• Include a visible and operable unsubscribe in all emails
• Honour opt-out requests within 10 days
• Include a relevant subject line
• Include a physical postal address
• Ensure accurate ‘routing' information within the header of your messages

• The type of information required to process a subscriber's request to unsubscribe
• Who should be required to provide and maintain an opt-out functionality for those messages that have more than one advertiser


• What constitutes a ‘person' within the Act
• The details about a physical postal addresses required in an email

• Process requests for unsubscribing based solely on an email address
• If your information is in the ‘from address', maintain an opt-out functionality
• Include a physical address in your email marketing messages - even if it is restricted to a post office box or private mailbox
• If you are unsure whether your email complies with CAN-SPAM, consult with your legal team

• The form and content requirements for commercial electronic messages
• Email address harvesting


• Dictionary attacks (i.e. a spamming technique aimed at discovering legitimate emails by sending large volumes of messages to a known domain name)
• Phishing (i.e. attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity)

• Download The Marketer's PIPEDA Checklist to help ensure your email marketing campaigns complies with PIPEDA
• Implement the specific actions required to ensure compliance with CAN-SPAM (see above)
• Work with your ESP to devise ways of planning for the implications of Bill S-235

1. State Your Purpose. Be very clear about your intentions with your viral program and about what you plan to do with the email addresses that you will be collecting.



2. Respect Personal Information. Keep in-mind that the addresses you collect are not subscribers until they choose to subscribe themselves. To comply with the rules set out by Canada's privacy legislation (PIPEDA) you should not retain this information or assume you can send any follow-up emails to them. (Download The Marketer's PIPEDA Checklists for practical tips for running online campaigns that are compliant with this Federal legislation.)



3. Clearly Identify Yourself to Referrals. When you send a triggered message to the email addresses entered by the original referral source, use your email address as the from address as opposed to the referral source's email address (see example below). In this way, you are demonstrating that you respect the referral source's email identity.



4. Reduce Risks of Abuse. Use a CAPTCHA in the form that collects the email addresses. A CAPTCHA - which is short for "Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart" - helps to dramatically reduce the potential abuse that spammers can inflict on you or on the owners of the emails you have captured.



5. Answer the Question: What's In It For Me? Go beyond sending the referred friend a link. Rather, describe concisely why they are receiving the email and the value of taking action. For example, referred friends of those who download ThinData's whitepaper "The Marketers Guide to Successful Email Delivery" receive the following message:




From: ThinData [mailto:ThinData_Tools_for_Marketers@e.thindata.com] Sent: Date To: Friend's email address Subject: ThinData's Marketer's Guide to Successful Email Delivery Dear (Friend's First Name), (Referral Source's First and Last Names) thought you would be interested in downloading ThinData's whitepaper entitled, The Marketer's Guide to Successful Email Delivery. This guide includes: Best practices to address email deliverability challenges; and An action checklist Take me to the whitepaper.

• Prospecting for New Leads
  
• Conducting Research for Qualifying Prospects
  
• Contacting Prospects to Demonstrate Key Benefits and Features
  
• Closing the Deal
  
• Following Up to Build Trust

1. Privacy Influences Who You Target. Privacy laws are often thought of being restrictive because they dictate who you can repeatedly promote to - based on your efforts to successfully gather consent. The reality is that permission-based marketing yields the best outcomes because customers and prospects who grant their consent have a much greater likelihood of engaging in your product, service or cause. That's why closed-loop emails are fast becoming the standard for gathering permission and confirming that prospects are genuinely interested in receiving your content.



2. Privacy Influences How Your Target Thinks About You and Your Brand. Your target audience has a range of expectations about how you will use and won't use their private information. These expectations take on varying degrees of importance and are dramatically heightened after high-profile privacy breaches make the news. Marketers are now spending more resources to monitor and protect their brand because the new stringency in PIPEDA compels companies to divulge breaches of privacy to the public where notification had not previously been required.



3. Privacy Influences Your Offer. Delivering relevant content has become one of the hallmarks of good email marketing. Information that can be attributed to an individual can help you better understand and personalize the offerings that will have the most positive impact on your audiences. And, because PIPEDA restricts collection of privacy information to that information you use, why not use the information smartly? For example, if you have gathered postal code information, send segmented email messages that highlight offers unique to specific geographic regions.

• How do you know that you have a good database of emails?


• How do you maintain your database of email subscribers?


