The Opt-Out option on the mass emails and newsletters is an important, and government required, feature that helps us keep some level of control over our inboxes! It is also something that anyone sending mass emails, wants you to avoid using.
Here’s a quick look at the rules that surround Opt-Out and some best practices to help keep them to a minimum.
CAN-SPAM Act – for your protection
There are several pieces of the CAN-SPAM Act that outline how emails need to be presented in order to not be considered SPAM. The Opt-Out option is an important one and there are several rules for how the sender has to offer and acknowledge an Opt-Out
request.
1. The recipient must be able to opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message.
2. The sender must “honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.”
3. There is no fee to opt-out.
4. There is no additional personal information required to opt-out.
5. There are no additional steps “other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website” to opt-out.
6. Once someone has opted-out of your mailing list, “you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.”
(You can read all the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm)
Email marketing services take the CAN-SPAM Act, and the action of opting-out very seriously – and they should. Once someone has opted-out of your mailing list, that email address is marked DO NOT SEND. The email service will not allow you to send to that email address again, even if you try to re-add it to your list.
Opt-In
Make sure your email list is full of names that have opted-in. This is call permission-based marketing, and it is the right thing to do. You can build your list by having people physically opt-in via a link on your website or in personal emails, or you can ask them for permission to add them to your list. The bottom line is making sure they agree to receive your email before you send it.
Spreading the Word
Businesses benefit from word-of-mouth marketing, especially when it comes from a “friend” – however you define friend. A great way to pass along your message is by including a “Forward to a Friend” link, or button, in your email messages. You also want to encourage everyone on your list to use that feature, instead of using the “Forward” function in their email client. Why? To avoid a mistaken Opt-Out.
Here’s the scenario:
1. I get a mass email message with a great offer that I want to forward.
2. I use the Forward function in my email client to create a new email, which is a copy of the email I just received.
3. I enter the email address of the person, add a quick note at the top of the email, and click Send. However, since it was a copy of the one I received, somewhere on that email (usually at the bottom) is the Opt-Out option. Unfortunately, that option is directly linked to MY email address.
4. The person opens the email, scrolls too fast to see my note, doesn’t find the information useful, and clicks on the Opt-Out option on the bottom of the message.
5. I just go opted-out of the list to receive email from the original sender, to my email address, EVER again. The worst thing is that I don’t know it.
Believe me this scenario happens, and has happened to my clients and people in my network.
Make Your Message Matter
Besides the technical aspects of the Opt-Out option, the best way to keep your list growing and limiting the number of people who opt-out is to make your information relevant. This means timely, useful, and to the point. This also means the possibility of segmenting your list. Consider the demographics of your list in combination with your offers. If you can be more targeted you are more likely to be a welcome message in their inbox!
Efficiently yours,
Ellen DePasquale – The Software Revitalist™
