Showing posts with the label opt-in

Bad Ideas: Why Giving Your Email List to a Third Party Is Just Dumb

A story recently broke on 404 Media that made deliverability experts everywhere cry a little inside: YouTube channel Channel 5 admitted to handing a CSV file of its email subscribers over to a third party so that person could market a new product to them. Putting aside the specific names and political figures involved (which are irrelevant to the underlying email mechanics) this incident se…
Read more

Yes, Google requires opt-in

Every now and then, someone shows up in an email marketing or deliverability forum or chat room, trying to make the case that spam is somehow allowed. The argument usually goes like this: "The mailbox providers don't actually require permission, so it's fine if I j…

Cold email? Shiver me timbers! And three points.

Lo! A different guy just popped up in my Linkedin feed to say that cold emails are cool, because they're not illegal. ( I've heard it before .) And for a bonus, he wants to argue about whether or not cold email truly is "spam" -- he says no. That's fine, e…

Is it right to purchase email lists as long as the data is ‘opt-in’?

Another day brings us another simple reminder that buying lists will cause you trouble.  Toshi Onishi, writing for the Dotdigital blog , succinctly shares with us the three major issues around transparency (and consent) that comprise insurmountable roadblocks when it comes to p…

History repeating: a quick lesson about apples and opting out

Jennifer Nespola Lantz's recent post about Gmail potentially offering political senders a fast pass method to the inbox has gotten me thinking about the spam fight we went through back in the olden times. Before CAN-SPAM, domain reputation and deliverability best practice…

Jennifer Nespola Lantz: Gmail “Political Pass for Messaging” Program

Today’s guest post comes from my colleague Jennifer Nespola Lantz, VP of Industry Relations and Deliverability at Kickbox, keeping us updated on a potentially upcoming Gmail spam filtering process change that is likely to have a great impact upon all of us. Take it away, Jen! O…

UK/EU GDPR: What is valid consent?

Previously I've talked about the affirmative consent standard found in the US federal anti-spam law (CAN-SPAM). I've found it very useful test when trying to understand if a process is appropriately opt-in our not. Wondering if GDPR has something similar? It does. For …

Fun with Double Opt-in

Here's a link to the source of my new double opt-in sign up tool , if you'd like to check it out or install it for your own use. (It is now called WombatMail .) Of course, feel free to go ahead and submit your address if you'd like to receive email updates from Spam…

Defining Permission

There's this phrase out there called "permission-based email marketing." Not everybody understands what it means. And certainly, some folks purposely misuse the terminology, in an attempt to hide the fact that their practices may be at odds with true informed cons…

What changed?

How come my list of third-party opt-ins from two years ago is now having problems, the question goes. What changed? I'm still doing everything right. I'm getting that question a lot lately, and a colleague suggested that I post my answer here, to share it with readers.…

Do you track your opt-in data?

Hey, if you're running a marketing program, if you manage a marketing list, I have to ask: Are you tracking where and when and how each recipient signs up for your email list? Surprisingly, I'm finding that many marketing managers aren't tracking this. This is sad…

You Can't Buy an Existing Business Relationship

I ran across this on Box of Meat the other day. PogoWasRight.org : Pitney Bowes pays $2.9M to settle ‘Blast Fax’ lawsuit: "When you buy a client list as part of buyng a firm’s assets, do you have an established business relationship with the clients that allows you to fax…

Barnes and Noble Emails Opt-Outs

Hmm, I thought to myself. Why didn't I think of this? Barnes And Noble is sending emails to recipients who declined to opt-in , asking them to reconsider. Gosh, they must get a nonzero number of people who opt-in as a result of this email.And probably around a zillion spam …

Tell me about this new opt-out list!

Over here, email marketer Dylan Boyd talks about the the DMA's "launch" of an email opt-out site. What, you mean, eMPS? That thing that has been around since at least 2005 ? Actually, since 2000 . This is just the same old thing in a shiny new wrapper. Not onl…

More on Pizza Hut

Dylan at email service provider eROI points out that Pizza Hut's email sign up process is substandard : You have to opt-in to receive emails just to order a pizza online. This is seemingly another sign of people who have ... interesting ... ideas about email best practice…

Don't Spam to Apologize for Spam

The Consumerist headline says it all: Pizza Hut Sends Unsolicited Email To Apologize For Sending Unsolicited Email Or does it? Let's talk it through. Look, I can see something bad happening accidentally. For as many email platforms I've worked with, there are just as…

Yahoo Insights and Subcriber Engagement

Mark Brownlow talks about Yahoo's take on subscriber engagement here . After you read that, check out Mark's more generalized theory on what ISPs consider when determining whether or not email is unwanted . Comments from Yahoo's Mark Risher confirm what many of us …