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At the Northpole (.com) you can write Santa a letter. He will write you back. It is that simple.
This IS an example of permission. It is an opt-in situation where Santa
asks the web site visitor to give permission to be sent an e-mail. In return,
the visitor will obviously get what he wants for Christmas!
Permission-based e-mail is an efficient, effective, and legal direct marketing strategy. On the other hand, unsolicited
commercial e-mail has finally acquired a definition that in the eyes of
the federal legislature makes it illegal, and the President will likely sign
that bill into law soon. What does it mean? PERMISSION-BASED SUBSCRIBER LISTS
Things have changed over the last year, and the rules and guidelines associated
with commercial e-mail are increasingly more defined. Now is the time to review all of your client lists out of necessity.
In order to retain the excellent deliverability status that the best electronic
marketing programs currently enjoy, these programs are going the extra distance
in ensuring their e-mail messages are not perceived to be junk. LAW
You have likely heard over the course of the fall how the rules and regulations
for successful commercial e-mail have been changing. The December version
of the law is titled the "CAN-SP*M Act of 2003(S. 877). The law is very clear at this point, and is fairly simple. If you send commercial e-mail:
- The law is that you need to have "Opt-o*t instructions;"
- The law is that you need to include the sender's "physical address;"
- The law prohibits use of deceptive subject lines and false headers;
- The law is that addresses are not the result of harvesting.
- This federal law will override the recent state law enacted in California.
Please review the Summary of CAN-SP*M Act and contact your attorney if you have questions. BEST PRACTICES
However, the success of e-mail programs really lies more in perception than in the law.
Here is what's happening: The Internet Services Providers such as AOL,
MSN, Hotmail, NetINS, etc., are more or less governing deliverability. Their
goal is to reduce the amount of junk mail delivered to their end-users.
At the same time, they are working directly with e-mail marketing vendors
such as ExactTarget (the vendor whose application delivered this WinM@il
newsletter to you) to make sure that legitimate commercial e-mail does get delivered.
And so, the bottom line in deliverability is actually complaints.
If your mail causes complaints, then the mail is perceived to be sp*m and
the ISP's and the vendors will look hard at not delivering that mail the
next time.
If your subscriber list is an accumulation of people
who asked for your news via e-mail, then your mail will likely not result
in complaints.
If you are unsure about the origins of the addresses,
you need to ask your subscribers if you can keep sending them your promotions.
This would be in essence a "double opt-in" strategy, and those who reply
"yes" will continue to be on the list, and those who do not reply will no
longer get these promotions. And if you think about it, if they do not want
to hear from you, then they are not really your target audience.
Once the "expressed consent" is acquired, you will need to continue to educate
subscribers as to why they have received your e-mail promotion.
As
law and commerce define the proper use of e-mail, those who use best practices
will continue to reap the benefits that e-mail marketing affords them. Achieve
maximum deliverability by sending only permission-based e-mail, and you will
efficiently and effectively keep in touch with your prospects and clients.
The results can boost your business through: - Customer retention,
- Consumer education,
- Lead generation,
- Enhanced revenues.
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