Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Need Can-spam Horror Stories To Make My Case.

Posted by Anonymous on 2/24/2005 at 10:17 PM ET 500 Points
Sure, I'm preaching to the choir, but I'm looking for proof that it costs big money to be careless.

I'm trying to convince management at our small agency that it's rather unwise to continue with our own home-grown email marketing solutions. I've used some top-reputable ASPs such as Constant Contact, Silverpop, plus cheaper ones like VerticalResponse. Evaluating at a few robust solutions that may require some investment -- not looking for suggestions. Trying to convince our management to consolidate all of these with one provider and get out of the business of handling it in-house on our mail servers (and IP address). The CFO is the toughest sell.

Please share any true stories of instances where the CAN-SPAM law has actually had teeth and forced legitimate marketers (or careless ones) to pay fines. Some people feel what's the harm in inadvertently sending to people who may have opted out -- it's an honest mistake, they fell through the cracks.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 2/24/2005 at 11:49 PM Accepted
    Hi Danj,

    Wow, any officer of a company who doesn't want to pay an ASP email service provider less than $100 a month to be CAN-SPAM compliant, not to mention all the other resource-saving benefits (as you are well aware of) needs to be questioned on their overall ability to think critically and make effective decisions.

    That being said, I would recommend you contact some of the top-reputable ASPs you mention that you are familiar with and ask them for help. They are much better equiped to provide you with real-life examples and supporting citations.

    Contact Alec Stern at Constant Contact. Alec is the VP of Strategic Market Development. Tell him Tim Pepper at Pepper Blue Marketing referred you, he will help you out.

    I hope that helps, let me know what else I can do.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 2/25/2005 at 3:02 AM Member
    I'm watching this thread, to see if others are familar with cases where legitimate and reputable marketers have been fined under CAN-Spam...

    ... but what if you can't find the type of proof you are looking for?

    For example, a Google News search for CAN-Spam turned up this recent article:
    https://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20050207153750570

    in which a case is described as "one of the first prosecuted under CAN-Spam" - and it is for a fairly serious offense.

    I believe there is often value in outsourcing to experts - but I'm just not sure you can justify it by pointing to fines which simply might not be happening. You may need to justify it using other means, such as the IP address issue you alluded to.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 2/27/2005 at 11:54 AM Accepted
    That's very interesting news. Don't forget to read the last paragraph, which states that this was filed under previous laws, and not under CAN-Spam.

    Also, from a risk managment point of view, the potential of large judgements in some ways could make it more risky to outsource, rather than less risky. For example, I do not believe CAN-Spam will impact legitimate and reputable firms, but if I felt there were any way that I or my clients might share even a small portion of a billion dollar judgement, I would personally take the time to do the very simple things required by CAN-Spam, rather than risk the potential of a costly mistake by "the intern of the week" at a service provider.

    I'm continuing to monitor this thread, and I would also be interested in any judgements under CAN-Spam.
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