CorporatePR

Do We Need to Worry about Mobile Spam?

Maybe not.  Interesting analysis here:

Mobile spam will be different for exactly those reasons. 1. It’s not dirt cheap. It’s cheap (relative to how intrusive it is), but there’s still an economic cost. No penis enlargement SMS in the foreseeable future. 2. It’s easy to trace. There’s no way people will be able to spam without the knowledge of a mobile operator. People do complain and they complain to their MNO. If this stuff is really unrequested, we will see aggregators and spammer shutting down in droves. Furthermore, I see ICSTIS or the MMA (in the UK) and MNOs themselves starting to make mobile marketers jump through considerable hoops to send even permissions-based marketing. The reason for that is simple: churn. Look at Finland or Denmark, where MVNOs and MNOs are engaged in cut-throat competition. The era of single-digit revenue growth is looming. The financial focus at operators is on capital-return, proof being the recent share buybacks / dividends of Voda / DoCoMo. MNOs cannot afford to be the network people run away from. 3. Legislation. Spam legislation will be applied to mobile as well. Let’s see the first people in government getting spam on the mobiles they use for their day-to-day affairs. They’ve been relatively insulated from internet spam in their official lives. They won’t be as lucky on their phones (there ain’t no government firewall there).

[Hat tip to Stuart]

Heads Up on New Email Registries

This according to the AP:

Michigan and Utah have until Friday to create and operate registries of e-mail addresses similar to "do-not-call" lists. Businesses will have to buy copies of the registries and face prison time and fines if they send e-mail to any addresses that parents submit. The registries also can include instant-message addresses, cell phones and pager numbers.

US Goverment Keeping Up with the Times

Boy, was I relieved to read this [Via Trade Show Executive]:

Organizations Get Reprieve on Fax Rules    

Washington, DC - The U.S. House of Representatives today passed legislation that will allow associations and companies to continue sending unsolicited faxes to their members and clients under loosened rules defining “existing business relationship.” The U.S. Senate passed a similar bill last week.  President Bush is expected to sign the legislation by week’s end. In addition, the FCC granted an additional six-month stay, to January 9, 2006, for new FCC rules that were slated to take effect Friday.  This action came in response to a request from the American Society of Association Executives and the Fax Ban Coalition.

Hijacked Email Address

One of my email addresses has been hijacked by spammers.  I logged in this morning to a zillion "can't be delivered" messages.  I didn't send the spam, of course, but who knows how many people got zinged by this.

Is there any way of stopping this practice?  I keep hearing that there isn't, but maybe something has changed.

Communications Policy Framework

Russ Jones of Glenbrook Partners has written a very useful article on how spam and phishing is eroding email-based permission marketing and what companies can do to improve their practices in order to keep this important information channel open with customers, partners and so on.

He writes, "What's needed is a whole new approach to online customer communications," and outlines a communications policy framework. You should read the whole article, but some key points include:

* Keep a public list of emails currently circulating so people can check if the one they received is real
* Use a single, core domain for all outbound communications
* Provide single sign-on/consolidated user accounts
* Develop and publicize a communications policy
* Embrace syndicated data as a new delivery channel
* Establish a customer fraud center

A Curious Way to Request One To Join Your Email List

I received an odd email asking me to opt-in to a list from ListBuilder about "HandEvent".

"HandEvent" has invited you to join their mailing list. If you wish to receive their mailings, please reply to this message and you will be added to the subscription list.

If you do not reply to this message in order to confirm your addition to the "HandEvent" mailing list, you will not be placed on the list and will not receive any e-mail from them.

_______________________________________________________________________
Powered by List Builder
To view information about List Builder's privacy policy, follow the link:...[I took out the link]

I looked up HandEvent on google, and found this company. Their service does, in fact, sound interesting, as our agency does produce a range of events. Therefore, I filled out a questions/comments form on their website, including the above information and stating:

As you can see, there is no information about HandEvent in this email. It is the first email of its type I have ever received, and I was immediately suspicious it was spam (especially given the name, which could have a rather racy connotation). However, I thought I would contact you to find out if it was legit.

I am a marketing/PR person and I am curious if this technique has been successful for you.

I'll let you know what the response is. I have been noodling a lot lately on how small companies with small budgets can use the web/Internet in other ways for marketing now that email direct marketing is dying a miserable, slow death.

We Aren't the Only Ones Confused

Wired News has a story about how email marketers are rather confused by CAN-SPAM. But, the consensus seems to be that the Feds won't go after legit marketers (no guarantees however) and furthermore, that the state of California, at least, has so little money to go after people, that the Attorney General declined to give the amount (probably laughable).

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court. We'll keep an eye out!

More on Complying with CAN-SPAM

With thanks to John Cass, here is some information on some ramifications of CAN-SPAM from Marketing Sherpa. I am reposting it below as I think it is very important.

Managing opt-out lists is going to be an enormous endeavor. You have to match yours with lists you buy. You have to make sure all people in your organization comply. There needs to be central databases on intranets with easy-to-use web-based tools that will enable you to match emails before you send anything. I don't think this really exists in a simply, foolproof way yet.

If you show you are doing your best to comply in good faith with the law, hopefully the lawyers will cut you some slack. But don't count on it.

Link Spam

Will this destroy the web? From BuzzMachine:

Insidious : Alan Meckler points to a new kind of advertising as if it's cool. It's not. It's troubling. Vibrant media looks for contextual words inside a document and matches them to advertisers -- so far, fine. But then it turns those words into links to the advertiser. Today, you have the faith that a link will take you to something a person thought was worthwhile of your time. If this thing takes hold, then you'll never know whether you're linking to something worthwhile or to an ad. Thus links lose their credibility. It's link spam.

Spam Filters and PR

Some good advice from Wired News:

Do not use profanity. Be very careful when discussing financial or business affairs. Avoid any mention of your private parts. Do not offer any guarantees, or refer to checks that may or may not be in the mail.

Refrain from describing anything or anybody as "free." Abstain from the exuberant use of punctuation marks. Shun simple salutations like "Hello," and opt instead to craft a detailed, personalized subject line.

Oh, and don't ever use the word opt, particularly in conjunction with the words "in" or "out."