How to Use a Do Not Email List for Protection from CAN-SPAM Lawsuits
- Part II: Vendors Profiled


One of the biggest concerns we hear from marketers about
do-not-email (DNE) lists is how to secure them -- not just from
random hackers but from rogue affiliates, as well as staffers at a
third-party suppression service.

In this second half of our special report on creating and managing
DNE lists, we'll cover: securing your list, protecting against
accidentally contacting people on the list, in-house management
versus outsourcing to a suppression service. Plus you'll find a list
of vendors and a link to Part I at the end.

Security concerns for DNE lists

Your house mailing list is one of your biggest assets, but your DNE
list is solid gold compared to it. Why? Because it's full of live
addresses owned by people who care about them. (What an irony! Your
cleanest list is made up of people who don't want anything from
you.)

You don't want to hand over your DNE list with the email addresses
showing. Even encrypting data might not prevent an unauthorized
person from decrypting it.

Don't rely on a password-protected Web site, either. Passwords won't
do you much good if they don't expire after they get used, if
everybody has the same password, or if a disgruntled affiliate or
employee has access to it.

Solution? You may want to use an outside vendor to manage DNE lists.
That vendor can run multiple mailing lists against each other
without revealing data to other parties that don't need the
information. The sophisticated companies are using match-code
technology or a process called "hashing" to code data in a way that
the original data can't be detected.

More data on these companies below...

What if Somebody Wants to Resubscribe?

This is another question we hear over and over, because it's a gray
area in the CAN-SPAM law.

Some conservative marketers have taken it to mean that they will
never, ever send anything to that address anymore, and any queries
from a DNE-list address will go unanswered.

Unless the Federal Trade Commission's impending regulations say
differently, we'll say that you can return a DNE-list address to
active status, but only if you take extreme care and log all
contacts showing who contacted whom first.

If you get a new subscription request from a DNE-list address,
you'll have to treat it differently from standard requests. Your
email vendor can also suggest alternatives based on your operating
systems, but here are two possibilities:

-- At your Web site, requests coming from DNE-list addresses from a
Web form can trigger a warning page or pop-up alert reminding users
that they had previously opted out of email and asking them to
confirm the request.

If you get an affirmative, remove the address first from your DNE
list and then proceed with the subscription process.

-- Email subscription requests would trigger an autoresponder
message with the same warning and confirmation request that would go
on a Web page. You might have to override your DNE protection in
order to send that email, though.

Requests that come from alternative channels -- point-of-purchase
forms, customer-service dealings, etc. -- you'll have to handle
almost case by case. Again, your database manager or email vendor
might suggest a method.

We can't tell you exactly how to do it, because it will depend on
how your list software works and how you have configured it to check
against your DNE list for matching addresses and prevent accidental
mailings.

How Does a DNE List Affect Viral Marketing?

You can't stop your subscribers from forwarding your email messages
from their own email programs. If they use your forward-to-a-friend
or email-to-a-friend systems, then you become the sender. If the
email goes to someone who has opted out, you could be in big
trouble.

As with getting resubscribe requests, you will have to intercept
that forward, either with a Web form or an email autoresponder,
denying the forward because the address is on your DNE list.
This procedure applies to all of your timed notices, too, even those
as benign as birthday or anniversary acknowledgments. Nothing goes
out unless it runs through your DNE list first.

Your system should ping your DNE list first and respond accordingly
if it finds a match.

Being this cautious will hurt you if your lead-acquisition or
sales-generating programs depend on forwarding. On the other hand,
you haven't lost much, because those addresses don't want to hear
from you, anyway.

In-House or Outsourcing?

First, before you start searching for someone to manage your list,
grab your email broadcast vendor to see what it's doing to create
and manage in-house DNE lists.

Some bigger shops, such as Digital Impact, Silverpop and EmailLabs,
and major list brokers such as NetCreations, either have gone ahead
and created a service, as an add-on or a standard feature, or are
developing one.

How you run your business will also determine whether you can manage
your list in-house or find it better to outsource.

One major loyalty marketer, which emails special offers to its
10-million-address house list on behalf of its advertisers, also
uses affiliates to acquire new members.

