Reality check: respect your subscribers, and you're unlikely to be targeted

If you follow the five steps mentioned here you are extremely unlikely to be targeted by the FTC, or be accused of spamming by your subscribers. I call this section the reality check because most people engaged in email marketing are overly concerned with the legal indications of the CAN-SPAM act. In reality, the FTC is going after the top spammers—the people responsible for 95 percent of all spam—and they are not at all concerned with isolated complaints from subscribers that simply forgot they subscribed.

In other words, it would take a very large number of complaints to the FTC to result in any sort of investigation of your firm's email marketing practices. You have to remember: the FTC has sharply limited resources, and yet they've been asked to tackle a global problem that quite literally far exceeds the boundaries and capabilities of any law enforcement organization in any country. The FTC doesn't have an army of investigators waiting to nail people who receive a couple of isolated complaints. To earn yourself a spot on the FTC's radar, you have to engage in extremely high volume, deceptive, and outright fraudulent email marketing. And my experience has been that the people concerned with CAN-SPAM are the kind of people who would never engage in such activities.

Summary: Stay compliant and pursued permission email marketing

The information in this short guide has hopefully helped remind you of the simple principles of staying compliant with federal anti-spam law. But that's just the beginning. To experience a leadership position in email marketing, and to explore the tremendous potential offered to you by permission email practices, I strongly encourage you to learn more about permission email and, where possible, implement permission email strategies to build trust and rapport with your customers.

Go beyond the bare minimum requirements for email and leverage the full potential of this medium to build meaningful relationships with your customers that ultimately serve both their interests and yours. Use email for learning about the interests, needs, and desires of your customers, rather than bombarding them with an endless stream of offers. Set an example that is so firmly based on the foundations of permission marketing that even if a few people complained to the FTC, a quick glance at your email marketing practices by FTC investigators would reveal that you are in fact deeply engaged in respecting your customers, and not at all engaged in spamming practices.

I urge you to put this information to constructive use, and I appreciate the permission you’ve given me to share this information with you. My name is Mike Adams, I’m the president of Arial Software, and I invite you to learn more about Arial Software’s permission email marketing software solutions that help you accomplish the compliance and the forward-looking marketing goals mentioned in this guide.