Why Spam Is a Problem
Unsolicited commercial email (UCE), commonly referred to as spam, has become one of the most annoying and talked about issues throughout the world today. From productivity losses, to email scams to pornographic images, spam email is having a negative affect upon virtually everyone - except the spammers themselves, of course. How big a problem is spam? According to Ferris Research, spam will cost U.S. organizations over $10 billion in 2003.
(Click here for more statistics.)
Anti-Spam Legislation - The EmailLabs View
Many states in the U.S., the European Commission, and the United States Congress have either enacted legislation are are proposing new laws with the intent of curbing the proliferation of spam. EmailLabs enthusiastically supports legislation that will help reduce the distribution of unsolicited commercial email and make illegal email practices that are unethical, fraudulent, invade privacy or are pornographic. EmailLabs also strongly supports legislation that requires that the senders of bulk email must have obtained expressed permission/consent or have an existing or previous business/personal relationship with the intended recipients.
Legislation alone, however, will not solve the spam problem. The continued development and deployment of anti-spam software and filtering techniques, the potential development of a new email delivery protocol and strong enforcement of newly enacted/proposed legislation are also critical to curbing spam. Ultimately, however, the key to dramatically reducing spam will be to put the estimated few hundred known spammers out of business - by enforcing legislation and making spam less attractively financially.
What EmailLabs Is Doing To Prevent Spam?
EmailLabs takes the continuing and growing problem of spam extremely seriously. (View our Anti-Spam Policy). The following are among many steps we have taken and activities we continue to pursue:
- Established Full-Time Position - Director of ISP Relations & Delivery: This position actively monitors our clients' mailing campaigns to ensure they comply with our anti-spam policy and are deploying permission email marketing best practices.
- Client Acceptance Process: Prospective EmailLabs clients must meet our strict list criteria and acceptance guidelines. EmailLabs reviews how lists were gathered, what process was used, the age of the list, have there been any previous ISP or spam-related issues and the nature of the relationship between the company and its list members.
- Active members of the Council for Responsible Email (CRE): EmailLabs is actively involved in this industry group (a part of the Association for Interactive Marketing) that is is developing recommendations and best practices for permission-based email marketers.
- Client Training & Education: EmailLabs provides clients training and on-going best practices education via our client newsletters. Additionally, we consult with clients to unsure maximum success with their email campaigns and to eliminate potential spam-related issues.
Dos & Don'ts of Permission Email Marketing
In addition to the "known" spammers causing the majority of the unsolicited email problem, there are also many companies and individuals who are contributing to the problem because of a lack of understanding of industry best practices and generally accepted guidelines. For those companies, below is EmailLabs recommended list of Dos and Don'ts of permission email marketing:
The Dos:
- Do seek permission to communicate with customers, prospects and readers.
- Do use the double opt-in or at least single opt-in subscription approach.
- Do include a working unsubscribe link or email address on all emails.
- Do immediately honor unsubscribe requests.
- Do publish your privacy policy relating to the use of information gathered in your email list members.
- Do re-optin subscribers/customers that you have not been communicated to via email in more than 6 months.
The Don'ts:
- Don't pre-check email subscription/sign-up boxes.
- Don't ever BUY an email list.
- Don't ever mislead recipients with false from names, misleading subject lines or deceptive offers.
- Don't email list members more frequently than they would reasonably expect to hear from your organization
Spam Statistics
- Worldwide 13 billion unwanted email messages are sent each day (Ferris Research)
- The number of daily spam messages is doubling roughly every 18 months (Radicati Group)
- 90% of the spam messages are sent by fewer than 200 people (CAUSE)
- Spam will cost U.S. organizations over $10 billion in 2003 (Ferris Research)
- For U.S.-based ISPs, 30% of inbound email is spam (Ferris Research)
- Spam accounts for 15% to 20% of inbound email at U.S.-based corporate organizations (Ferris Research)
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