by Wikus Engelbrecht - GraphicMail Marketing Team
4. August 2011 04:24
While you may believe that certain social networks and ESPs want your soul… they will actually be quite happy just to settle for a chunk of your personal data and possession of your email address.
Following the launch of Google+, for example, an airtight list of changes has appeared in Facebook’s membership policy to keep their users locked into their social platform, whether they like it or not. If you’ve been looking to defect form the old social imperium to Google+, Facebook is certainly going to make life very difficult for you.
Anyone who has tried to delete their Facebook account recently will probably have noticed it isn't that simple, since the opt-out option has been substituted for a deactivation alternative (which just means that you are no longer searchable) although the account still exists with all your information intact.
Transparency, it seems, isn't exactly a priority, and people everywhere are growing concerned with who owns our personal data and what they're doing with it. So you'd like to think that once you sign up to an account with any service or an email newsletter you would have some control over your data, or at least the option of deleting it.
In many cases, subscribers have no control over their personal information, and this is a cardinal sin of permission-based marketing.
The ability to unsubscribe allows filters to differentiate between wanted and unwanted messages/services. In the email world, there are still many marketers that view the unsubscribe link as necessary but unwanted, and try their best to hide it as far away from their subscribers as possible. The scary reality is that subscribers today don’t just use the SPAM button to register a complaint about emails they didn’t request; they use it as a convenient opt-out feature.
MarketingSherpa says that almost 39% of consumers have used the spam button as a way to unsubscribe from emails they asked to receive.
The reality is that the practice of concealing unsubscribe options is both contributing to everyone’s spam ticks as well as pushing the legal limits on privacy.
In the USA, the CAN-SPAM Act is a law that was prompted by the overwhelming flood of Spam infiltrating people’s email during the 90’s. Passed by Congress in 2003, it set national standards for sending commercial emails, requiring email marketers to include the following in email messages:
• The subject line must clearly communicate the content included in the body of the email.
• Emails cannot contain misleading sender information. Domain names, email addresses and routing information needs to be correct.
• There must be a way for customers to “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” from receiving messages. If a person opts-out the company has 10 days to stop sending them messages. This unsubscribe option needs to be available for at least 30 days after the email is sent.
• All commercial emails must include a physical address.
And the fine for spamming? According to the FTC, you could face a fine of up to $16,000 per email violation.
Getting permission and maintain a status quo of permission liberty is a foundation for delivering value - because the people on your address list are pre-selected for relevance – and for avoiding the contravention of SPAM laws.
According to a Microsoft security report, more than 97% of all emails sent over the Internet are unwanted.
While everyone agrees that permission is important to building a successful list of subscribers, there is disagreement about what how you should, legitimately, go about this. Consider a typical website registration form which also allows people to add their address to the site’s email list. Notice how the “quality” of permission deteriorates as you move from Option 1 to Option 2:
Option 1: Check the box if you would like to get weekly special offers from us via email
(Customer must take a specific action to get on the list)
Option 2: By registering at this site, you agree to receive weekly special offers from us via email. You can unsubscribe from these at any time.
(Customer is “forced” to grant permission if they want to register)
The permission ideal is where someone makes an informed and explicit decision to join your list or database. In the email setting, you are more likely to have problems such as possible legal issues, spam reports, delivery blocks and lower response rates the further you stray from the ideal. To see more on this, read GraphicMail’s list building white paper.
Remember, you don’t actually want the biggest possible list of email addresses. You want the biggest possible list of email addresses for people who have asked to get your messages. But it is your responsibility to inform readers why they’re receiving your email and how they can stop receiving them. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to unsubscribing. Ensure that your subscribers are clear on exactly what they are receiving and why they are receiving it.
Ultimately, the more appealing, straightforward and relevant your messages are, the less appealing that nasty ‘report SPAM’ button becomes
