From Dave’s Desk –»
Being a communications services company, BLI is always on top of the latest fax and email legislation to make sure we are compliant, and most importantly, our customers remain compliant when sending fax and email communications to their customers. March’s newsletter contains a brief overview of the latest email and fax legislation. Our solutions always provide customers with opt-out (email) and DNS (fax) features according to the latest laws. We have a new release of WebLaunch with features and tools for even more campaign convenience and effectiveness. Email customers, are you ready for confirmed opt-in (a.k.a. double opt-in) subscribing? We define the process along with plusses and minuses. BLI offers confirmed opt-in capabilities for customers who want to improve their lists and make sure the right people are on them. Ultimately, confirmed opt-in saves customers time, money and their reputation as potential spammers. Read our article to see if your company is ready. Lastly, we always welcome your feedback to make this newsletter as informative and helpful as it can be, so feel free to contact us and let us know what you think. Forward this to your colleagues by using the convenient “forward” option at the end of the email.
Tip of the Month –»
Faxing to international numbers
When faxing to international numbers, please format the number as follows to ensure that the number is dialed correctly: 11555555555. Fax by WebLaunch will recognize the country code (i.e., 11) and automatically insert the zero before it. Additionally, format your column to “text” to avoid any transmission errors.
What’s New –»
Confirmed Opt-In: Is It Right for Your Company? Read On to Find Out.
Most of us subscribe to newsletters whether personal or professional. Have you noticed how some companies send a friendly acknowledgement email thanking you for subscribing while others send an email asking you to click a link or reply to confirm your subscription? This second method is known as confirmed opt-in (a.k.a. double opt-in) and requires a second step. Subscribers initially sign up providing their contact information (first time), and then are sent an additional email asking them to confirm their subscription (second time). Some companies even go so far as to ask what your preferences are for future emails such as text vs. HTML or daily, weekly or monthly delivery options. With confirmed opt-in, only subscribers who take the second step to confirm their subscriptions get added to the email list. ISPs and corporations are currently doing everything they can to weed out spam and are requiring the extra confirmed opt-in step to help them differentiate legitimate commercial email from spam. Below is an overview of confirmed opt-in.
Advantages vs. Disadvantages of Confirmed Opt-In
Advantages
Confirmed opt-in subscribers want to receive your emails and have taken the extra step to do so
Protects your company from spam accusations
Prevents email address collection without permission
Prevents subscriptions made by unauthorized third-parties
Disadvantages
Many email marketers still do not use confirmed opt-in, so subscribers may not be used to confirming their subscriptions leaving confirmation messages unanswered
Subscribers who do not confirm their subscriptions are removed from your list and cannot be emailed again
Confirmed opt-in is still not the industry standard today
Is it Right For Your Company?
After looking at the advantages and disadvantages, think about where your company is today with email marketing. If you have collected email addresses and permission from your subscribers in good faith and according to email marketing best practices, have high quality relationships with your subscriber base, high opens and clickthroughs and low abuse complaints and unsubscribe rates, then it may not be worth taking the unnecessary risk with your list.
However, if you have a tech savvy list that will be receptive to confirmed opt-in or have a high percentage of subscribers whose ISPs require confirmed opt-in for email delivery and are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of confirmed opt-in then it is for you. Some companies may even require confirmed opt-in for compliance purposes making it necessary for you to have this option in order to do business with them.
Testing Confirmed Opt-In
The best advice if you’ve decided to use confirmed opt-in is to test a portion of your list for success before plunging into it full force. Confirmed opt-in is ultimately your decision, but here are helpful tips if you’re thinking of pursuing it.
Choose email addresses on your list that require confirmed opt-in for email delivery. There’s no risk there because you wouldn’t be able to reach them without confirmed opt-in anyway.
Begin the process with new subscribers to start a clean, highly qualified list.
Begin testing with “low risk” email addresses that have low or no response, open and clickthrough rates; it’s a good way to qualify and clear them from your list.
Ask your customers what they think. Before fully embarking on confirmed opt-in communicate with your customers to find out how receptive they are to the idea and let them know confirmed opt-in is in their best interest since they will be receiving exactly what they asked for.
Contact us (sales@blifax.com) for more information on confirmed opt-in and the applications we’ve developed to help you generate a highly qualified list of subscribers.
Steps we take –»
Fax and Email Laws and the Steps We Take to Remain Compliant
The increasing distribution of “junk” faxes and emails prompted legislation to create the Junk Fax Prevention Act S.714 protecting recipients from receiving unsolicited communications from businesses they have not had an established business relationship (EBR) with. BLI takes these laws very seriously and provides solutions to help customers remain compliant when sending communications to customers. Below is the latest on fax and email legislation. Latest Fax Updates
April 5, 2006 – FCC Amends Rules To Implement Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005
The most recent announcement of the above act included the following amendments to the rules. Links with more details are provided at the end of the bulleted items.
Fax advertisements can be sent to parties with whom the sender has an established business relationship (EBR) with.
Fax numbers must be obtained directly from the recipient or the recipient voluntarily agreed to make the number available for public distribution
Definition of EBR (Page 11-12 of Order)
Sender of faxes must provide clear, conspicuous notice and contact information on the first page of a fax for recipients to “opt-out” from receiving future faxes from sender
Senders must honor opt-out requests within 30 days
Small businesses and non-profit associations will not be exempt from these rules
“Unsolicited advertisement” is clarified (Page 44 of Order)
Helpful link(s):
Order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-42A1.pdf
Press release: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-264811A1.doc
CGB Contact: Erica H. McMahon, 202-418-0346, http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/
February 28, 2006 – California’s Attempt to Overthrow S.714
California had a hard time with S.714 and passed its own fax ban last year, which directly conflicted with the federal Junk Fax Prevention Act S.714. Under the CA law, businesses were not exempt if they had an EBR with fax recipients and must seek written consent from recipients in order to send them faxes, a costly process for many businesses. On February 28, 2006, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce overturned this law because it was in direct conflict with the federal law. Click link below for more information on this ruling.
Helpful link(s):
http://www.uschamber.com/press/releases/2006/february/06-29.htm
BLI and Fax Compliance
It is now required by law that you have a 24-hour, toll-free opt-out number on your fax document. If you are not currently using this feature you must start in order to be in compliance with the law. BLI offers a low cost opt-out feature that will allow you to be in compliance.
BLI and Email Compliance
You must provide an easy to use opt-out feature in all email communications. BLI offers various applications in compliance with the latest email marketing best practices and laws including a confirmed opt-in application for the highest quality email lists and easy to use opt-out feature in Email by WebLaunch.
For more information on email and fax compliance features, please contact sales@blifax.com or call toll free 800-929-1643.
Weblaunch 6.2 –»
The new WebLaunch release available in April contains the following new features for even better fax and email campaign management. HTML editor in Document Library for creating and saving HTML documents
Automatically create plain text versions from HTML-formatted emails
Last Modified Date tracking to Document / List / File Management features
Sort by any column headers in Document / List / File Management features
Attach up to 15 files to an email campaign
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