As mentioned on MediaPost's Email Insider and elsewhere, the Maine Attorney General's office recently ruled that email addresses of people who contacted various state departments are fair game, that they must be supplied to anybody who submits an inquiry via Maine's Freedom of Access Act.
This means that any sort of advocacy group can petition the state government to provide a list of all the email addresses of people who contacted them on a given topic; and then they would be able to spam those people, to further the advocacy group's goals. BAD NEWS.
Spamhaus blogged about this; click here to read their take on why this is a bad idea. We couldn't agree more with Spamhaus's take on this issue. For our part, we sent a letter to the Maine legislature, looking to explain why we prohibit third-party lists-- any list compiled via this method would clearly NOT be a permission-based email list and we'd clamp down hard on anybody who tried to use a list like that via ExactTarget.
As Morgan Stewart and I explained in our letter, "Allowing advocacy or other groups to obtain email addresses from the Maine state government via a Freedom of Access request allows these groups to build spam lists that will cause harm to internet service providers and end consumers. The owners of those email addresses did not consent to have their email addresses shared with third parties or added to other email lists. Further, recipients of such emails will have to take an affirmative step to unsubscribe from those lists, which adds to the burden of those recipients.
"There is no known legitimate use for email address data in this context other than to compile a non-permission email list and send spam to it. Whether or not the topic of the spam is related to advocacy of something under Maine law is irrelevant; spam is still spam. It is our opinion that there are ample alternate methodologies under which advocacy or other groups may identify and contact Maine residents, without resorting to the most unwanted of email scourges; spam. Please don't enable the sending of spam to Maine residents by allowing their email addresses to be obtained from government agencies."
How about it, dear readers? When you contact somebody in government to provide feedback on an issue or apply for some sort of permit, do you think it's fair that groups can query the government for your email address and be able to add you to a list? And if you're an email marketer, do you really think this is a winning email strategy? Blasting people who didn't sign up for your emails? I sure don't.
This means that any sort of advocacy group can petition the state government to provide a list of all the email addresses of people who contacted them on a given topic; and then they would be able to spam those people, to further the advocacy group's goals. BAD NEWS.
Spamhaus blogged about this; click here to read their take on why this is a bad idea. We couldn't agree more with Spamhaus's take on this issue. For our part, we sent a letter to the Maine legislature, looking to explain why we prohibit third-party lists-- any list compiled via this method would clearly NOT be a permission-based email list and we'd clamp down hard on anybody who tried to use a list like that via ExactTarget.
As Morgan Stewart and I explained in our letter, "Allowing advocacy or other groups to obtain email addresses from the Maine state government via a Freedom of Access request allows these groups to build spam lists that will cause harm to internet service providers and end consumers. The owners of those email addresses did not consent to have their email addresses shared with third parties or added to other email lists. Further, recipients of such emails will have to take an affirmative step to unsubscribe from those lists, which adds to the burden of those recipients.
"There is no known legitimate use for email address data in this context other than to compile a non-permission email list and send spam to it. Whether or not the topic of the spam is related to advocacy of something under Maine law is irrelevant; spam is still spam. It is our opinion that there are ample alternate methodologies under which advocacy or other groups may identify and contact Maine residents, without resorting to the most unwanted of email scourges; spam. Please don't enable the sending of spam to Maine residents by allowing their email addresses to be obtained from government agencies."
How about it, dear readers? When you contact somebody in government to provide feedback on an issue or apply for some sort of permit, do you think it's fair that groups can query the government for your email address and be able to add you to a list? And if you're an email marketer, do you really think this is a winning email strategy? Blasting people who didn't sign up for your emails? I sure don't.
Recently, ExactTarget partnered with 
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If you sell through sales agents or dealers, one of the smartest things you can do to boost email response is to personalize the email by sending it “on behalf” of the customer’s sales rep or account manager.
GLS Companies sends personalized email on behalf of each sales agent to people they meet at trade shows. The Integrated Communication Solutions (SM) company also uses personalized email to nurture leads. 
Chad White was trained as a journalist and is the author and researcher behind the independent blog mentioned most frequently in our survey of go-to email marketing resources. Chad follows approximately 100 retailers at any time and looks at ALL of their email. Moreover, he has been doing this since 2006—he has definitely seen his fair share of email. His blog provides a virtual play-by-play of what retail email marketers are sending, from his “Subjectivity Scanner” posts where he recaps subject lines people are using, to who’s trying new stuff like embedded video or social media integration. If you are looking for examples with some insightful commentary, this is the place to go.
Mark Brownlow is a writer and academic type. In his own words, “Email Marketing Reports entered life in November 2001 because I was tired of decent folk sending spam because nobody helped them learn the basics of legitimate email marketing.” His blog is dedicated to education. His articles consistently provide a balanced view of hot topics in the email industry and while he often references other sites, articles and studies, he can always be trusted to the appropriate context before sending readers off to another site
Tamara Gielen (collaborator on the study) is the author behind BeRelevant! Currently an independent email marketing consultant, Tamara has been a email practitioner for years having worked client side for Cognos and eBay, and agency side for OgilvyOne. Tamara started the blog as a tool for her to keep track of articles and topics she found useful in her own work and the blog has the same feel today. Most of her posts are lists of articles, tools, studies, and any other resources you could imagine on email marketing. Consider this blog a filter for articles worth reading.
Jason Baer has been working in digital marketing since 1994 and was the founder of Mighty Interactive. The consummate entrepreneur, Jason is at it again as the founder of Convince & Convert, now a year old. Convince & Convert’s tagline is “social media and email consulting,” so while he focuses on social media first, don’t let that (nor his 6,000+ Twitter followers) lead you to believe he has moved on from email. His blog focuses on using technology to build community and he consistently provides sound advice on how to incorporate email into that process.
Smith-Harmon is an agency based in Seattle, WA dedicated to email marketing. They also happen to employ Chad White—so the Smith-Harmon crew is a deep well of expertise in email marketing. Their blog highlights different emails that catch their eye and typically focuses on the creative and aesthetic aspects of email. Even so, there is always an eye on the messages intent and execution. In short, the blog represents the personalities of the agencies founders, Lisa Harmon—the email industries queen of fashion, and Aaron Smith—the technical guy, but hardly a techie when it comes to style. 
Gary Slack, Vice Chairman of the BMA, reports the national BMA conference, June 10-12 in Chicago, is SOLD OUT and that a wait list is now open. http://www.marketing.org/waitlist. 
On Thursday morning, June 11th, I have the pleasure of leading a terrific session titled, Best Practices in Digital Direct Marketing, which will feature two 
Sallie and Dave will take you inside their company’s email communications strategies and provide practical advice on how to design and execute email programs that deliver bottom-line business impact.
Dear fellow Reseller Partners,
Welcome to the ExactTarget Partner Blog. With content exclusively for the ExactTarget Partner community, it’s your place for the latest news, information, best practices, and to share customer success stories.
If you want to see a great example of how a Midwest retail chain uses email marketing to drive store traffic and keep customers loyal to their brand, plan to join me on April 1st for a very special webinar featuring Cara Olson from 
Several ExactTarget clients and partners will be speaking at 
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