How to Run an Ethical Mail List?

jfray_2k5 asks: "I've recently been hired as the Senior SysAd for a successful online advertising company and am in quite a dilemma. See, the company had previously been involved in quite a few seedy email businesses, and lets just say that we need to get our Haus in order. So, my question comes down to: what are acceptable and ethical ways to promote targeted offers to email users? Obviously, harvesting is out, and blanket spams don't really work for us (as we're a performance based company, and UCE simply doesn't perform for advertisers). I'm expecting a plethora of flames for this post, but I am serious in that I want to make things better for everyone. Other than enforcing CANSPAM (which is a total joke), and enforcing double opt-in, single opt-out on all of our lists, what are some other other ways we can do this the right way?" "Is there a right way? Or am I simply screwed? Any truly constructive suggestions are welcome, as I most certainly don't want myself to be known for running a spam[cannon|haus], yet I need to be able to provide truly targeted email to people that, believe or not, actually want them.

Once again, any help is appreciated."

Comments

RSS

[Knights who say 'INT]

Consider using RSS channels instead of an email list.

Listerv or mailing list

[kernelfoobar]

What about a listserv/mailing list? If thye REALLY want mail, then that's not spam and let THEM sign up.

my 2 cents.

No such thing as "double opt-in"

[PapaZit]

What spammers call "double opt-in" is what normal people call "opt-in".

Spammers claim that single opt-in is when your address is on a list that they bought (you "opted in" by appearing on the list), and double opt-in is when you actually asked for the mail.

Re:No such thing as "double opt-in"

[OpenYourEyes]

Actually, I assumed that "double opt-in" is when you go to a totally insecure form and enter your address. They then send a confirmation message to that address (which makes it a little more trustworthy). Only after you confirm this are you actually added to the list.

Sure, it is standard practice for mailing lists, but it has to have a name and someone using it.

Re:No such thing as "double opt-in"

[jonadab]

> Spammers claim that single opt-in is when your address is on a list that
> they bought (you "opted in" by appearing on the list), and double opt-in
> is when you actually asked for the mail.

Close. Single opt-in is when you appear on a list, and double opt-in is when you respond to a message that you got as a result, e.g., by visiting the website it was advertising.

A legitimate advertiser should have nothing to do with these things, of course; the only people you should send bulk email to are people who either A) actually did business with you or B) actually signed up to receive the mail.

In case A), you send one message, thanking them for their business and *offering* the chance to sign up for more mail (which you can hype however you like -- exciting special offers, blah, blah, blah). The same message can also ask for feedback if you like, or contain "special offers", but if they don't sign up for more mail, they only get the one message or, at least, only the one for each time they do business with you. (Exception: if you are sending a message anyway to notify them that you have received their check, have shipped their order, or something along those lines, you can tag an additional message on the end of it if you like.)

In the case of B, where they actually signed up for the mail, you need to offer them the ability to opt back out, and you need to adhere to your stated privacy policy, whatever that is -- not distributing their address outside your organization is a good one. Also, if you want anyone to read these things, you've got to limit their frequency, and it helps to make them interesting as well, if possible. Hiring a good writer with an entertaining style to do product reviews or somesuch for your advertainment "newsletter" will generally not hurt anything. Bonus points if you work in a one-panel comic strip somehow that's at least a little bit funny. Make people want to read the thing.

some obvious hints

[F�an�ro]

If the user just wants to download some software from you, or get some info, or join a webforum, do NOT require them to signup for your list, do NOT include any checkboxes that are checked by default and sign them up, or optimally do not include any such checkboxes at all. Instead, offer a separate form on your website where the user can signup for your list if he chooses to. Optimally, in other places simply do not ask for their email address at all.

Make sure that all your mailings ALWAYS have the same from-header, and that they all include an identical tag at the start of the subject line (like "[YOURCOMPANY-info]")

The address in the from header should exist, and unsubscribe request and bounces to this address should be processed (but offer unsubscribe via web form too!)

Let the user chose at signup whether they want html or plaintext.
The confirmation mail after signup obviously should always be plaintext. The confirmation mail should also include from which IP , when and how the signup request was made.

If the mail is html, do not include any IMG tags that link to images not included in the mail (which could cause the mail-client to connect to the internet), and only include very small images in the mail if any at all.

For people that do not want you to send them mails but still want to read the content, offer the option to read all your info-mails on your website, without them having to log in. (assuming the mails do not contain private information)

that's all I can think of right now, but it all seems pretty obvious to me if you always have your customers best interest in mind.

