Not long ago, I tried to do this without thinking several things through as well as I should have. So, I’ve deleted that post, and the diagram that went with it, and I’m asking for your help.
Let’s take four issues and define some important things for mailers. The four issues we will start with are:
- CAN-SPAM Compliance
- List Segmentation
- Message Targeting
- Permission Practices
We can combine them into a Venn Diagram like so:
Shows how these four issues might overlap. (Click for larger image)
Now, when we take those four issues, how do we define things in order to clarify certain issues:
- What will drive response?
- What will drive complaints?
- What will cause me to get sued by the FTC, the FCC, or an ISP?
When we get done, we should be able to take this and define areas within the Venn diagram to show where safe and dangerous areas are.
Are you up to the challenge?
1) the intersection of ’segmenting’ and ‘targeting’
3) a combination of ‘not CAN-SPAM compliant’, ‘not permission-based’, and…
2) …this is the hard bit, since the users will complain about whatever they damn well please.
Also, to a certain extent, I think the same guys the ISPs go after are the ones that have huge numbers of complaints. So the real question probably isn’t “can you find the not-spam?”, but rather “What sort of mail is it in your best interests to be sending?”, which’d be the point of the diagram. Right?