• How can you repair your database of email subscribers?

• Are Your Emails Being Received?

• How Are Your Emails Being Acted Upon?

1. Content - i.e. Tone and Vocabulary


2. Graphics - i.e. The selection of specific graphics and graphic themes


3. Structure/Layout - i.e. The selection and placement of key informational
   components


4. Hyperlinks - i.e. When including a hyperlink in the body of the message,
   ensure the destination (e.g. landing page) and roll-over include your corporate
   name to increase the ease with which you are recognized

5. Frequency - i.e. How often recipients receive relevant messages


6. Delivery Time - i.e. The time of the day, week or month that messages are delivered

7. The Sending Address


8. The Subject Line


9. The Email Header - i.e. This is the area that precedes the body of the email that contains coded details indicating the sender, recipient, subject, sending time-stamp, receiving time-stamps and the computer path which the email traveled

10. Partners/Sponsors - i.e. Email marketing provides wonderful opportunities to work with strategic/channel partners and sponsors to defray costs, provide added value and penetrate new markets. Partners often have competing corporate identity standards that need to be harmonized and consistently applied before embarking on a campaign. Similarly, channel partners will have their own practices around all of the preceding nine branding elements.

• Landing page headlines that match the call-to-action identified in the email
  
• Personalized landing pages (e.g. www.abc.com/IanGiles)
  
• URLs that are easy to remember
  
• Content restricted to that which matches the segment's interests
  
• Clear articulation of the value of converting for the viewer
  
• Graphics and content restricted to that which is related to the 'conversion' (i.e. not including multiple offers, navigation bars, etc.)
  
• Steps to conversion that are obvious, simple, and few in number

• Collect and integrate customer-specific demographic, psychographic and behavioural information;
  
• Segment customers;
  
• Measure customer conversion; and
  
• Test various components of the landing pages, such as headlines, images and body length.

• Accurate and complete information about how you are going to use any data they provide;
  
• Complete information about the number and types of lists to which they are subscribing; and
  
• An indication of the potential frequency of communications they will receive.

• Ensuring email can be authenticated;
  
• Maintaining a good email reputation;
  
• Preventing being mislabeled as a spammer by email recipients;
  
• Preventing being mislabeled as a spammer by third-party software; and
  
• Configuring email servers to meet industry standards.

• Delete the email message
  
• Report the email message as spam
  
• Open the email message
  
• Open the email and choose the ‘display images' option
  
• Add sender's email address to address book
  
• Click on hyperlinks
  
• Proceed to a landing page, microsite or website

• Number of opened emails and open rates
  
• Number of bounced emails - soft and hard - and open rates
  
• Number of emails flagged as spam
  
• Clickthroughs
  
• Conversions

1. Check out your template before you cut your images and figure out which file formats are better based on the rule above.
   
2. Avoid saving anything in a format other than JPG or GIF. Though you might be tempted to save an image as a PNG for the sake of maintaining opacity percentages - it's not a good idea. They work, but your file size will be huge. Instead, try to find a workaround or a different way to lay out the design.

1. Save the header as an image. Following rule number one, you'll be saving it as a GIF to ensure text quality. This will cost you 1-3kb in file size. It will also mean that, with images turned off, that header will be unreadable by default in most of the email/webmail clients on the market today. Ouch.
   
2. Use HTML and inline CSS to ‘recreate' the brown background and white text on top. You may not get Anti-aliasing, or an exact font match, but you will save on file size and get your message across even with images-off and, in most cases, that's more important.

• Most third-party filtering software packages include five basic filters:
  
• Creative Filters
  
• URL Filters
  
• IP Filters
  
• Bayesian Filters
  
• Reputation Filters

• Continually modify your creative. HTML handling standards evolve and you should update your code and creative practices to meet them. We recommend reviewing creative at least quarterly.
  
• Use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) rather than an IP address. Point your links to a new subdomain (links.domain.com) and avoid using hexadecimal encoding in your email message.
  
• Monitor your IPs with a third party monitoring tool and take action on any issues immediately. Each listing will have different criteria and delisting methods - understand these processes and review your data practices to prevent issues from reoccurring.
  
• Watch your language. Bayesian filters are looking for spammy words (pharmacy, pills, win, free, etc) and the more they're used, the more likely it is that your email will be filtered.
  
• Monitor your sender reputation with a third party tool. Take action to correct issues that negatively affect your brand and reputation.

