The
Policy
It is only appropriate to send e-Newsletters to the following
groups:
- contacts who have asked to be on your e-Newsletter list
- individuals who have made a purchase from your company
- donors who have made a contribution to your organization
Why?
Unsolicited e-mail is SPAM.
Sending e-mail to people that have not specifically requested
to be on your list is by definition unsolicited.
Why
not cheat?
The simple answer is, “It’s counterproductive.”
When people receive a message that they feel is SPAM, they
complain. Those complaints tell spam filters that email
originating from you is likely to be spam. For example,
if multiple recipients clicking the “This Is Spam”
button in their webmail account this can result in the message
you are sending to be placed in the Junk Mail folder for
all other users of that webmail system. Also, your website
and your e-mail address may be added to a Blocklist. Spam
filters that link to those blocklists will block your future
messages.
Sending
unsolicited messages via SimpleSend may result in the cancellation
of your service, or require that you re-solicit all of your
subscribers for permission to send them e-mail in the future.
Guidelines
Valid
Sources of E-mail Addresses to Be Used in SimpleSend
Individuals who have signed up via your website
Purchasers of a product from your company
Current clients
Current
members of your organization
Someone
who has specifically asked to receive your e-Newsletters
-- not simply, “Sure, let’s keep in touch.”
Donors who have contributed to your organization
Invalid
Sources of E-mail Addresses
Someone you believe might want your message. To be sure, e-mail that person for permission.
Someone
that gave you their card. The etiquette of sharing a business card is that you
are allowing the recipient a single opportunity to contact
you. The expectation is not to receive mass-marketing
materials.
All e-mail addresses in your address book and/or
anyone that has e-mailed you. Addresses in one’s address book include infrequent
contacts that were gathered over long periods of time.
Acquaintances are more likely to complain when they fail
to recognize the source of the e-Newsletter. A contact
is not the same as a subscriber.
A list from another company or organization. The people on that list have not asked to receive
information from your organization. For example, you may
join a chamber of commerce and they may provide you will
a list of members. This does not mean that you can add
the chamber membership to you e-mail distribution list.
If you want to reach all the members of the organization
ask the organization to include your message in their
next message.
A purchased list. These are ineffective, as they tend to contain higher
numbers of bad email addresses, as well as the addresses
of individuals who are accustomed to receiving (and therefore
ignoring) large quantities of unsolicited e-mail.
Voter Registration Lists When voters register, they are asked to provide their
e-mail address. Most do not read the fine print, which
says that their address may be provided to candidates
running for office. Each time we have sent to a voter
registration list the complaints were very high so we
no longer permit voter registration lists.
E-mail
address you found on the Internet Known as harvesting, this practice is illegal.
FAQ
1. So how do I grow my list?
- Create an opt-in form on your website, so that people
can easily join your list. SimpleSend is able to provide
the html code to place on your website.
- Add a link to your opt-in form on all outgoing e-Newsletters
and personal e-mail.
- Have great content – then people will want to join
your list.
- Ask people to join your list
- Pass around newsletter sign-up sheets at events
2.
What if I am not sure if I can send to an address per the
SimpleSend Rules?
If you have any questions about these guidelines, please
contact us at
.
SimpleSend takes e-mail
abuse and spam very seriously. Any client who sends spam
may be terminated.
If you believe that have been spammed by one of our clients,
please forward the e-mail to
How
We Prevent Spam
Every e-mail originating from SimpleSend has an opt-out
link as well as a link to SimpleSend.com. Once a person
has requested to be removed from a list they are placed
on a permanent do-not-send-to list. Even if a client
re-submits the e-mail address, SimpleSend will not send
to an e-mail on the opt-out list. To minimize false
subscriptions, when a new subscription is added to a list,
a confirmation e-mail is sent
Spam
Laws
In 2003 the United States Congress passed the "Controlling
the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act
of 2003" otherwise know as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
The act become law on January 1, 2004. To aid clients in
being compliant with the new law, SimpleSend requires that
all messages sent from SimpleSend have an unsubcribe method.
For more information, please read the CAN-SPAM
Act of 2003.and opt-out information is contained in
the e-mail.
