email list best practice handling

[richardt]

Hi,
I'm handling an email list for a client. Its about 10,000 and they have managed it manually (no double opt in or anything) for a few years.
Before I do anything I plan to clean it up. Should I send an email to all on the list and give them the option to click to remove ?

What would you advise in this situation ?

[Duncan Pollock]

I think you/we need to know a lot more before taking a decision.
For instance, what's the focus/purpose of each mailing? To sell something, to announce a new product, to advise of a current special, to offer news and comment about industry/company updates, whatever?
In addition, what has the past frequency of mailings been -- and do you/they intend to change it (and, if so, why)?
And perhaps not the least, who are the recipients and how/why did the company first decide to include them in their mailing list?
In effect, I'm suggesting you don't throw any baby out with the dishwater. Instead, make haste somewhat slowly. Find out who and what you're dealing with before changing very much.
In any case, if you follow the example of various e-mail service people (e.g. Constant Contact, IntelliContactPro, etc), you could simply do two things that would, all on their own, effect any desirable/useful clean up of the list:
a) Add a footnote to each mailing on the lines of Click here if you wish to update your address or have it removed from our mailing list -- and you need to install a system that will honour all such requests.
b) Institute a system that records bounces (hard ones in particular) and then decide to internally delete any address that shows say five or more of them.
However, I'd be quite reluctant to invite a whole host of "cancellations." Given that the recipients have been receiving mail since some time before the CANSPAM rules came into being, you can fairly safely assume "silence means consent" and simply wait for each individual to request removal (i.e. per the footnote I'm suggesting you add to all future mailings).
The only reservation I'd make is to ensure that the present e-mail server doesn't change. If it does, you would then immediately become guilty of sending unsolicitated mails out to people.

Duncan

[richardt]

Hi Duncan,
The advise you've given me there would probably have cost me alot of money somewhere else. I extremely grateful for the time you spent responding to my posting.

It has made me completely reconsider my approach to this and some ideas.

Thank you for your advise, I will use it.

[Duncan Pollock]

Only too pleased to be of some help. But it's what WPW is all about, isn't it? I've been the recipient of useful advice myself on several occasions.
One other point occurs to me, however, and that's to do with the e-mail server you're using. As I said, you need to make sure it doesn't change, but I'm wondering if this is going to be be as easy/convenient as it sounds.
You may in fact be planning to send out future mailings yourself, rather than having the client do this from their own location. If so, you are, of course, going to run up against the CAN-SPAM problem.
However, there's a possible way round it, somewhat as follows:
1. Send everyone a "special mailing" that introduces yourself and the fact that you've been appointed to manage the company's mailings.
2. Point out that, because they've been receiving mailings for some time, they fall into what the CAN-SPAM people call "assumed permission subscribers."
3. Add that, nevertheless, they will now have an opportunity with this and each subsequent mailing to "opt out" as a subscriber. All they need to do is click on the link at the end of page.
I did this sort of thing myself three years ago when I changed from using my Outlook program to signing up with IntelliContact Pro. It worked well and I've seen only a handful of "Remove Me" requests since then.

Duncan

[richardt]

Thanks again for the further info.

I wondered if you knew (and I'm starting to research but hoping for a head start) how does can spam act effect business in the UK if at all ?

[Duncan Pollock]

Not sure that CAN-SPAM has any effect in the UK at all. The essential thrust is at North American senders (which is why the Oriental etc spam artists can -- and do -- safely[?] ignore the regulations). However, I can well believe that mailings originating "this side of the pond" will fall under the "Thou Shalt Not" rules.
In any case, the &##%%$# filters that the ISPs use, seemingly everywhere, could have an impact on whatever UK addresses are on your client's mailing list.

Duncan

PS. If in fact you're UK based yourself (and the e-mail server is also so located), then much of what I've said could be simply academic. Instead, what you need to do is run the UK equivalent of CAN-SPAM to earth, assuming one exists, and then modify what I've said accordingly.

[dexter]

Don't waste time trying to manually manage a email list on your own. I had to learn the hard way and spent YEARS fooling around with various email programs. But once I signed up with Aweber, all my headaches were gone. Trust me on this, sign-up with them and don't even give it a second thought.

http://www.aweber.com/?203531