There’s are just a few simple requirements to not be spam:
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opt-in checkbox that clearly indicates it is for receiving marketing emails. No pre-checked boxes. Double opt-in if you really care about not being perceived as spam (have the user click a link in an email to confirm they meant to subscribe).
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Unsubscribe link in every email. You should have one list of subscribers and unsubscribe should mean that your company never sends another marketing email to that person. I’ve seen companies put my email address on multiple lists at sign up and unsubscribe only removes me from one which is clear cut spam.
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Transactional emails separate from marketing emails. Receipts, shipping notifications, invoices, etc should not have any mention of sales, discounts, coupons, or any marketing whatsoever.
If you think about it, all of these are common sense. Going against them is just going against your customers wishes, and isn’t a company’s job to fulfill their customer’s wishes? Bonus ways to be a good email citizen: include an actual reply address with all your emails, transactional and marketing. Email is a two way street and customers should be able to just hit reply on an email and talk to you directly. Don’t use “no-reply” email addresses ever. And lastly, if you can, remove people who don’t interact with your emails from the list. I’m not even sure if that’s a feature on any major email provider, but I have heard of at least one company doing it, so it is technically possible.
Unless they think you’re worthy, i.e. smarter, hard-working, whatever. Truth is, none of us are that much smarter than another, but the people you’re close to know personally the dumb stuff you’ve done, so they see an idiot with some success and get jealous and angry about how unfair it is, especially if they’ve wanted or tried to do their own thing in the past