Something that authentication can’t help
The email said, “Our last mailing had 30 complaints at AOL. Will signing with DKIM and SPF help with our reputation there?” In some ways, that is a fair question. We do talk about reputation a lot and how authentication ties into that. But, really, this is something that authentication can’t help because, for all…
Listen to your unsubscribers
When was the last time that you took a good, long listen to the people who are asking you to stop sending them email? If your ESP doesn’t provide an opportunity for your unhappy subscribers, you should ask them to create one. Your now-former subscribers have a story to tell that can help you retain…
Confirm to unsubscribe?
A question comes in this morning: Requiring the confirmation of an email address in an unsubscription is not CAN-SPAM compliant, right? While I’m not a lawyer, to my understanding that is absolutely correct. The current implementing rules for CAN-SPAM state: Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that…
Quotable quotes
Think about why you open an email in your inbox. Consider that when creating your next email campaign, would you open your email?— Informz (@Informz) June 8, 2009 That’s a great question: Would you bother to open your own mail if you had a choice, or would you toss it out with the rest of…
A CAN-SPAM Checklist
Today we’re going to create a checklist of things required for CAN-SPAM compliance. So, you want to make sure that you actually comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and not just say that you do. This post isn’t for you. You might learn something here and if you do, that’s great. But, instead, this…
When web experts opine about email…
you get incredibly dumb statements like this one: Like promotional e-mail, transactional e-mail by nature bypasses search engines.Maria Krueger, Transactional e-mail can help market your brand, Post-Crescent (2009), http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20090518/APC0701/905180463/1436/APC03/Maria+Krueger+column++Transactional+e-mail+can+help+market+your+brand (last visited May 18, 2009). Uh? What? My car also by nature bypasses search engines (although it does, in fact, have an engine of its own, thus…
Email is about relationships
Did you know that it’s entirely possible to learn the wrong lessons? Well, it is. I use Zemanta to suggest possible links for blog posts. As I was writing yesterday’s blog post, a suggested link came up dealing with CAN-SPAM and the definition of “spam”. That post by Roger Bauer shows how some people just…