Newsletter Nightmares - Complying With CAN-SPAM
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Since this was an American company, after sorting out the database issues they had to also come to terms with the CAN-SPAM Act. It's not all that difficult, but as is often true with these things, the devil is in the details. Two very important changes had to be made: the company had to set up a double opt-in system for its newsletters, and it needed to add an unsubscribe link to every newsletter it sent out.
A double opt-in system for newsletters is very much what it sounds like. If you have a link on your web site that allows users to sign up for your newsletter, the first opt-in happens when they fill out the form on your web site and check the box that says "Yes! Sign me up for your free newsletter!" The second opt-in happens when you automatically send an email to the address they gave you in the web form, thanking them for their interest, telling them a little more about what they can expect, and giving them a link to click to confirm their subscription.
The etiquette concerning this second level of opt-in is important. If they unsubscribe at this point, let them; do NOT add them to your database of subscribers. If they don't click the link that confirms their subscription, treat them as not having signed up for your newsletter. For all you know, someone else played a prank on them by putting their information into the form; kids played these stunts all the time in the days before the Internet by taking the postage paid subscription cards out of random magazines they found, filling them out with their victim's information and mailing them off.
Thankfully, in these days of quickly built and easily modified templates, adding an unsubscribe link to every issue of the company's newsletters was a piece of cake. My friend told me she doesn't know how many subscribers they lost, but seems to recall that it wasn't that many. And it was more than made up for by the fact that the ones who stayed really DID want to receive the newsletter they'd signed up for. It wasn't too long before the circulation for the two newsletters grew beyond the subscribers they lost. And once they were able to show they had mended their ways, the online craft company got itself off of the "black lists" maintained by companies that track spammers.
But happy endings are far more common in fairy tales than real life, and as you probably guessed, this isn't the end of the story. After getting itself successfully on track, and becoming rather popular, our little craft company with two newsletters married a handsome prince - err, joined forces with a larger company that also covered crafts. And that, according to my friend, is where the trouble began.
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