What Is CAN-SPAM Compliant And How Can It Help Your E-mail Campaign?

CAN-SPAM is an acronym derived from Public Law No. 108-187 signed by President Bush on December 16, 2003: "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing."� With this definition in mind, CAN-SPAM will harm your e-mail campaign efforts.

This law defines spam, as any form of electronic mail messaging whose principal element is to advertise or promote a product or service that does not have the following:

"¢ A way for the recipient to opt-out

"¢ Does not have a valid subject line or header

"¢ Does not have a legitimate physical address of the person or company sending the e-mail

"¢ Does not have a label stating the content is of an adult nature

E-mail messages exempt from this classification include messages of a religious nature, content that generally complies with the mechanisms specified in the law, and national messages.

When you have a prospect that has chosen to opt-out of your advertising campaign, the law requires you to remove them from your list in no less than ten days from receiving their request. Another part of this law is that if your prospect has chosen to opt-out you may not transfer or sell their e-mail address after you have received their request.

As you are working with your lists to assure that you comply with the CAN-SPAM law, it is important to recognize the potential of spammers trying to become your customers. They will often subscribe to as many mailing lists as possible to gain access to your mailing lists and then they grab your addresses and begin to spam your customers. They do this through automated tools and you have to be wise to who you allow into your groups. It would be to your advantage to inform your customers about receiving mail that is not directly from you and to report to you so that remedy the situation. This is part of managing your customer base; you do not want to lose your customers based on someone else's unethical tactics.

Being able to send commercial e-mail that does not look like spam is imperative to your business growing and you not landing in an ethical quagmire. Your integrity as an online business will be called into question if those on your target e-mail list think you are sending them spam messages. The first rule in sending e-mail campaign messages is to do so only to those whom you have permission from when they opted-in to your list. When you build a legitimate e-mail list for your marketing purposes your business will increase because:

"¢ Your list is targeted and you have removed those who have opted-out

"¢ Everyone on your list has given you permission to e-mail them

"¢ Your orders will increase even if your list is small because each individual wants your products or services

"¢ You will find a quick turn around from the time the e-mail was disbursed and the time the orders come in

"¢ You will not receive any complaints therefore you will not be in trouble with your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

"¢ When your list contains those customers who want to be there you are able to build a rapport with them and establish a strong working relationship

To be a successful e-mail marketer, you do not need to use spam to accomplish your goals. In fact, if you go this route and use spam, you will find that there may be some minor successes, at first, but in the end, it will not be worth it. You will seriously damage your reputation. You will have trouble finding an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your reputation as a business person who uses spam to send information to clients will negatively affect your future in the field of Internet Marketing, and you will end up paying hefty fines for your unethical behavior.

To be clear, a spam mailing list consists of a list that is made of e-mail addresses obtained unethically through a variety of methods. This list is not a legitimate target list and the one sending the spam normally does not care that their methods are illegal and unethical. The sender has acquired the list without much cost in the hopes that someone in the group will like what they have to sell.