Today I want to talk a little about SPAM – “Self Promotional Advertising Message” – we have all been affected by SPAM and SPAMMERS! If you have not been inundated in your inbox (and mailboxes) with “Viagra” , “work from home”, “You Won” mailings YOU ARE LUCKY! But in reality most of us have and do deal with this on a daily basis…. Because of people that send out unsolicited mass mailings to people “emailing laws” have gotten a lot stricter! This has not affected EVERY MARKETER out there…
In 1999 Washing State started the ball rolling on regulations making it illegal if the following existed:
• Has a misleading subject line
• Has false routing information
• Sends an unsolicited having a third party domain name without their permission
Later other states came onboard with the “rules”. George Bush signed the CAN-SPAM act into law – and violators can be fined up to $16,000 and also be convicted of other criminal charges! It has not stopped the “con artists” or “hackers” too much from scamming people or overloading our email systems BUT what it has done is made it extremely difficult for “authentic” marketers to reach their target market – double opt ins, spam check messages, servers blocking delivery from certain mail companies, and the list goes on! We all know the story – “One Bad Seed Ruined It for the Apple”!
My advice to you is as you build your “list” make sure you keep records of the people wanting to be on your list – like biz cards noted where you met them and date if you ever go under a “List Review” from an email broadcast company you will need to prove those ARE your contacts.