When January 1, 2004 rolled around, it finally hit many advertisers that the CAN SPAM Act of 2003 is for real and is now in effect (see sidebar for a summary of the CAN SPAM Act of 2003).  The question became, "so what do we need to do differently?"

CHANGES
For most (legitimate) advertisers, there's not a whole lot that they need to change.  Many of the act's requirements are aimed at preventing spammers and junk emailers from sending out unwanted email since the act's requirements are based upon the tricks spammers use to deliver their email campaigns.  But there is one major aspect that affects even the most legitimate of advertisers, and that has to do with a new twist on the "do not email" or suppression list.

"DO NOT EMAIL" LIST MANAGEMENT
Before the act became official, each entity that sent out promotional email was responsible for managing their own suppression list.  This meant that if you received a promotional email from Mailer A and asked to be removed from their list, you should never receive another promotional email from Mailer A.  So no matter what Mailer A might be selling, whether it's software, music or clothes, you would never receive an email from them again.

But, if Mailer B is selling the same items you might get the same promotional emails from Mailer B as Mailer A sent out until you unsubscribed from Mailer B's list.

So before CAN SPAM, the suppression list was just mailer-specific.  Now, the suppression list is also "advertiser-specific."  What that means is if Mailer A sends you an email about Acme Widgets and you no longer wish to receive promotional emails about Acme Widgets, the advertiser is responsible for making sure that not only Mailer A no longer sends you any emails about Acme Widgets, but that Mailer B, C or anyone else who promotes Acme Widgets doesn't send you an email either.  In theory, then, you should never receive an email about Acme Widgets ever again -- from anyone.
 

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Now that the advertiser is now also responsible for maintaining a "do not email" list for their products and services, the advertiser must not only manage the suppression list, but make sure that all of its mailers, partners and others who send out emails on their behalf do not send to anyone on that list.  This can be done by regularly distributing the suppression list to all its partners, or by allowing them to download the list themselves.  Either way, the partner has up to 10 days after a person's unsubscribe request is received to remove that email address from their mailing list.  That means AT LEAST once every 10 days, the partner must obtain the latest suppression list and remove any email addresses found in the the newest unsubscribe list -- just for that particular advertiser.

So as you can imagine, if you are an affiliate for 20 different advertisers, you would need to maintain 20 different email lists -- one for each advertiser.  Plus, you'd need to clean your lists at least once every 10 days for each advertiser.  Now, you could make it easier on yourself and just maintain one email list for all 20 advertisers.  The drawback is that if Jane Doe unsubscribes herself from Advertiser A's mailing list and you removed her from your list, you'd end up missing out on sending her an email for one of your other 19 advertisers, since she didn't ask to be removed from those lists.

THE EFFECTS
The responsibility of maintaining suppression lists has now shifted from the mailer to the advertiser.  Furthermore, smart mailers will maintain different mailing lists for each advertiser so as to not unnecessarily remove someone from a list who didn't asked to be removed.

The effects of these two tasks results in more time and effort put forth by the advertiser to not only maintain and distribute a suppression list for their products and services, but also make sure that their partners are complying with the suppression list.  If a mailer does not comply, both the mailer AND the advertiser can be held liable.

The second effect is requiring more time and effort (and probably cost) by the mailers to maintain different email lists for the different advertisers for which they might send mail.

The question then becomes, is it worth for the advertiser to continue running email campaigns?  Is it worth it for the mailer to maintain different lists for each advertiser they mail for?  For some, the answer is no.

Since January 1 rolled around, I've seen quite a few companies not only discontinue all email campaigns they send out, but forbid any of their partners to send out email as well.  This includes one large firm I saw that uses email marketing as their primary method of advertising.  There could be several reasons for this.

• No Suppression List Manage and Distribution System in Place
• Don't Want to Risk Violating the CAN SPAM Act
• Not Worth the Time, Effort and/or Cost of Managing, Distributing and Enforcing the Use of A Suppression List

Because the act was just passed and things are still settling down, it's hard to know how this will all play out.  One of the first milestones, though, will be the first few cases taken to court where advertisers and/or mailers are prosecuted to see how the law is interpreted, how it is applied and to whom it is applied.

In the mean time, if you're an advertiser based in the United States, you need to make sure you have a suppression list system in place.  If you're looking for a suppression list solution, here are a few that are now available:

• The Ad Manager - Last data available showed $750 setup fee and $750 per month.
   
• DNE List - $99 Setup and $75 per month for up to 25,000 unsubscribe records per month. Or $199 setup and $149 per month for 50,000 records per month.
   
• My Suppression List - Free Setup and $75 per month for up to 50,000 unsubscribe records per month (this is what we at Milestone Marketing use).

If you're a mailer, make sure you have access to your advertiser's suppression list.  Contact your advertiser for details.

For now, we'll just have to wait and see if all this work produces the desired effect:  less spam in our in boxes.  My feeling is that end result will be making it harder and more costly for legitimate advertisers (and their mailers) to deliver their email while the level of spam remains the same.  Let's hope I'm wrong.

Thanks for reading.  And as always, you can search the back issues.

Warmest Regards,
Steve Little
CashFlowMarketing.com

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