Here are the ultra simple steps to do that.

[khasim]

#1. ONLY use addresses that have been submitted by that individual. This will keep you from sending email to the spam traps which is how you get listed on the blacklists.

#2. MONITOR YOUR OWN EMAIL LOGS. If you see a bounce or whatever, REMOVE THAT NAME RIGHT THEN.

#3. Put an HTML one-click-to-unsubscribe at the TOP of the message. And UNSUBSCRIBE the addresses right then. None of this "72 hour" bullshit. None of this "enter your password" bullshit.

#4. Include a phone number on every email. I've had to call a few companies to get them to fix their lists and I get even more annoyed when I have to waste my time researching their number first.

#5. People frequently sign up their WORK addresses for your crap. When they leave that job, it is up to whomever is set to receive their email or the email admin to handle the crap. Unless you want ALL of your messages blocked at my smtp box, you will make it very easy to quickly and completely unsubscribe addresses.

Clean your existing lists!

[Linus Torvaalds]

I get spam after spam from a few companies that swear they aren't spammers. I email them from a throwaway account complaining, but refuse to tell them my real email address, because that only makes it more valuable to spammers.

Don't get me wrong, I -know- they screen-scraped my email address from websites, usenet, whatever, because I tag my email address wherever I go (I have my own domain).

The way I see it, their list is tainted with people who don't want to be on it. Disclosing my email address, even if they are completely ethical, will only solve my problem. They'll continue spamming everyone else whose email address they have.

So I do my best to explain the issues to somebody higher up than the average grunt, and if I don't get through, I block them from my mail servers completely, for all users.

One example of these idiots are the people behind ScribeStudio, who insist that they aren't spamming, even though they are emailing me on an address that I only use in a single newsgroup that has nothing to do with their company or product.

what are acceptable and ethical ways to promote targeted offers to email users?

As many people have said, double opt-in is the only way to go, along with an unsubscribe link that actually works.

But you need to handle your existing list. Emailing them and telling them that they can unsubscribe is not good enough. All spammers say that. You need to email them and say "if you wish to continue to receive our mailings, click here".

The first thing your boss will say is "but hardly anybody will do that!" That is exactly the point of doing it. If "hardly anybody will do that", then that means that the majority of people on your list don't want to be on it and you are spamming them.

The bad news, and then the good news.

[Shag]

First, I'll identify myself as having formerly handled the technical end of database marketing at a dot-com with a database of 20,000,000 customers - in a non-spammy way.

Secondly, I'll identify myself as having formerly been in a public-and-media-facing position at a(n inter)national anti-spam advocacy non-profit.

And now, the news.

The bad news is that no matter what measures you put in place, you are still going to have to handle bounces from dead addresses, full mailboxes, misconfigured spam-blocking, and so on. And to be quite honest, handling them any way other than by simply unsubscribing the addresses - even in the case of the misconfigured spam-blocking, when the person probably does want your mail - is simply not economically effective, and does not scale.

The further bad news is that no matter what measures you put in place, you are still going to get complaints, because ISP's re-allocate addresses almost immediately. If someone signs up from rudebunny@nekulturniyzaichik.ru, and a year later they change ISPs, someone else can get that address before you send your next mailing. You won't get a bounce, and the new user won't be expecting your mail.

The good news (to start with) is that you can mitigate these complaints a little bit, by including in each message a clear explanation of why recipients are getting it, how to stop getting it, etc.

You can further reduce complaints by making it impossible for people to be forge-subscribed. However they give you their address, send them a confirmation message that requires them to do something (go to a certain URL, reply with a certain ID in the subject) that a third party won't know to do.

I had a very hard time getting some executives to buy into the whole idea of confirmation, but I'll put it this way: addresses of people who you don't know want your mail are worth basically nothing to you from a marketing perspective.

Other thoughts: Offering plaintext and HTML options is good. Doing mixed-multipart is an option if you can get it right - and oh, if you do it? Put the plaintext first. For your own sanity, make unsubscribing as easy and automatic as possible - that way, folks won't have to bug you. Don't make them give a password or anything to unsusbcribe.

Those are the first few thoughts that come to mind.

Google answered this one

[Baloo Ursidae]

How to manage mailing lists is a good start. I suggest you use some mailing list software like Sympa or Listserv that is already set up to handle all the subscription/unsubscription confirmations automatically in a universally-accepted manner. Don't try to reinvent the wheel, and have your customers subscribe themselves.