Email Spam Rules?

Are there actual guidelines for email campaigns? In particular that would not be labeled as unsolicited spam.

Are there such rules?

What have some of you done?

Where did you get your guidance?

Anyone get bitten?

Thanks in advance and welcome any links that help me understand this better.

 

I think the main thing is to make it very clear that they're only receiving the mail because they've registered/opted in at some point. In my case, I include this in my terms when folks sign up with my community. I make sure you have a quick way to opt-out (usually just by emailing me or clicking a link).

I get roughly 3-4 angry emails with each Newsletter sent out, but for the most part they just want the account removed. The main guidelines are don't do it too often, make sure they can get out, and make sure you communicate this. Granted, I will admit I'm only sending to a userbase of ~3,000, but it seems to work.

 

The Can Spam act is the law that carries stateside: The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business

Hope it helps,
Dan

 

I use Constant Contact to create newsletters. Members can easily opt out if desired; plus with the reporting offered I can see what links are being clicked and how many of people actually open the email. The list is pulled from the vB function to create a mail list and anyone that has opted out of email via vB is not even added to the list on Constant Contact. I've sent 3 issues so far about 2 weeks apart, from a user base of just over 1000 only 2 have opted out and 1 person reported the newsletter as spam.

Other reason I use the service include:

My host only allows 500 emails per hour.

The look and feel of the newsletter is more professional in my opinion. I did look at GARS but I wanted a newsletter, not a listing of hot threads and other forum stats.

I've attached a screen cap below of how my first one looked.

 

Thanks for the link on the CAN-SPam law. Something I'm not finding outright is regarding the Opting in part.

For instance, do people have to be presented with the choice of opting-in, like a checkbox? Or do some places auto-opt you in upon making an account (I would assume the ToS must state such?).

Aside from the above, let's say you have Company A, sponsored by Company B. Now, Company A is defunct, closed shop. Can Company B legitimately send email sales spam?

 

I would think it would depend on the user group as a whole. If they were accepting on Company A's newsletter and Company B was able to take over that same list then it would be ok so long as this was mentioned in the first one Company B sent out and there was a simple opt-out mechanism.

 

It all depends on the TOS of company A. If company A's TOS states that we may share your email address with partners (which can mean anything). Then company B is okay to send commerical emails to customers of company A.

It seems most sites don't bother with an opt-in check box they just roll it into their TOS. Etailers (Amazon, NewEgg, etc) seem to follow the checkbox opt-in thing but everyone else, even major corporations send me advertisements/promotions without me ever specifically opting in.

The customer (member) centric way to do it is have the opt-in with a check box. If your looking to just get your mail in front of as many eyeballs as possible roll it into your TOS.

 

In the example I portrayed, trying to be simple, the agreement with the sponsor (B) ended at the time sponsee (A) closed its doors, correct? Ergo, use of those emails (source is A) is now invalid?

Maybe it's right in front of me and I'm still missing it, but most of us have CCs and like you say, the ToS might include --- by virtue of your account expect that affiliates will contact you for services/offers.

I'm expecting that when my CC just closes its doors, those affiliates contacting me also goes away. Not that regardless if the CC is operational or not, that affiliates can do what they please with the emails for solicitation.

Sorry if that was confusing...as its just stream of thought....

 

I don't see why a opt-out is a license to use information from an agreement that is terminated by virtue of A closing doors.

It's like saying...well you can opt out, so whatever. If that was the case, then wouldn't spam emails be even MORE rampant?

In my example, which is funny --- lets say the solicitation had no reference to being a Sponsor of Company A and NO mention of the Newsletter....

I appreciate the feedback here.

 

Not necessarily lots of times 'partners' are just mailing list companies that sell your information to anyone who will pay for it so odds are even if you terminate your relationship with the CC company in question it's quite possible that you will receive solicitations from information garnered from the CC company. Of course there little way to track this as your name/address could've came from from any other company you've done business with; Data mining companies take full advantage of that fact.