is inactive.
Unsubscriptions	≤ 1%	Recipients who unsubscribe from recipient lists
Blocked emails	≤ 30%	Sending to email addresses marked as blocked where it was already determined in a previous campaign that delivery is not possible because the email address no longer exists or is inactive.
Spam Complaints	≤ 0.08%, but max. 50 spam complaints per day	Emails manually reported as spam by the recipient.
Spam Trap Hits & Abuse Complaints	≤1 Complaint	Email Providers (ISP/ESP) use certain email addresses as spam traps (for example, email addresses that have not been used for a very long time). This allows them to identify senders who are using outdated lists or lists purchased from third party vendors. A hit is an email that was sent to such a spam trap.

Questions in the event of suspensions

IONOS Customer Service is your first point of contact in the event of suspensions. The customer service representative will ask you a number of questions. It is a good idea to deal with the following questions beforehand:

How were the addresses in your contact list collected?
Provide a detailed overview of all the ways in which an email address can be added to your list. Make sure that you have captured the URL for your online collection sources.
When and how was the email address that complained added to your contact list?
Provide as much detail as possible, including the date and timestamp of the subscription and how it was received, e.g., through your website's subscription page, a third party, in person, etc. If the address was obtained using an online method, please provide the URL of the subscription source.
How do you maintain your contact list?
How often do you remove spam complaints, bounces and unsubscriptions from your list?
What targeting do you use in your campaigns?
For example, do you only target active subscribers who have subscribed or clicked on one of your emails within the last 6 months?

How to improve your reputation

Remove role addresses, or role accounts:
Role addresses, e.g. info@, contact@, admin@, are email addresses that are not used by a single person but by a team, group, or department. Sending to role addresses is problematic because most recipients probably never gave their consent to receive your email. There is therefore a high probability that your email will be marked as spam.
Do not use third-party lists:
IONOS does not allow the use of third-party contact lists. Such lists result in many unsubscriptions, bounce messages and spam complaints, as they are not based on approval lists and very often contain spam traps. In addition, the use of third-party lists or purchased lists is prohibited by law in most countries.
Remove unused email addresses:
If you have not sent communications to a contact list for many months, you risk higher response rates due to invalid email addresses and you risk spam complaints because recipients forget to unsubscribe from your mailing list. Remove all unused contacts that are older than 6 months If you want to contact these subscribers again, send a short re-confirmation email and start a new contact list.
Manage inactive subscribers:
To maintain a high quality contact list, it is important to regularly check open and click rates and take action on inactive subscribers.