Email Marketing by the Numbers: How to Use the World’s Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level

Are You a Spammer?

By Madeline HubbardEmail Specialist, MindCometBlog: www.emailmarketingvoodoo.com

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 set the tone for legitimate digital communication practices, protecting consumers from unwanted and unwarranted email messages from advertisers, marketers, and pharmaceutical representatives packed into a basement, sending the latest medical advancements (if you get what I mean).

Since then, “making the good list” has become an ongoing battle made even fiercer with the empowerment of consumers to report spam messages. Even the savviest of web marketers can’t avoid the bullets and are becoming branded as spammers. Once you’ve been slapped with the label, it’s time-intensive and costly to reattain the customer. To prevent this event from occurring, you should question your label as a spammer and ask, “How did I end up here?”

While much of what constitutes spam was determined by the CAN-SPAM Act, it is important to realize that the recipient is the ultimate decision maker. Any communication should begin with a documented and traceable agreement to receive messages, known in the email world as the double opt-in. While not required, the “double opt-in” is noted as an email marketing best practice to ensure your list members are who they say they are, and that they have joined your list of their own initiative. The CAN-SPAM Act may only speak to complying with opt-out requests, but opting-in is an absolute way to demonstrate “expressed permission” instead of “implied ...