Why should you follow all the CAN-SPAM Act  of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act)  guidelines in order to be able to contact your customers through commercial e-mail? Here are some of the advantages of being able to send opt-in e-mail.

Why Do It?

If you’ve read the article “Legal Mass Email,” and/or paid a well-deserved visit to the Federal Trade Commission website to make sure you thoroughly understand CAN-SPAM (ftc.gov), you can gather than using commercial e-mail requires setting up and maintaining a mailing list, and opt-in and opt-out service, etc. Is it worth it? Many people think so, for the following reasons.

You Can Keep Your Options Open

The CAN-SPAM guidelines make it clear that you do not have to have a simple in-out option. You can tailor your opt-in choices both for the timing and number of communications. Examples could be:

• Please send me a list of specials each month.
• Please send me coupons whenever they come out.
• Please send me weekly sales announcements.
• Please notify me of special sales events only.
• Please include me in all your mailings.
• Please remove my email from your mailing list. I don’t wish to receive any further communication.

. . . or whatever wording you like and suits your purposes.

The Price Is Right

Sending email is relatively inexpensive compared to other advertising options: no paper, envelopes, ink, postage, color printer; no expensive billboards or posters. In fact, your old paper messages may serve as a foundation for your email advertisements.

Timing Is Everything

If you have a marketing idea, you can enact it in minutes and have it in your customers hands as soon as seconds after you send it out. This places email in a special category compared to many other kinds of advertising: you know exactly who is seeing your advertising and even approximately when, unlike other types of advertising, when you create an ad and then wait for potential customers to come across it.

Commitment Is Key

A person who takes the positive step to opt-in to your advertising is expressing interest in creating an ongoing relationship. When that email arrives, there is already a foundation of trust and loyalty built. This kind of commitment is great for building a long-term customer base.

It Doesn’t Have to Just Be “Regular” Email . . .

What can you send in an e-mail?

• Coupons
• Advertisements
• Sales Alerts
• Newsletters
• eZines
• Images
• Links to content on your site, including images, audio, video, text
  etc.

Focused Advertising

Sure, you can focus your advertising to folks you don’t know with AdWords placed with care. But imagine what you can do making contact with the groups you create from your own sales data:

• all the customers who purchased from you more than once in the preceding 3 months
• all the customers who purchased the “I Drive a Hybrid” tee-shirt or the red, white, and blue mug with a “Shut Up and Vote!” message
• all the customers who returned an item
• all the customers who spent more than $150.00
  etc.

Trackability

By using various technology, you can determine exactly who gets what when and follow their response, clarifying your Return On Investment (ROI).

All this adds up to a very useful tool for business people who want to engage in ecommerce.