• Opt-in confirmation and thank you
  
• Order receipts
  
• Itineraries
  
• Subscription or membership information
  
• Web form submission follow up

• Account status updates
  
• Product recall notifications
  
• Product updates/upgrade information
  
• Change notifications

• offer a discount on a purchase
  
• supply relevant partner offers
  
• encourage referrals
  
• provide information about your newsletter
  
• introduce a similar or complimentary product
  
• link to a satisfaction survey or poll

1. Makes it difficult for spammers to use your domain to phish or send unwanted email, harming your brand and reputation with ISPs.
   
2. Increases delivery rates.
   
3. Decreases likelihood of landing in junk or bulk folders which can lead to lower open and clickthrough rates.
   
4. Avoids potentially trust-eroding warning messages associated with your marketing, eg "This sender could not be verified."
   

• Origin of message
  
• past mailing history
  
• SPF/Sender ID record
  
• Block lists
  
• URL's
  
• Creative
  
• Bayesian filters (keywords)
  

1. Create Blackberry specific text versions. In your preference centre or subscription process, give subscribers the option of receiving Blackberry friendly text emails.


2. Tell the whole story in the email rather than forcing readers to link away for the rest.


3. If you need to link, link to Blackberry friendly web pages (HTML). Remove unnecessary navigation to maximize the Blackberry user's experience.


4. Reduce or remove graphics and favour system fonts.


5. Use text links in place of forms and buttons.


6. Don't use Flash, video or audio files on web pages. Older versions of Blackberry won't load them.

1. Through the IP* address that the message originated from.
   If the IP address was assigned, that assignment will typically have been recorded and be readable through SWIP*. SWIP is the process that ISPs use to submit customer IP space reassignment information to WHOIS* (stands for "Who Is?").
   *see reference list for links to more detail


2. Through the domains referenced in the email.
   These domains might be found in the domain portion of the "From address" or in any links referenced in the content. Since the introduction of authentication mechanisms such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), the "From address" can now be reliably compared with the sending IP address to validate the sender. Links also play an important role because the purpose of most bulk email messages is to encourage the reader to visit a web site using the links. In a complaint situation, the owner of the website will get an equal number of complaints as the sender of the message.

1. A History of Spam Trap Delivery :
   Spam Traps are email addresses that have been setup for reputation service organizations or by ISPs themselves. These addresses are never used to subscribe to any email list - which means, if an email is received by that address it is determined to have been sent without permission. In this case, the sending IP address and domain are negatively recorded in the reputation database.



2. Recipient Complaints :
   Complaints registered by recipients are weighted by the Reputation System according to whether the complainant is knowledgeable and trusted or not. One complaint from a knowledgeable and trusted person can be more damaging than a hundred complaints from the average email user.



3. Content Scoring :
   Filters identify good email from bad based on content. This is possibly the least accurate means of determining a sender's reputation since it has nothing to do with permission. Regardless, it can play a part in your overall reputation.

1. Create a Contest around your strategic goals.
   If your goal is to acquire new subscribers, make entry dependant on completing your subscription form. If you're hoping to create new customers, ask entrants to provide a bar code or receipt code to play.



2. Offer a Grand Prize Worth Winning
   Give careful thought to your prizing. Be sure your grand prize warrants the level of participation you're asking an entrant to undertake. If you're asking entrants to engage in a participative program, your grand prize needs to be more significant than an off-the-shelf item.
   
   Skewing your prizes to appeal to your demographic can add legitimacy and a natural guarantee that you'll attract the right entrants. If you want women, think about offering a Spa and Shopping Weekend for her and her friends; for teens, think exclusive VIP access to concerts/musicians and the latest gadgets; for high-income professionals offer an experience they can share with clients - fine dining, private box seats, etc.



3. Legal Stuff
   At minimum, your rules should include contest details, promotion start and end dates, method of entry, prize details, draw location and dates, odds of winning, reserved rights, non-liability statements and governing law.
   
   It is critical that your Rules be reviewed by legal counsel and that any required contest fees are paid prior to launch. Note: if your contest is open to residents of Quebec you will need to file an application with the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux : http://www.racj.gouv.qc.ca/index.asp?lang=en



4. Protect your Prizes
   As you're probably aware, there are professional contest entrants out there; people who make it their business to win the prizes you're hoping will go to your prospects and customers. Safe-guard your prizes by citing a maximum number of allowable entries and eligibility restrictions in your Rules and Regulations.
   
