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THE EMAIL ADVOCATE: CAN-SPAM Update

What is the status of the FTC’s CAN-SPAM rulemaking and is the agency going to reduce the opt-out timeframe?

It’s already been more than two-and-a-half years since the FTC issued its discretionary CAN-SPAM Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in which the agency proposed, among other things, to reduce marketers’ allowable opt-out processing timeframe from 10 to three business days.

At last summer’s DMA Email Policy Summit, FTC Spam Coordinator Sana Chriss told attendees that “a team is in place,” and the FTC was working on finalizing its rules. However, at the same time Chriss noted that, because the rulemaking is discretionary, it’s up to the agency as to if and when final CAN-SPAM rules are issued at all, and if so what they’d ultimately say.

So will the opt-out timeframe be reduced? Nothing can be said for certain, but it is encouraging that Chriss acknowledged at that meeting that the vast majority of the 151 organizations who submitted comments to the agency in response to its NPRM described operational challenges that would make it overly burdensome to comply with a 3-day opt-out. You can review those comments for yourself here.

Another positive development has been the agency’s December 2007 report to Congress on the current state of the spam problem. In its “Next Steps” section, the document made no reference to reducing the opt-out timeframe, instead looking to technological developments like email authentication, collaborative government-industry initiatives and consumer education programs as more promising anti-spam measures.

So what should marketers do?

● Stay “in-the-know.” Keep in mind that the opt-out period still could be reduced, and closely follow developments on the Hill as relates to any changes to CAN-SPAM. One way to make sure you’re not out in the cold when it comes to knowing what to comply with and how to do so is by participating in the eec’s Advocacy Roundtable! Members can sign up today by shooting an email to Ali Swerdlow at ali@emailexperience.org. Not an eec member yet? Ali can help you with that too!

● Make opting-out fast and simple. Some very reputable marketers have some very legitimate reasons for needing a full 10 business days to process opt-outs, and it’s essential that we preserve the status quo in that regard. That said, for the sake of maintaining positive customer relationships and improving deliverability, we always recommend processing opt-outs as fast as possible. Making the process shorter for your company will also put you on solid footing in the event that the FTC does eventually decide to reduce the opt-out timeframe.

We’d like to hear your thoughts on this subject. How would a reduced opt-out timeframe impact your company and/or clients? Also, has the lack of decisive clarity on additional outstanding CAN-SPAM issues such as “forward to a friend” and “multiple sender” campaigns been an impediment to your marketing efforts? Let us know by commenting below.

—eec Advocacy Roundtable co-chairs Jordan Cohen of Epsilon and Robb Walters of Costco

-->Read other issues of the The Email Advocate.

Posted on January 30, 2008 4:40 PM | Permalink

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the voices of email

The Email Experience Council's membership includes many of the brightest and most committed email marketing experts. We're pleased to have some of them share their insights here on these pages. Our blog contributors include:

Jordan Ayan is the chairman of Create-It!, a technology consulting organization, as well as the CEO of SubscriberMail, one of the leading email marketing companies. A two-time book author, a patent holder and a frequent speaker, Jordan has more than 20 years of experience in direct and database marketing. Read more.

Nicholas Einstein is director of strategic and analytic services at Datran Media. Specializing in email and CRM strategy, he helps some of America’s top brands leverage online channels to communicate more effectively with their customers and prospects.

Lisa Harmon is a principal at Smith-Harmon, a creative services consultancy dedicated to email marketing strategy and production. She works with marketers to increase clickthrough, maximize revenue, and infuse delight into their email creative. Lisa is also the blogger behind edm.smith-harmon.com, an ongoing commentary on the best (and worst!) in email marketing creative. Read more.

Chip House is ExactTarget's VP of marketing services, leading the teams responsible for client success. He was named to BtoB Magazine’s 2005 “Who’s Who in B-To-B,” for being a vocal proponent of legitimate commercial email and an active lobbyist regarding spam and privacy issues. Read more.

Marco Marini is the CEO of ClickMail Marketing (CMM) and an acknowledged expert in e-marketing with over a decade and half's-worth of experience in the field. Before taking over as CEO, he was CMM's VP of Marketing & Operations. Marini has also held key marketing positions with CyberSource, eHealthInsurance, DoveBid and IBM Canada.

Stephanie Miller is VP of strategic services for Return Path, the leading email performance company. She works with marketers to earn a higher ROI and response from their acquisition and retention email programs—developing content, contact and segmentation strategies, along with testing, measurement and production programs. Read more.

Erick Mott is communications director at email service provider Lyris. He has 20 years of experience from enterprise, SMB, agency and start-up marketing, communications and innovation roles at companies including Habeas, Nokia, MarkMonitor, GlobalFluency, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Philips Electronics and two of his own start-ups. Read more.

Jeanniey Mullen is the Email Experience Council's founder and the global EVP and CMO of global online publishing company Zinio. She is a thought leader and visionary in the email and digital marketing field. A columnist for ClickZ, she has published numerous papers and is a frequent speaker. Read more.

Kevin Senne is the Strategic Deliverability Director for Premiere Global Services. Kevin has been heavily involved in all facets of email marketing for more than a decade and he previously managed Email Operations for Travelocity.com. Kevin specializes in deliverability, strategy, and social media integratio and he focuses on helping marketers become permission-based one-to-one marketers. Read more.

Charles Stiles is the VP of worldwide business development at Goodmail Systems. In his role, Charles is focused on helping generate a better understanding of the email environment and potential solutions for a better consumer experience. He currently serves as the chairman for the Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group. Read more.

Jeremy Swift is director of client relations for email service provider BlueHornet. He helped form BlueHornet’s founding team in 2000 and has been responsible for client services and marketing strategy since the company’s inception. Jeremy is known for his ability to articulate technical information in ways that clearly resonate with today’s online marketer.

Kara Trivunovic currently serves as the senior director of strategic services for StrongMail Systems, where she is responsible for helping marketers optimize their email marketing programs for greater returns. Most recently Kara was founder and principal of The Email Advisor, a respected email marketing consultancy. Prior to launching The Email Advisor, Kara led strategic services for the email division of Premiere Global Services. Kara brings a unique perspective to the space having worked on the client, agency and provider side for 10 years.

Chris Wheeleris the director of deliverability at Bronto Software. He is leading the charge for ensuring both Bronto's customers and staff are well informed about email marketing practices and technology as well as being the face of Bronto deliverability externally. Previously, Chris created the internal deliverability program at Amazon.com alongside program managing the operations of the email team and was at an ESP leading a team of deliverability consultants. Besides being a frequent contributor on Deliverability.com, Chris is a part of many email industry forums, both business and technical. Read more.

Chad White is the research director at Smith-Harmon, an email marketing strategy and creative services agency. He is the founder of the Retail Email Blog, a blog dedicated to tracking the email marketing practices of the largest online retailers. Chad regularly writes major research reports on email marketing and is an Email Insider columnist for MediaPost. Read more.