Abazander provides a very powerful email campaign tool, but it is important that your marketing policy is to maintain accurate data and ensure that your email campaigns are sent to Opt In subscribers only. iSAM provides the tools for you to develop and deploy subscriber forms, and lead generation forms. We've included some additional useful information here also.

Quick Tips for Mailing List Administrators

• In order to avoid spamming, mailing lists must implement a secure opt-in procedure. Many so-called "opt-in" lists are nothing of the sort. Beware of anyone who wants to sell you lists. You will be disappointed.

• However the initial sign up is accomplished, whether on a web site, by email, or otherwise - iSAM Email campaigns default to providing an opt-out link at the bottom of all campaign email, this will ensure that recipients can terminate their inclusion on your list at any time.
  

  • If you do not implement this type of  opt-out, your subscribers will most likely report your mailing as spam.
    
    
  • If you do not have a working opt-in process, you should clean your list
    by reconfirming all subscribers using a mailing list confirmation email.
    
    
• Sending bulk mail requires care and you should use the campaign tools provided by iSAM to maintain your lists, which will ultimately benefit you in the long run by enhancing your reputation and ensuring that your data is clean, relevant and therefore valuable.
  
   

Advertising

Done right, bulk email can be a powerful advertising medium. Done wrong, it can hurt your reputation and put you in breach of contracts with your service providers. If you advertise through bulk email, please be very careful about who you use. As an advertiser, you share in the responsibility for how email is sent. If you support a spammer with your advertising revenue, you share the blame for the spam. It is your responsibility to verify the management of the lists you support.

On the other hand, even the most well-run list may generate some false spam complaints, we will endeavour to keep you informed of any spam notifications for your system.

Anti-Spam and Abuse Related Rules

Definition of SPAM: We have adopted the definition of Spam set forth on the Spamhaus website at http://www.spamhaus.org/definition.html The first line of the Spamhaus definition reads:

The word "Spam" as applied to Email means Unsolicited Bulk Email ("UBE").

It is a concern to us if you use iSAM to send any unsolicited email to anyone with whom you have no relationship. It is much more of a concern, and more likely to cause our system to be blocked by various ISP's, for you to send an unsolicited email to an entire list of people you don't know.

Permission Lists Only: You may use iSAM only to send Emails to individuals and entities that either:

Possibility 1 - Consent Obtained

A. gave or give you written (including electronic) permission to send Emails to them, without subsequently withdrawing such permission and either:

Consent Given Recently:- gave you the permission within the prior 12 months; or

Consent Given More Than One Year Earlier:- you sent them a promotional email, which was not objected to, within the prior 12 months; or

Possibility 2 - Sold or Negotiated to Sell Product or Service

B. gave or give you their name and email address in connection with their purchase, or negotiations to purchase, a product or service from you, have not opted out from receiving your emails and either:

Recent Sale or Negotiation:- such sale or negotiations occurred within the previous 12 months; or

Sale or Negotiation Occurred More than One Year Earlier:- you sent them a promotional email, which was not objected to, within the prior 12 months.

Avoiding SPAM with your mailing lists

If you send Emails to a list, and you get an unusual amount of SPAM complaints (more than 1 out of 1,000), ISPs will begin blocking future emails from your company. They will also request (that's putting it mildly) that Abazander Ltd, shut down your account. So if you don't have proof that each recipient on your list has opted-in to receive your emails, or otherwise meets the above requirements, don't import them into iSAM.

List Requirements:

You agree that you will use:-

No purchased lists (no matter how expensive).

No rented lists (even if they "opted in").

No 3rd party lists whatsoever.

You should only use iSAM to send newsletters, updates, and promotions to people who specifically requested email from you, or otherwise meet the requirements of A or B above.

Developing a Mailing List

Don't have a permission list yet? Maybe your company's too new and you have no customers. Feel free to set up a iSAM account, Use the Web-to-Lead Wizard in the Campaigns module to create a signup form to add to your website so that you can grow your list.

We're In This Thing Together: We do what we can to keep our system clean, but you agree to maintain your data in too.

How to maintain your data

Sending your first campaign to an old list? Many recipients won't remember you, and will report you for spamming. Do everything in your power to remind them of who you are, and how they got on your list.

Clean your customer list.

Before you import, take out any addresses older than 6 months. Bad addresses lead to bouncebacks. Too many bouncebacks, and ISPs block iSAM (and you). Abazander Ltd could be forced to shut your account down if you import an old list that gets too many bounces.

Don't just import your entire Outlook Address Book. Export them into a spreadsheet, then take some time to clean out bad addresses (like Sales@Amazon, or Support@Comcast). If you import even one address by mistake, that person can get you blacklisted and shut down.

Importing from another CRM?

Break it into separate segments or interest groups so you can send relevant content to your customers ("We met at a tradeshow, You bought xyz from us in the past, You are a client of..." etc). Don't just mix a bunch of different lists together and send one "blast" to all of them.More about SPAM and iSAM

iSAMs' tools are great for maintaining relationships with prospects and leads, then converting them into paying customers. Or just nurturing your customer relationships. The email marketing tools in iSAM are built for one-to-many communication. Spam laws apply differently when you do one-to-many email marketing, and indeed the Laws are different for Business to Business than they are for Business to Consumer. A Spam lawsuit can carry a penalty of up to 2 years in prison.

Before importing any list into iSAM from any other database you maintain, understand our permission-lists-only rules. Remove any prospects or leads who did not explicitly request email marketing from you or otherwise meet the requirements of A or B above. Even if you're sending email marketing to customers who have consented to receive your Email, you are still required, under applicable law, to allow them to opt-out of your email marketing list, iSAM will provide this opt-out link for you automatically at the bottom of every email. The simple fact that a recipient is "in my iSAM system” is not the same as "they gave us permission to send them email marketing."

Prohibited Content and Industries

Don't use iSAM to send anything offensive, to promote anything illegal, or to harass anyone.

You may not send:

• Pornography or other sexually explicit Emails

• Emails offering to sell illegal substances

• Emails that violate the CAN-SPAM Law

Also, there are some industries that send certain types of content that result in higher than normal bounce rates and abuse complaints, which in turn jeopardize the deliverability of our entire system. No offense intended, but because we must ensure the highest delivery rates possible for all our customers, we do not allow businesses that offer these types of services, products, or content:

• Illegal goods or services.

• Escort and dating services.

• Pharmaceutical products.

• Work from home, Internet Lead-gen, Make money on online opportunities, etc.

• Online trading, day trading tips, or stock market related content

• Gambling services, products or gambling education

• Multi-level marketing

• Affiliate marketers

• Credit repair, get-out-of-debt content

• Mortgages and/or Loans

• Nutritional Supplements, Herbal Supplements or Vitamin Supplements

• Pornography or nudity in content

• Adult novelty items or references in content

• List brokers or List rental services

• Marketing or sending commercial email without proper permission

The final word

Generally speaking, if you're in an industry that is frequently associated with spam, you know who you are (it's probably why you're reading this far, right?). We make no judgments about your line of business, but we cannot afford to risk our deliverability. In fact, most ESPs like Abazander Ltd will not be able to help you. You will most likely need to look into setting up your own mail servers. The term to search on is "email delivery server." There are many industrial strength MTAs to choose from with built-in delivery and reporting tools for high-volume senders.