CAN-SPAM Compliant

If you’ve recently implemented a marketing automation system, or are thinking about doing so in the near future, then you’re probably ready to start dazzling your email recipients with highly targeted email communications, measuring and reporting on marketing campaign effectiveness, and automating tedious manual tasks like lead assignment. But first, let’s go through a few marketing automation dos and don’t — you don’t want to risk jumping in too quickly now, do you?

Before we get to all the great things you can and should be doing with your marketing automation system, let’s get a few of...

A friendly agency client of ours dropped the team a note today, explaining that when they reached out to Hotmail regarding a client's blocking issues, Hotmail's response included a recommendation that the sender enroll in the JRMP program. What is that, the client asked? Are we enrolled?

JMRP stands for "Junk Mail Reporting Program" and this is just the name Microsoft uses for their feedback loop mechanism. An ISP feedback loop, if you weren't already aware, is the mechanism by which an email is reported back to the sender (or the sender's email service provider) when an ISP user clicks the...

The ExactTarget team invites you to participate in our #ETCafe Twitter chat every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ExactTarget. 

Maybe, maybe not. Return Path has posted their speculation on where they think things are heading, timeline-wise. It's worth checking out. But, do keep in mind that it's basically just a best guess right now.

Of course, even if it is delayed, now is still a good time to ensure that your email marketing efforts are in compliance with the new law. Check out ExactTarget's CASL whitepaper for more details.

About 18 months ago, I blogged about some impending changes to cookie laws in the EU, and potential ramifications for marketers. As it turns out, those laws didn't cause the world to end, some Governmental sites weren't even compliant, and to this date I do not believe the legislation has been truly enforced on any individual or organisation.

That being said, the latest proposed updates to the EU Data Protection Regulations have potentially much more widespread impact for all marketing, and indeed any company which handles or processes customer data.

If the legislation were to be passed in its...

As mentioned elsewhere, US-based internet service provider Earthlink is now allowing email services providers back into their email feedback loop (FBL), something that hasn't been available to ESPs or their clients for many years now. We've now submitted all of our ranges and Earthlink has confirmed their addition to their feedback loop.

For ExactTarget clients, this means that now when an Earthlink user reports your mail as spam, that report will be sent back to us, allowing us to log it for compliance and tracking purposes, and ensure that the recipient will be unsubscribed.

Recently, we have received an inceasing number of questions about the identification requirements found in the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL). Usually the question relates to whether our clients are required to identify ExactTarget in emails they send to Canada, and if so, how they should go about doing so. Fortunately, this is a question we’ve seen before and one that has recently been clarified.

In May 2011, Al Iverson wrote to Shaun Brown of Canadian law firm nNovation LLP. Shaun’s full answer is very instructive, but the short version is:

"It is my personal view that ESPs, ad agencies, etc....

Earlier this year, I told you that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) had issued final regulations regarding its part of implementing Canada’s new anti-spam law (CASL). The CRTC issued two new, additional sets of guidelines regarding those rules on October 10, 2012. If you haven’t read the previous post concerning those requirements, you should probably read that first (and even if you have, you might want to review it before continuing).

In “Compliance and Enforcement Information Bulletin CRTC 2012-548,” the CRTC sets out guidelines regarding who and what...

What do I need to know BEFORE I invite people to opt in to my SMS program?  When do I need to put “Msg & data rates may apply” in my text messages?  Who makes the rules and who enforces them?  What happens if I don’t follow them?  Read on for the answers to these fascinating questions and more.

Who developed the SMS marketing standards?

The Consumer Best Practices were developed by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and served as the first set of regulations.  Since enforcement is the responsibility of the CTIA, they have subsequently developed the CSC Monitoring Compliance Handbook. 

Who...

The delivery rate you see in your email service provider’s UI only tells half the story. You may be sending with a 99% delivered rate but what that means is that your email messages were handed off to a receiver without a bounce response – what that receiver, usually an Internet service provider (ISP) actually does with the email when they receive it is perhaps the most important aspect which most marketers tend to take for granted.

When I talk about the topic of deliverability, I am always keen to stress that true deliverability is about making sure you as a marketer follow best practices as a...

The ExactTarget team invites you to participate in our #NexusCafe Twitter chat this Thursday  and every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ETNexus. Follow the #NexusCafe hashtag in your favorite Twitter application and be sure and add the hashtag to your tweet to participate. The person with the best tweets wins a Starbucks gift card! 

Our guest for this week's #NexusCafe chat is Stephanie DeWitt, Corporate Email Marketing Strategist at...

Canada's new anti-spam law is on the horizon. Expected to take effect in early 2013, the law mandates opt-in permission for email marketing lists and potentially affects US-based senders just as much as it impacted Canadian companies. (Do you know for sure that none of your subscribers are based in Canada?) NOW is the time to review your marketing practices and ensure you're able to remain in compliance and avoid legal liability.

Forward to a friend campaigns are a popular means of spreading the word about a product or service. They're also very tricky ground to tread with some hidden dangers.

There are two issues that surround responsibility for forward to a friend messages: (1) content and (2) consideration. As Al Iverson briefly notes, the FTC has gone after senders who did not allow their customer to control substantially all of the content of the message that was to be "forwarded" in their name.

An issue that has come up several times recently, though, involves the concept of consideration for sending the message...

The Cassels Brock Report has reported that Canada's new anti-spam law isn't expected to come into effect until 2013.

They quote the Canadian Minister of Industry as saying in a speech given on April 24, 2012, that they expect the law “to take effect next year”. Part of the hold up, of course is that we still don’t have the final regulations from Industry Canada. They could come out any time now, but given this development, I think that Industry Canada is taking its time about things so we might be in for a longer wait.

Keep checking back as our email deliverability team continues to monitor this...

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) released the final form of its regulations on March 5, 2012. You can see them for yourself in the Canada Gazette (Canada’s version of the United States’ Federal Register). They are printed in the March 28, 2012 edition. This version is not a call for comments, but rather the release of the actual rules after considering the comments made in response to their prior “Call for comments on draft Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations” which was released last July.

These regulations are not much different than the...

We're beginning our new blog post series of answering your follow-up questions on Canada's new Anti-Spam Law (CASL). Today, I'll answer this question: For financial institutions, is there always implied consent provided the lead continues to be a customer?

There's an allowance under the law for an assumption of permission allowing you to mail existing customers. However, that exemption expires after a period of time, so you've got to track these subscribers in a way where you're able to expire them out after a period of time. Instead of doing that, our recommendation is to just ask for...

1. Create Brand Synergy. Utilize your current brand elements to create a cohesive online brand experience.
2. Watch your Image and Text ratio. Images may look aesthetically pleasing, but too many divert attention from your message and may cause your email to be too large for and blocked from some email clients. Images should balance and complement your text content.
3. Use Tables. For consistent display and better control of your email layout,...