Email is massive and it’s a great way to generate enormous about of engagement to your blog. Through a solid email marketing campaign, you’ll be able to increase return visitors, conversions, brand awareness, and profits. Neil Patel from QuickSprout.com has stated it would be impossible for him to generate 100,000 visitors to his blog WITHOUT a solid email marketing campaign in place. However, people are NOT only collecting email address through their blog, but also purchasing lists relevant to their niche. Many bloggers have set up lead generation websites for the sole purpose of selling the lists to industry relevant companies. This is a grey line practice and is allowed as long as the CANSPAM set of rules are followed. Here’s something,
Around 4 years ago, I used to convert CPA offers through email marketing. The strategy was very simple, which consisted of the following:
- Setting up various servers
- Purchasing niche relevant email lists
- Find the right CPA offer
- Purchase domains to follow CANSPAM rules
- Bulk email campaigns throughout various days for testing
- Then optimize over time
The whole strategy proved to be very successful, however, the rules have become tighter in recent years. If you are heavily involved in email marketing, or looking to get involved, then here’s a quick breakdown of the rules as they apply to this strategy.
Email Headers and Domain –
CANSPAM has definitely made sure people are protected from misleading information so it’s a rule to ensure headers and domain MATCHES when sending messages. For example, your “From” and the “domain” should match at all times. This will ensure you are NOT misleading people to click-through by falsely stating your business name. Keep in mind, without having this rule in place, you can list a different business name in the “From” field and redirect someone to an entirely different non-relevant domain.
Subject and Content –
To protect recipients, it’s important the subject line and content of message always MATCH. For example, how deceptive will it be to have subject line say: “Information Regarding Your Insurance”, which would be very sensitive and a majority of people would open this message, but the content is a credit card application. This is very deceptive and a way to profit from peoples’ sensitivity to their insurance policy. In short,
You must ensure your SUBJECT and email CONTENT match at all times.
Valid Location Address –
You’ve probably noticed a majority of email messages you get will contain a postal address toward the bottom. It will actually be right above the “Unsubscribe” button. CANSPAM is very strict about letting people know your true location and where the message is being sent from. Here’s what they have to say about this particular rule:
“This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.”
Advertisement –
This rule is very straight forward as it requires you to let recipients know if your message is an advertisement. However, CANSPAM has provided a lot of flexibility in the way this can be done.
Unsubscribe Button –
It’s important you have a clear way for recipients to opt out of receiving further correspondence. This should be done by adding an “Unsubscribe” button to the bottom of all messages. Next, when they choose to opt out, you have to ensure they’ll be removed from further messages. This is a very important rule of email marketing and CANSPAM has put enormous weight on this rule. The last thing they want is complaints that people have NOT been able to opt out after an attempt has been made to unsubscribe. Next,
All unsubscribe requests MUST be processed within 10 business days. Any messages you’ve sent MUST be able to process opt out requests for 30 days. In other words, if I send out an email today and some recipients open it after 28 days, my ESP must be able to process their opt out request.