Spam collection inboxes

As I logged into my Yahoo email that I've had since, cough, 1997, I was overwhelmed to see 4700 new messages.

It got me thinking, I wonder how many people have more than one email account? One for personal, one for spam, and one for work?

As an email marketer, I spend tons of time and money trying to deliver successful, dynamic email. But what if my lists are full of spam inboxes? How would I know and what could I do about it?

I think the answer lies in list hygiene. Know your audience engagement and baseline metrics, and if they stink, re-engage them. Drop the dead subscribers and move forward delivering craveable content to an active list.

To often people focus on quantity. Email is about quality. Quality in what you send, who you send to, and quality in yourself as a sender.

The US CAN-SPAM Laws De-Mystified

The United States Federal Trade Commission introduced CAN-SPAM legislation back in 2003 that requires marketers to abide by the following guidelines in order to send email to their mailing lists:

• A valid postal mailing address embedded in all commercial emails.
• A valid return email address or internet based reply mechanism that will function for at least 30 days after the sending date.
• A working “Unsubscribe” link that is clear and easy to find.
• When someone unsubscribes, you must honor that request within 10 business days.
• A subject line that is directly relevant to the content of the message.
• A piece of the message that clearly designates the message as an advertisement.

Then on 7/7/08, the US government updated these laws with the following requirements:

• Further definition that a PO Box is valid for a physical postal address in your messages.
• Redefines a “person” as: “an individual, group, unincorporated association, limited or general partnership, corporation or other business entity”.
• Sets criteria allowing multiple “senders” of a commercial email, under certain conditions, to identify a single company as the sole “designated sender” of the message.
• Requires marketers to make their opt-out process easy.