what are the Email Etiquette and Rules For Internet marketing?

3 Comments

1. Piggiepants

   Posted on July 17, 2010 at 4:50 am

   To make sure you are using proper email etiquette, as well as staying on the good side of the law, you should read up on the "Can Spam" Act at the FTC web site; they have a Compliance Guide for Business at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm which you should read thoroughly. Also check your ISP’s terms of service to make sure you are in compliance with their rules for email usage.

   The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business

   Do you use email in your business? The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

   Despite its name, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn’t apply just to bulk email. It covers 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,” including email that promotes content on commercial websites. The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. That means all email – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law.

   Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be costly. But following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:

   Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.

   Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.

   Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.

   Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address.

   This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

   Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future.

   Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.

   Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. 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.

   Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.
2. RICHARD

   Posted on July 17, 2010 at 4:50 am

   Hello Anna Smith,

   The rules for email marketing is as follows:

   1.) No Spamming. Which means no unsolicited email.
   If you have a product or service to promote to a company, I recommend you
   phone them first and ask if they’ll give you permission to e-mail them
   any promotional material.

   2. Use a strong title for your subject line.
   If the subject line doesn’t grab people’s attention, they’ll delete your message

   3. Address the email to a specific person.
   Don’t just say "Dear Sir or Madam"….Find out who the manager of the
   company is and address it to them.

   4. Keep each paragraph short. Three to four sentences is preferable.
   People who read emails are busy.

   5. Don’t write your message in all capital letters. In e-mail communication,
   this is known as shouting. If you do this, you’ll get FLAMED.

   Which means, you’ll receive an angry response from who ever reads your e-mail message.
   *******************************************
   From: Richard Westlake, richardw11001@yahoo.ca
   Richard Westlake is a Financial Consultant who helps people get business loans.
   http://www.loansdemanded.com.
3. Ellie D

   Posted on July 17, 2010 at 4:50 am

   I would suggest outsourcing for professionals – they are better experienced, equipped and have the necessary tools in place to make sure that you have a good mailing list, that your mails are white-listed, coded properly, etc etc. It’s definitely an investment as email marketing is one of the best ways of getting a good ROI.