1 in 4 report brands’ holiday emails as spam

They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to open your emails anymore.

That’s the message for brands that send promotional emails too frequently and that miss the mark, according to a new report from Validity, an email marketing software company that surveyed 1,000 US adults ages 18 and older in September.

When consumers were asked how they typically manage promotional emails from brands during the holiday season, 1 in 4 said they mark them as spam. Even more unsubscribe (26%) or delete without reading (28%).

Getting reported as spam “should be particularly worrisome for marketers,” because it’s a “negative signal to mailbox providers that jeopardizes future inbox placement,” the report warns.

The risk is that when brands’ spam rates are high, their emails can get diverted not just from the complainants’ inboxes but also from those of others who had no beef with the brands.

For consumers with Gmail, for example, Google warns senders that the “longer you allow high spam rates, the more likely more of your future messages will be sent to spam.”

What’s most likely to prompt respondents to unsubscribe or complain? The biggest trigger, cited by 33% of consumers, is an onslaught of too many emails. Another 16% cited misleading subject lines or “fake urgency.”

As for what could make overwhelmed consumers less inclined to unsubscribe (or worse), more than 1 in 5 respondents (22%) favored an option to decrease the frequency or temporarily snooze the promotional emails.

“Consumers want a volume knob, not an off switch,” the report states. “A snooze option or frequency preference gives them that control—and addresses one of the biggest reasons they disengage, during the holidays and beyond.”