ad:tech San Francisco brought some good news for email marketing. The news from the floor was despite challenges, email is growing. As the impact of compliance and reputation is more deeply understood we are watching our customers evolve their business models and other marketers launching new projects that will "be compliant from the start."

Marketers who do not monitor and resolve issues are leaving larger and larger sums of money on the table from lower deliverability. As that trend increases we can watch the market correcting the problems associated with Web 1.0 commercial email. Our relationships with receivers and ISPs re-enforce this insight.

The day is near where non-compliant email marketers will not have their mail delivered.

The compliancy barrier to entry is growing in the email marketplace. This is increasing the long-term viability of email, constantly questioned, but continually with us. Let’s keep it growing.

LashBack is a devoted Dell shop.  All our servers and most of our desktops proudly display the Dell logo.  Like most businesses who buy Dell, I often receive email marketing from Dell.  Historically, the email offers I receive from Dell are fully CAN SPAM compliant.  Their opt out process is kind of cumbersome, but generally the mail is best of breed. 

Yet, much to my surprise, I have been receiving a lot of non-compliant messages lately.  These are not corporate-sponsored mailings, but instead mailings from their sales staff touting the latest deal.

Today I received an email from a salesperson at Dell telling me about "Great Deals on Laser Printers".  Never mind that I didn’t even know the salesperson or have a prior relationship with them.  The message appeared so spammy I am surprised it made it through my spam filter.  I have included a copy of this message, because it really is shocking to me.  This is definitely a commercial message and subject to CAN SPAM requirements, yet there is no unsubscribe option and not even a physical address.  If the FTC were to see this mail, I am not sure they would be too happy.

I am not trying to alienate Dell here.  Instead, this example brings up a critical thing about email -organizations and big brands often have salespeople mailing out special deals.  These emails are occurring outside of the standard marketing email stream and are flying below the radar of compliance control. This demonstrates the clear need for organizations to monitor all mail streams referencing their brand or sent from their organization or else face potential legal consequences.

The rule is that an email is either transactional or commercial, but never both. Because of the subject line and above the fold sales offer- with no account or transactional information even present- a reasonable consumer would think it was a commercial offer. These are the three tests. Dell fails all three for this message as well as failing on two major points of CAN-SPAM Compliance: no physical address, no unsubscribe mechanism.                  

Day One of the Authentication and Online Trust Summit

The Big News is the coming launch of the unsubscribe button in the new Windows Live Hotmail User Interface (UI). For Microsoft to recognize unsubscribe as a powerful way to give consumers more control over their inbox is a giant step forward for the industry. The button will appear if a user has flagged an email sender as “known”. There are three classifications in the new UI topped by a color-coded bar.

Known Sender- white bar

  -User added sender to personal “safelist” or “contacts:

  -Images & links enabled

  -Allows unsubscribe option

Another way to be a "known sender" is if you are SenderScore Certified through ReturnPath. The criteria of which is to have an excellent LashBack UnsubScore of 90 or better. LashBack plays a critical role in the authentication and certification processes which impact deliverability at the inbox.

Unknown Sender - yellow bar

  -Sender not in user safelist or contacts

  -User can choose: “junk”, “delete” or “mark as safe” or “unsafe”

Potentially Dangerous- red bar

  -Could be phishing or sender ID failure (spoofed)

  -User options same as unknown sender

There are some great benefits for marketers that go out of their way to achieve “known sender” status. It’s a great example of how following best practices can reward marketers. And how important it is to understand the sometimes nuanced requirements of compliance needed for greater deliverability.

LashBack is encouraging everyone attending the Authentication Summit to plan for an early arrival to attend this important briefing from Microsoft.

Windows Live Hotmail: Insights for Marketers Briefing, Tuesday, April 17 at the Boston Sheraton

The day before the Authentication Summit there will be a special briefing for marketers and advertisers. Windows Live Hotmail: Insights for Marketers is a no-charge program designed for online marketers and advertisers to learn about the new Windows Live Hotmail platform and how to optimize email and online advertising initiatives. This briefing will include information about the enhancements to Windows Live Hotmail that focus on advertising improvements, e-mail deliverability, open rates, user trust, and online confidence.

You can learn more about this briefing here: aotalliance.org/summit2007/wlhbriefing.html

There is still time to register for AOTS here: http://www.lashback.com/AOTS_April2007.htm

The Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) has published a survey of consumer comprehension of email unsubscribe. The results suggest that consumers understand the difference between reporting spam and unsubscribing from email lists. Consumers would prefer more control over their inbox and receivers should provide those tools and control. Look for Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail to launch soon with more consumer friendly features than ever. (Look for more information on this launch in our next post.)

Consumers need more email editing tools: ESPC study

By Dianna Dilworth

DM News

http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/e-mail-marketing/40548.html

Report : Consumers are savvier spam defenders than previously thought

By Matthew G. Nelson

ClickZ News

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625358

Consumers savvy about managing email according to ESPC survey results

Techwhack.com

http://press-releases.techwhack.com/8513/espc-survey-results/

Email users want more control of inboxes: survey

By Rachelle Younglai Mar (Reuters)

Monsters & Critics

http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1283603.php/E-mail_users_want_more_control_of_inboxes_survey

Email users want ways to weed out spam

By Rachelle Younglai (Reuters)

MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17819111/

Email users “want more inbox control”

Reuters

NineMSN.com.au (Australia)

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=257262

Email users savvy about managing email – survey

By Graham Carlton

e-consultancy (UK)http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/362961/email-users-savvy-about-managing-inboxes–survey.html

Users need more control tools for email inboxes—survey

America’s Network

http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=414691

ESPC Survey On Managing Email

By Mike Sachoff

WebProNews

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/03/27/espc-survey-on-managing-email

Consumers Want More Tools to Slay Spam

By Gregg Keizer

ComputerWorld

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9014681&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top

U.S.internet users demonstrate email know-how

By Helen Leggat

BizReport

http://www.bizreport.com/2007/03/us_internet_users_demonstrate_email_knowhow.html

Do Consumers Trust your Emails?

By Mark Brownlow

No Man is an Island

http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2007/03/do-consumers-trust-your-emails.html

ESPC Survey Results

By Pete Prestipino

Website Magazine Blog

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2007/03/27/1839.aspx

ESPC Survey on Managing Email

Affiliate Marketing News

http://www.revenuesource.com/internet-marketing-articles/12951-espc-survey-managing-email.html