Reality check: respect your
subscribers, and you're unlikely to be targeted
If you
follow the five steps mentioned here you are extremely
unlikely to be targeted by the FTC, or be accused
of spamming by your subscribers. I call this section
the reality check because most people engaged
in email
marketing are overly concerned with the legal
indications of the CAN-SPAM act. In reality, the
FTC is going after the
top spammers—the people responsible
for 95 percent of all spam—and they are
not at all concerned with isolated complaints
from subscribers that simply forgot they subscribed.
In other words, it would take a very large number
of complaints to the FTC to result in any sort
of investigation of your firm's email marketing
practices. You have to remember: the FTC has
sharply limited resources, and yet they've been
asked to tackle a global problem that quite literally
far exceeds the boundaries and capabilities of
any law enforcement organization in any country.
The FTC doesn't have an army of investigators
waiting to nail people who receive a couple of
isolated complaints. To earn yourself a spot
on the FTC's radar, you have to engage in extremely
high volume, deceptive, and outright fraudulent
email marketing. And my experience has been that
the people concerned with CAN-SPAM are the kind
of people who would never engage in such activities.
Summary: Stay compliant and
pursued permission email marketing
The information in this short guide
has hopefully helped remind you of the simple
principles of staying compliant with federal anti-spam
law. But that's just the beginning. To experience
a leadership position in email marketing, and
to explore the tremendous potential offered to
you by permission email practices, I strongly
encourage you to learn more about permission email
and, where possible, implement permission
email strategies to build trust and rapport
with your customers.
Go beyond the bare minimum requirements for
email and leverage the full potential of this
medium to build meaningful relationships with
your customers that ultimately serve both their
interests and yours. Use email for learning about
the interests, needs, and desires of your customers,
rather than bombarding them with an endless stream
of offers. Set an example that is so firmly based
on the foundations of permission marketing that
even if a few people complained to the FTC, a
quick glance at your email marketing practices
by FTC investigators would reveal that you are
in fact deeply engaged in respecting your customers,
and not at all engaged in spamming practices.
I urge you to put this information to constructive use,
and I appreciate the permission you’ve given
me to share this information with you. My name
is Mike Adams, I’m the president of Arial
Software, and I invite you to learn more about
Arial Software’s permission email marketing
software solutions
that help you accomplish the compliance and the
forward-looking marketing goals mentioned in this
guide.
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