1. Failing To Obey The CAN-SPAM Act
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) was passed into law by the United States Congress to establish rules for companies that use e-mail for marketing or other commercial purposes.
The law affects any U.S.-based company or person that sends e- mail containing advertising that promotes a product or service.
Transactional e-mail, which is e-mail that is used solely to update a customer with information that is relative to his or her account or order, is generally exempt from most provisions of the Act except that it may not use “false or misleading routing information.”
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is charged with the responsibility of enforcing the CAN-SPAM Act and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is authorized to pursue criminal actions against violators of the Act.
CAN-SPAM Act Overview
You can read the entire Act at the FTC’s web site if you want to. Here’s is an in-depth summary of the provisions:
• No False or Misleading Headings
This means that the “From” and “To” message headers, as well as the routing information that shows the originating mail server address, must accurately represent where the mail was sent from, who sent it, and to whom it is addressed.
• No Deceptive Subject Lines
You are not allowed to create mail subject lines that are deceptive or that mislead the reader as to what the body of the e-mail contains.
• Unsubscribe Link Required
You must provide a mechanism such as a return e-mail address or a clickable link that enables the e-mail recipient to be removed from your mailing list. It is permissible to create a web-based form that provides the recipient with e-mail management options such as the ability to opt out of only certain types of messages as long as there is also an option to be removed from the list entirely. Once you receive an opt-out request you have
10 business days to make sure that no more mail is sent to that address.
The Act also prohibits you from selling or otherwise giving that e-mail address to anyone else for marketing purposes.
• All Commercial E-mail Must Be Identified As Such And It Must Contain The Sender’s Postal Address.
Any commercial e-mail must contain a statement indicating that it is an advertisement as well as instructions on how to opt out from receiving future e-mail. You must also include your complete physical address somewhere in the body of the e-mail message.
Penalties For Violation Of The CAN-SPAM Act
Every violation of the Act, which means every individual e-mail you send that is not in full compliance, makes you subject to a fine of up to $11,000. Certain violations may also make you liable for additional fines and penalties under laws that regulate false or deceptive advertising.
In addition to all of the provisions listed above, the Act provides for additional fines and penalties for anyone who does any of the following:
• Collects or “harvests” e-mail addresses from any Web site containing a notice prohibiting the collection of e-mail addresses from the Web site for the purposes of commercial mailing.
• Automatically generates e-mail addresses using a random or systematic combination of alphanumeric characters designed to eventually “discover” actual e-mail addresses at any domain. This is commonly called a “dictionary attack.”
• Uses any automated method to register for multiple e-mail accounts for the purpose of sending commercial e-mail.
• Relays e-mail through any server, network or computer, including the use of open relays or open proxies, without the permission of the owner. Permission from the owner is not a defense against sending e-mail that otherwise violates any provision of the Act.
In addition to all of the above, the DOJ is authorized to prosecute anyone who commits any of the following violations:
• Uses any computer to send commercial e-mail without the permission of the computer’s owner. This can include using your employer’s computer to send your personal commercial e-mail while you are at work.
• Uses any computer to relay e-mail messages with the intent of providing misleading information about the actual source of the e-mail.
• Creates false headers in multiple e-mail messages and then transmits those messages with the false heading intact.
• Registers for multiple e-mail accounts or domain names while providing false or misleading information about the registrant’s actual identity.
• Falsely states that he or she is the owner of multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that are used for sending commercial e-mail messages.
2. Failing To Test Your e-mail Message Before You Send It
e-mail can be displayed differently in different browsers and e- mail clients. That’s why it’s important to send a few test messages and to then read those test messages using the most commonly used browsers and e-mail clients in order to make sure that what readers see is what you intended them to see.
3. Failing To Use A SPAM Checker Before You Send Your e- mail
With so many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Internet users running SPAM-blocking software, it has never been more important to see how your e-mail stacks up against the electronic gate guardians that are going to try and stop your reader from receiving it.
There are a variety of SPAM checkers available. Run a search on Google using the term “spam checking software” for a list of them.
4. Forgetting About The “Preview Pane”
Most people have their e-mail clients set up so that all new e- mail messages are displayed in a preview pain. Depending upon their preferences, that preview pane may just display the “To”, “From” and “Subject” headers, or it may display all of those as well as the first few sentences of the body of the e-mail.
This means that your e-mail may get scanned for about 1 second by readers before they decide whether they are going to open the message or read it.
Knowing that, you’d better be sure that you’ve designed your e- mail so that the really good stuff shows up in the preview pane.
5. Failing to Use Enough White Space
If you make your e-mail message too long, or you try to cram too many words into a paragraph, your readers’ eyes are going to instantly glaze over and they are going to hit the delete key.
Keep your e-mail messages short and get right to the point. Keep your paragraphs short as well.
Take a lesson from the way I’ve written this book. Short sentences and short paragraphs and no “fluff.” Don’t make your text message too text heavy, either. Do you like receiving pages of text? Probably not. There aren’t too many people who do. Because few enjoy reading pages of promotional copy, keep your e-mails short and to the point. If you want people to respond, be sure your message is sent at the right time and includes a compelling offer.
6. Failure To Test All Embedded Links
What a waste of time and effort it is to send out an e-mail campaign only to discover that the link to your web site or order page was malformed and it doesn’t work. Test, test and then test again before you mail.
7. Locking Prospects Into One Contact Method
Giving prospects only one way to respond to you will cost you sales. Just because you think that e-mail is the best way to communicate doesn’t mean that your prospect does. Some people are willing to read e-mail and click on a link to visit a web site, but they’re not going to buy unless they can call on the phone or mail in a check.
The CAN-SPAM Act requires you to include your address anyway, so why not add a telephone number as well. In fact, why not add a toll-free telephone number while you’re at it.
There are plenty of places to get virtual toll-free numbers for dirt cheap. You can either program them to ring on your home or cellular phone, or you can forward all calls to voice mail and return calls at you convenience.
The appearance of a toll-free number in your e-mail marketing messages is also going to raise your credibility quite a few notches in a skeptical prospect’s mind.
8. Ignoring Your Bounce Rate
If you’re sending e-mail, you can bet some of it is bouncing. You need to be aware of not only how many messages are bouncing, but why they are bouncing. Finding out how much e-mail is bouncing and why can be as simple as checking your mail server logs. Most hosting accounts provide them as well as a tool to view them.
If you have access to the actual bounced mail, the reason that mail bounced will usually be included somewhere in the message.
Mail bounces for a lot of reasons, and knowing why yours is not reaching its intended audience can help you keep your mailing list clean and responsive. Although there is supposed to be a uniform list of bounced mail reason codes, far too many ISPs have created their own versions. That’s why I’m going to provide you with the reasons why mail bounces and not the codes that you might find in your mail log.