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FIB - Scams 101 - Ye Olde Archives
Posted By: Sandi Moses In Response To: ...but in order to read the article, you have to sign up... (Mel. White)
Tuesday, 7 June 2005, at 11:42 a.m.
(Bits & Pieces)
Topic: The Impact of SPAM on Email Marketing - We
investigate the new CAN-SPAM law and find how one major
retailer risked a minimum $41,500 fine just by sending
holiday emails to its customers.
We recently released the audio recording of our clinic on
this topic. You can listen to a recording of this clinic
here:
Windows Media Audio:
http://meclabs.com/cgi-bin/pl/pl.cgi?cvw
RealMedia:
http://meclabs.com/cgi-bin/pl/pl.cgi?cvr
This research brief will answer the following questions:
...
FINDINGS
________________________________________________________
1. How much are you risking when you send a marketing email?
Not all SPAM comes from criminals in some abandoned
warehouse. During the course of our research we came across
a U.S. retailer who had unknowingly received more than 80
SPAM complaints in the past three months. They were simply
sending periodic specials and updates to their past
customers.
...
Potential Fine $10,000 $10,500 $21,000 $41,500
Risk Per Click $24.87 $14.90 $22.80 $20.47
-----------------------------------------------------------
***> What You Need to Understand: This U.S. retailer
received over 80 SPAM complaints in the last three months.
The most alarming factor in these campaigns was the automatic
$41,500 in state fines that could have been imposed by the
State of Florida if these 83 SPAM complaints had all been
pursued.
...
Each state has adopted its own legislation to handle SPAM.
But to give an idea of the potential risk, imagine that you
SPAM someone in Michigan and the font size of your
unsubscribe instructions is smaller than the main body of
your message.
Use our free SPAM fine calculator to see what your maximum
fine could be:
http://www.marketplacesnapshot.com/spamfine.xls
...
***> What You Need to Understand: On average 68% of all
email our test groups received was SPAM.
...
***> What You Need to Understand: Illegal prescription drug
offers, pornography, and product offers made up 47% of all
of the SPAM our test groups received.
...
We offer a number of tips on complying with CAN-SPAM in the
next section. The full legislation is available here:
http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html
The FTC website also provides a number of resources for
becoming CAN-SPAM compliant:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm
....
It is
important to be CAN-SPAM compliant to improve email marketing
effectiveness as well as to avoid significant financial
penalties and even prison. In addition to federal law, most
states have enacted their own legislation and automatic
penalties for spammers.
4. How can you improve your email marketing and avoid sending
SPAM to your customer base?
1. Be Aware of Filters...
2. Get Unambiguous Permission...
3. Get Good Subscriber Addresses...
4. Maintain Your List...
5. Plan Your Message Format...
...
Plain Text vs. HTML Email Deliverability
...
***> What You Need to Understand: HTML email gets
rejected by ISPs and SPAM filters twice as often as
plain-text email....
6. Send Legitimate Content...
...
Website URLs: Research potential newsletter advertisers
before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter
issues. If they have used their website URL to send
SPAM, just having their URL appear in your newsletter
could cause the entire message to be blocked or
filtered.
...
7. Make Sure You Are CAN-SPAM Compliant
Anne Mitchell is CEO of the Institute for SPAM and
Internet Public Policy . Anne was
kind enough to provide a quick outline for email
marketers who want to make sure they are CAN-SPAM
compliant:
a. There must be a way for the recipient to opt-out
permanently from your list. ...
b. While a user does not specifically need to "opt in"
to your list, you may not send email to lists you
purchased, stole, or compiled unethically. In other
words, only contact your customers or those who have
specifically requested information....
c. You must include a physical mailing address (street
address) in every email message indicating who you
are and how you can be contacted....
d. If the email is an advertisement, it must be clearly
marked as such,...
e. Sexually orientated material must be clearly marked
as such in the subject line....
f. You may not mask where your email is being sent from....
...have your legal
counsel review the full legislation here:
http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html
8. Join a Reputation Service
...Several
reputation services are:
http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
http://www.bondedsender.com
http://www.habeas.com
9. Get on the Whitelists
(Most of this article was edited out, so if it affects you, it would be a good idea to read the full article linked in Sandi's original post.... Luv, MaaMaw)
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