It always amuses (or annoys) me to see the lengths that some advertisers will go to in order to keep my email address on their list while believing they are complying with the CAN-SPAM act.

I’m making special mention of this after a marketing blurb I received today that reminded me there’s still many who don’t understand that being sneaky doesn’t necessarily equate to good marketing. It’s just plain garden-variety sneakiness that can really reflect badly on a company and come back to bite them on the ass.

In case you’re just about to embark on running your own email marketing campaigns - regardless of what some of the would be email marketing gurus may teach, there’s a very simple way to keep people interested in what you’re selling.

… make the email interesting and the offer worthwhile and don’t email people until you have something to offer that is.

In doing so, you won’t need to go to the extremes that some do in order to prevent unsubscribes - and when you think about it, why would you want someone on your list who isn’t interested in what you have to offer anyway?

Some may argue that making people jump through hoops to unsubscribe is good practice as a person may not be open to an offer one day but more receptive the next time around, and there’s some truth to that, but in my opinion taking this approach only increases the chances of making people cranky and filing a complaint. The lawyers of the world have plenty to keep them busy as it is :).

The offer I received today had unsubscribe information and an unsubscribe link, but it was in a 6.5pt font size (tiny) and very light gray on a white background - hardly noticeable.

The marketer obviously thought he/she was being rather clever, but does this tactic contravene the CAN SPAM laws? I believe it probably does given I have no existing business relationship with the company and this clause in the CAN SPAM Act:

“Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.”

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm

.. with the operative words being “clear and conspicuous”.

If you’re a small business running on a shared hosting service, it’s incredibly important that you don’t start racking up complaints about your email campaigns as your web host is likely to suspend first and ask questions later.

Having your account suspended after having just completed sending out a campaign is rather counterproductive - so ensure that your opting out instructions are clear and simple, preferably including a one-click unsubscribe approach. If you really want to make a last ditch effort to prevent the user from leaving the list or to convert the unsubscribe to a sale, provide an extraordinary offer to the person on the unsubscribe page.

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