Many people don’t know but the Federal Register is the government publication where you can actually find and comment on the laws, regulations and rules that affects each one of us in all we do. It’s interesting to read the actual language like this section I found in Federal Register Vol. 70, No. 91/ Thursday May 12 2005/ Proposed Rules. The discussion answers a specific question on a rule and clarifies and codifies a critical principle of the CAN-SPAM Act: the obligation to monitor and take corrective action.

On page 25,431 (not a typo) Section (2) entitled "Sender Liability for Practices of Affiliates or Other Similar Entities"

Some commenters asked the Commission [FTC] for a ruling that content providers are not responsible for email messages advertising their product or service if the messages are sent by affiliates or other third parties over which they have no control. (61) The Commission declines to issue so broad a statement- especially because, in other contexts, it has specifically held sellers liable for the actions of third party representatives if those sellers have failed to adequately monitor the activities of such third parties and have neglected to take corrective action when those parties fail to comply with the law. The commission believes it inappropriate to excuse content providers in advance from the obligation to monitor the activities of third parties with whom they contract.

This is LashBack. This is what we do. We monitor all sending associated with a client. Currently, we are monitoring data from over 7,200,000 Sending IP’s and over 316,000 unsubscribe mechanisms. We notify clients of issues as they occur and work with them to resolve those issues in a timely manner. Oftentimes we assist in tracking down the identity of a third party and in extreme cases will work with the ISP to shutdown the Sending IP address where the violations originated.

This is the obligation of all email marketers as stated by FTC and the day-to-day work and mission of LashBack. Register for a Demo here.

I love all of the 2007 predictions that this is the year email will break out. You can’t get anywhere without enthusiasm. But I would like to be realistic for a moment. What makes 2007 different from 2006? At LashBack we see more and more email marketers getting serious about Compliance.

A critical part of the LashBack mission this year is to add Compliance to our industry lexicon ahead of Reputation and Deliverability. While everyone searches for that golden tip to increase deliverability, I think we are forgetting that best practices can only be implemented once you have mastered the basics. Compliance is the foundation of best practices, one could call compliance "basic practices". And mastering compliance maintains and increases a good reputation, which increases deliverability and this all means more revenue.

If a new email marketer asked me, "Where do I begin?" I would answer to make sure your emails are "compliant." And then explain how each of the nine major guidelines of CAN-SPAM are related to both basic and best practices. Once you mastered the nine guidelines, you can implement the 10th Guideline of Compliance- Enforcement of Internal Best Practices. This can include frequency capping and volume monitoring, specific subject and from lines, unsubscribe processes, brand monitoring, and the list goes on.

Let’s get Back to the Basics in 2007 and make Compliance and all of its benefits paramount in Email Marketing.