All of the emails it sends to its own list use the company's name
either as the sole sender or as a dual sender with the advertiser's
name. The company manages that DNE process in-house, accounting for
95% of its business.

Acquisition campaigns it runs with affiliate partners make up the
remaining 5%. For those campaigns, it uses a third-party suppression
service, which scrubs the DNE list against the affiliates' own
lists.

The less complex your email program is, the more likely you can
manage with an in-house program. If you work with affiliates,
collect addresses from multiple channels, rent lists or email
third-party offers along with company news and newsletters, an
outsourced service will make your life easier.

If you decide to outsource, you'll want to quiz prospective vendors
closely on turnaround time, list security, cost structure and
integration with other applications, such as sales lead generation,
contact management or customer service and relationships.

How to Pick a Vendor: 14-Question Checklist

Ready to outsource? This niche of the market is young but growing,
with companies offering different approaches and at different cost
levels.

Your first step is to develop a shortlist of three to four
prospective vendors:
-- Start at the Web sites of some well-established email-service
providers or list brokers to see if they offer stand-alone
suppression services.
-- Review the sample list of vendors in the resource list below.
-- Search the Web using keywords such as "email suppression" or
"suppression services."
-- Ask your email vendor, IT or marketing staffs for
recommendations.
Got your list? Now, ask these questions:
#1. Are you bonded?
#2. What physical security and data back-up do you provide?
#3. How do you secure my list from unauthorized users once I send it
to you?
#4. How do you code the data to prevent affiliates from figuring out
who's on my DNE list?
#5. Who has access to my data and for how long?
#6. In what form do you deliver the data to my affiliate?
#7. What format do I use to upload data?
#8. How fast can you turn around my list?
#9. How do you structure fees, and what are they?
#10. Do you retain my list in your database or drop it after you
scrub my partner's list?
#11. Do you remove the opt-outs that come in from my partner's
campaign?
#12. What third-party auditing services do you use to verify your
privacy and security practices?
#13. What's your background in the email industry? What other
services or companies are affiliated or associated with this one?
Who are the company leaders and what are their backgrounds?
#14. Can you integrate this system with my sales or CRM
applications?
(By the way: Did we miss any obvious questions? Send them to
mailto:janetr@marketingsherpa.com , and we'll update the list.)


Resource list: Four Suppression-service Vendors
Note: This is only a sample list. MarketingSherpa.com doesn't
endorse any of the vendors listed. Search the Web using keywords
such as "email suppression" or "CAN-SPAM suppression" to bring up
more vendors.
UnsubCentral.com
http://www.UnsubCentral.com/
Joshua Baer, CEO
This new company is an independent offshoot of Austin, Texas-based
SKYLIST, an email-services provider.
Services: One-stop opt-out management service, including list
scrubbing, DNE list hosting and integration, reporting.
Fees: $250 set up, $250 monthly plus $25 per merge/purge
CANComply (in development; beta testing)
http://www.cancomply.com/
Steve Webster, president
Offshoot of email services provider iPost.
Services: Consent Manager tracks and manages opt-out list. Mailflow
Manager manages outbound email for compliance. Beta testers welcome:
email mailto:cancomply@ipost.com
Fees: Consent Manager, $2,495 annual flat rate. Mailflow Manager,
$495 annual license for plug-in (open-source plugin for sendmail
free but no tech support). iPost hosted database, $4,995 annual flat
rate, 10 million records max.
Pica9
http://www.pica9.com/
Kevin Groome, CEO
Marketing services company
Services: Manages DNE lists for companies sending to relatively
low-volume email lists, such as sales people, travel agencies, etc.
Fees: $2,500 set-up, $200 to $300 to create custom templates, send
fee per email of 2-3 cents
CAN-SPAM Compliance Company
http://www.can-spamcompliance.com/
Michael O'Brien, CEO
Services: Opt-out list management, message review for compliance,
consulting and reporting
Fees: $250 to $500 monthly.
Also, here's a link to the first part of this report:
How to Create, Manage, & Use a Do Not Email List for Protection from
CAN-SPAM Lawsuits:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sampl...contentID=2655
(Open access until April 11th.)