July 22nd "Autoresponders in Your World" Series, Part 18.

The CAN-SPAM Act: Practice Proper E-mail Conduct.

Many of humanity’s greatest inventions come with a price. The automobile, created with noble intentions; i.e; fast and efficient transport across great distances for the masses, introduced side effects like traffic congestion, environmental degradation, and urban sprawl. Similarly, electronic mail communication – while revolutionizing letter writing and commerce – comes with an undesirable side effect that threatens its long-term viability and credibility. Namely, unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) commonly referred to as spam.

To regulate business e-mails and combat spam, the United States government passed the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act in 2003. Although other countries have followed suit with similar legislation, the CAN-SPAM Act serves as a common reference point for online marketers throughout the world.

The law sets out four major requirements for people engaging in e-commerce and e-mail marketing in general:

1. Prohibit the sending of false or misleading header information: Your e-mail’s “From”, “To”, and path information must properly identify you as the e-mail communication’s source.

2. Ban deceptive “Subject” lines: The subject line must not mislead the e-mail receiver about its content.

3. Provide recipients with a clear opt-out option: Senders must provide a return e-mail address or an automated method to opt out of future messages, and any such requests must be honored within ten (10) business days.

4. Identify commercial correspondence as advertising, and include the sender’s valid physical postal address.

Reputable third party autoresponder services strictly adhere to the CAN-SPAM Act, and provide resources and support to ensure that you comply with its provisions. Given that the burden of proof rests with e-mail marketers, the performance of autoresponder software – especially free software – should be monitored to ensure that the above four criteria are met.

In most cases, your common sense and ethical business conduct should guarantee that you never run afoul of CAN-SPAM rules. Regardless, don’t be intimidated by legalities; if you face spamming accusations, take all necessary steps to protect yourself, including dropping troublesome subscribers from your list. Most e-mail delivery services enforce a double opt-in requirement for prospects, so you should be protected in most cases.

With great power comes great responsibility. Even casual requests for information can become headaches, so funnel online contacts into your opt-in forms. Similarly, customer purchases do not give you carte blanche to add people to your contact list. Remember to include a check box or equivalent in the order form to obtain explicit permission for follow-ups.

For more details about how the CAN-SPAM Act affects your electronic commerce, please visit: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

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Rahul Majumdar is an Information Marketer specializing in article marketing, list-building, and digital product creation. Sign up for more of his insights here.

May 25th "Autoresponders in your World" Series, Part 5.

Why Autoresponder Response Tracking is Critical for your E-mail Marketing Campaigns.

Regardless of how you advertise (Pay-per-click (PPC), Search engine optimization (SEO), articles, banners, etc.) your business decisions must be based on actual performance. Testing is vital, but what’s the point if you do not track your test results? Ignorance is far from bliss – not knowing what works can suck your advertising budget dry. What’s worse, you might inadvertently get rid of successful campaigns!

Instead of bouncing from one form of advertising to another without understanding why tactics need to be changed or dropped, consider integrating autoresponders into your Internet Marketing. Through a special feature known as response tracking, you can analyze the success rate of each message you send out, and not be caught off guard by surprising results…

Most reputable autoresponder services offer a response tracking feature that is easy to set up from within a control panel. For example, to measure the number of clicks to a particular website:

1. Enter the website’s address into the autoresponder’s tracking tool.
2. The autoresponder software generates a special tracking URL.
3. The new URL is used to record the number of (unique) clicks at your website originating from your autoresponder message.

The autoresponder is responsible for redirecting your subscribers to the website you are currently promoting. Inside your account, you can track the deliverability rate (i.e. messages actually delivered), the click-through rate (CTR), as well as an email open rate. As you can see, autoresponder-based response tracking is what makes email relationship marketing so powerful and effective.

Autoresponders are not created equal, so before committing to an autoresponder service, make sure that it offers tracking services. Response tracking is the best way to determine the effectiveness of your subscriber messages, and whether they need to be tweaked or completely overhauled.

Indirectly, response tracking can also indicate how good your sales copy is. Consider this: even if your autoresponder message is a winner that generates a high CTR, your conversion rate may be quite poor. Therefore you can infer that one or several sales copy elements need to be changed.

Tracking autoresponder responses looks so simple, yet for some reasons most people either ignore this option or don’t use and interpret results properly. Still, it’s never too late to consider adding it to your Internet Marketing arsenal.

Take the guesswork out of your campaigns! Time and money cannot be wasted, regardless of whether you are a part-time marketer or seasoned professional. By knowing what works and what doesn’t, you will lay the groundwork for a more effective – and profitable – business.

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Rahul Majumdar is an Information Marketer specializing in article marketing, list-building, and digital product creation. Sign up for more of his insights here.