case Study: spam compliant email

marketing

Benin Brown

Spam: A primer

Spam could easily be the most misunderstood piece of Internet legislation in existance.

What is Spam?

Spam is commonly known as unsolicited electronic mail that is sent in bulk.

The CAN-SPAM Act

Doesn’t just apply to bulk unsolicited email, but all commercial messages,

“which the law defines as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service”

exceptions

The CAN-SPAM Act does not apply to transactional or relationship messages.

Transactional messages are defined by the CAN-SPAM Act as any message that’s "facilitating, completing or confirming a previously agreed upon transaction.”

Marketers can spam

So long as the marketer:

•Accurately identifies themselves •Does’t use deceptive subject lines•Identifies the message as an ad•Provides the senders physical address•Tells recipients how to opt•Honors opt out requests within 10 business days

cost of non-compliance

Each separate violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000.

spam & the 1st amendment

Freedom of speech does not apply to spam and probably should not be applicable

Is spam criminal?

Spammers are not held criminally liable

legally spamming for profits

Background

BWB Fantasy Sports Inc. is a premium online content portal operating the in fantasy sports market.

The numbers: Current

We currently spend 4K/month on Google Ad Words

Proposition

New product offering

Individual Player Cheat Sheets-$5

Available to current membership base and general fantasy sports enthusiasts

Email marketing will be the marketing tactic of choice

Why email marketing

Email marketing will offer more than twice the ROI we could get with PPC

Staying compliant

To stay compliant we will:

•Indicate in the subject headers of our emails that the email was an advertisement.

•Accurately reflect who we are which is BWB Fantasy Sports Inc.

•Provide an unsubscribe button and promptly adhere to all unsubscribe requests

•Provide our physical address