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• Guidelines

E-mail Marketing

Guidelines

While the CAN-SPAM laws are a step in the right direction for reducing the spam problem, we don't feel they go far enough. Our definition of spam goes beyond the laws in most countries and encompasses what we believe to be true permission email marketing.

Spam is any email you send to someone who hasn't given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.

But that's not enough. Permission is a fuzzy word open to interpretation. Let's get into some specific scenarios so it's clear what does and doesn't constitute permission.

What kind of email addresses are OK to send to with Our System?

To send email to anyone, you must have clearly obtained their permission. This could be done through:

• An email newsletter subscribe form on your web site.
• An opt-in checkbox on a form. This checkbox must not be checked by default, the person completing the form must willingly select the checkbox to indicate they want to hear from you.
• If someone completes an offline form like a survey or enters a competition, you can only contact them if it was explained to them that they would be contacted by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like to be contacted.
• Customers who have purchased from you within the last 2 years.
• If someone gives you their business card and you have explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them. If they dropped their business card in a fishbowl at a trade show, there must be a sign indicating they will be contacted by email.

Basically, you can only ever email anyone who has clearly given you permission to email them specifically about the subject you're contacting them about.

Anything outside the examples above doesn't equal permission in our eyes, but here are some examples to make sure we're crystal clear. By using our system, you agree not to import or send to any email address which:

• You do not have explicit, provable permission to contact in relation to the topic of the email you're sending.
• You bought, loaned, rented or in any way acquired from a third party, no matter what they claim about quality or permission. You need to obtain permission yourself.
• You haven't contacted via email in the last 2 years. Permission doesn't age well and these people have either changed email address or won't remember giving their permission in the first place.
• You scraped or copy and pasted from the web. Just because people publish their email address doesn't mean they want to hear from you.

Sure, some of these people might have given you their email address, but what's missing is your permission to email them commercial messages. Blasting promotional emails to any of these people won't be effective and will more than likely see your email marked as spam by many of your recipients.