   Other prize protecting plans include unique code entry, personal essay with non-purchase entries, and requiring a valid, unique email address.
   
   Be sure to use a vendor with a proven record for building secure online contests with anti-fraud measures built in.



5. Guaranteed Win
   Guaranteeing a small prize upon entry will increase your raw entry levels. The guaranteed prize doesn't have to be big - as long as it's something everybody wants.
   
   Your guaranteed prize might be a $5 (online) gift certificate, %-off purchase coupon, iTune or ringtone download.



6. Instant Win
   Capitalize on people's love of chance by offering instant win prizes. Virtual Scratch Cards are an excitement-boosting alternative (or addition) to the standard sweepstakes model. You can use random-prizing scratch cards to reward entry, referral or participation, encouraging each entrant to earn as many as they can.



7. Confirmation Statement
   The wording of your confirmation statement - that's the bit of copy that goes right before the "submit" button on your entry form - is key. There must be a direct link to the rules around or within the confirmation statement. They also must agree to receive email communications from you.
   
   Sample confirmation statement:
   
   "By clicking submit, I confirm that I have read and agree to comply with the rules of this contest. I also agree to receive email communications about this contest."


8. Maintain Entry Momentum
   The highest levels of participation naturally occur within a day or two of your initial announcement. It's important to plan a reminder-schedule to engage people who haven't entered by the mid-way point. ThinData clients commonly see a 25% lift in entries by also sending out a "last chance" reminder just days before the contest closes.



9. Quality over Quantity for Referrals
   Reward successful referrals with an extra entry or instant win opportunity. "Success" means that the referred friend responded to the referral and also entered/subscribed. This policy makes it more difficult to fake referrals by entering false email addresses for extra entries.



10. Maximize the Confirmation Email
    When your entrant completes their entry form, a confirmation email should be triggered. Use this email to communicate more about the contest, remind them to refer others, deliver a special offer and attempt to engage the new subscriber with your brand.

1. Put some life into your Subject Line
   
   Symptom: Open rates are consistently low.
   
   Opportunity: You have approximately 50-75 characters worth of space to make a compelling subject line. Don't waste this precious real estate by including your company name, issue or volume number.
   
   Instead, craft your subject line with care. It should be both reflective of the content inside the email and interesting enough to spark the open. Posing a question is an effective way to inspire opens - especially if the question hits a relevant note with your audience.
   


2. Give them a Reason to Refer
   
   Symptom: Referral rates are low.
   
   Opportunity: If gaining new customers through referral is part of your strategy, make sure your readers understand how and why they should tell their friends.
   
   Encourage referrals by describing the benefits their referral will bring to their friends — share these exclusive deals with your friends so they can take advantage too! For quantity without compromising quality, offer an incentive for successful referrals — for every friend you refer who subscribes, you'll earn an entry to win (x).
   


3. Get Creative with your Creative
   
   Symptom: Sluggish open rates combined with low clickthrough on features.
   
   Opportunity: If you find yourself delivering the same kind of content month after month, you can bet your audience is getting bored. Wake them up by shaking up your content strategy.
   
   Take a step back and review a typical issue. Is the content too long? Is it obscure or repetitive? Introduce a variety of writers or expand your newsletter's framework to allow for broader range of content types. Offer short, digestible features to offset long, heavy articles.
   
   Finally, create an editorial calendar to map out the months ahead, slotting content so that it's timely, proactive and definitely different than the month before.
   


4. Stop Pushing and Start Pulling
   
   Symptom: Restless subscribers; high unsubscribe rate.
   
   Opportunity: Find out how your subscribers feel about your newsletter: are they continuing to get value, are there segments they particularly like or don't like?
   
   Institute a simple readers' poll and pull opinions in small doses. Consider inviting them to participate in annual editorial planning by offering an extensive survey once a year.
   
   You can also provide links after features like: send us your comments on this article!
   


5. Set Great Expectations
   
   Symptom: New subscribers seem to open their first issue, but drop off by the next.
   
   Opportunity: One way to impact next month's open rates is to whet the reader's appetite now. A well-phased "teaser" will set a positive expectation and have them looking forward to your next issue.
   

Here's how that email was intended to look:

Email Design Tactics for 2006

1. Optimize your email for image blocking.

• Is my brand immediately identifiable, even without a logo?


• Will the audience understand what my message is about?


• Is the value proposition present and obvious without images?