Last week the Federal Trade Commission announced its approval of a “new rule provision under the CAN-SPAM Act,” and it was a long time coming—fully 3 years after the Commission first issued the May 2005 discretionary Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that lead up to it.

I’m not going to spend time here going through all the rules and “rulings”—they’re relatively straightforward and you can read about them here. Instead, I want to call attention to what I view as the most important victories our industry gained here:

● The FTC preserved the 10 business day opt-out period. In 2005 they had proposed reducing it to only 3 business days.

● The FTC made it easier for marketers to assign a single “Sender” when it comes to “multiple advertiser” campaigns. The perceived “grey area-ness” of law on this issue had been a big concern for many firms.

Concerted industry advocacy—which is so core to the mission of the eec and DMA and their members—played a central role in last week’s final outcome. We are also fortunate that the FTC was so open to hearing our views and so interested in learning about the inner-workings of the industry.

More than a hundred of us submitted formal comments to the FTC, and many even met with agency staff to voice our perspectives and concerns about the NPRM in person. And in the official Federal Register notice detailing the new rule provision, the impact of our collaborative efforts is apparent throughout. See for example, on page 81, where the Commission notes:

…the time period for processing opt-out requests required by legitimate commercial emailers varies, and often exceeds three business days depending upon a number of factors, including the size of the business, the existence of third-party marketing agreements, and the maintenance of multiple email databases.

and

Approximately 100 commenters addressed the issue of whether the period for opt-out compliance should be reduced. The vast majority—over 85%—opposed reducing the time frame to less than 10 business days.

Bottom line: Your voice can and does need to be heard to ensure that the email marketing landscape continues to grow and prosper—and that your consumers have the best possible email experiences when doing business with your brands.

The FTC may have issued the last of its CAN-SPAM rules but the members of the eec have a lot more advocating to do. We need to get more ISPs up-and-running with authentication, accreditation and reputation protocols. We need more “unsub” buttons and feedback loops.

My co-chair Robb Walters of Costco Wholesale and I would love to hear your thoughts. What else do we need, and what do you think it will take for us to get there? Comment here or email us, and stay tuned for information about our next Advocacy Roundtable meeting.

—eec Advocacy Roundtable co-chair Jordan Cohen of Goodmail Systems

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

the voice of email

Welcome to the Email Experience Council's blog, a forum for the email marketing industry's leading voices. On these pages, you'll find the opinions and thought-leadership that's driving the next evolution of email.

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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:

Elie Ashery is the president and CEO of Gold Lasso, and is responsible for the company’s vision and strategy execution. Before joining Gold Lasso, he co-founded Newsletters.com in 1997, selling it to The Tribune Cos. in 2000. He then worked for IncenSoft, focusing on email marketing while there. Read more.

Amy Bills is the senior manager of field marketing at lead optimization company Bulldog Solutions. She is responsible for lead generation and the go-to-market execution of Bulldog's new products and initiatives. Amy was previously the editorial team leader of Freescale Semiconductor’s internal creative agency and a senior editor at Hoover’s Online. 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.

Spencer Kollas is the director of delivery services at StrongMail, helping maximize customers’ email deliverability rates. He was previously director of deliverability services for Premiere Global Services. Spencer is an active member in the Email Sender & Provider Coalition, Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group, the Anti-Phishing Work Group and, of course, the eec. Read more.

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 the director of marketing and corporate communications for Habeas, the leader in email reputation management services. He has a rich background in marketing and communications strategy and execution for such companies as Nokia, MarkMonitor, GlobalFluency, Cisco Systems, Creator Connection, Sun Microsystems, Philips NV, Elm Products and CBS Television. Read more.

Jeanniey Mullen is the Email Experiene 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.

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.

DJ Waldow is an account manager at Bronto Software. He works with Bronto’s largest clients to help them achieve and surpass their marketing goals. An active member of the email marketing community, DJ posts regularly on the Email Marketer’s Club, publishes a bi-weekly email marketing best practices newsletter, and films BrontoFire.

Chad White is the Email Experience Council’s director of retail insights and editor-at-large. He founded and is the author 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.