MailCampaign Anti-Spam Policy
Updated 30 January 2007
MailCampaign takes spam and permission based marketing very seriously. By creating an account and agreeing to our Terms of Use, you are also agreeing to this anti-spam policy.
It's permission that you need
Our definition of spam goes beyond the laws in most countries and encompasses what we believe to be true permission email marketing.
Spam is any email you send to someone who hasn't given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.
Definition of email addresses that are good to go with MailCampaign?
To send email to anyone using MailCampaign, you must have clearly obtained their permission. This could be done through:
- An email newsletter subscribe form on your web site.
- An opt-in checkbox on a form. This checkbox must not be checked by default, the person completing the form must willingly select the checkbox to indicate they want to hear from you.
- If someone completes an offline form like a survey or enters a competition, you can only contact them if it was explained to them that they would be contacted by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like to be contacted.
- Customers who have purchased from you within the last 2 years.
- If someone gives you their business card and you have explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them. If they dropped their business card in a fishbowl at a trade show, there must be a sign indicating they will be contacted by email.
Basically, you can only ever email anyone who has clearly given you permission to email them specifically about the subject you're contacting them about.
What kind of email addresses can you not send to with MailCampaign?
Anything outside the examples above doesn't equal permission. Included are some examples to make sure we're on the same track. By using MailCampaign, you agree not to import or send to any email address which:
- You do not have explicit, provable permission to contact in relation to the topic of the email you're sending.
- You bought, loaned, rented or in any way acquired from a third party, no matter what they claim about quality or permission. You need to obtain permission yourself.
- You haven't contacted via email in the last 2 years. Permission doesn't age well and these people have either changed email address or won't remember giving their permission in the first place.
- You scraped or copy and pasted from the web. If people publish their email address it doesn't mean they want to hear from you.
Some of these people might have given you their email address, but what's missing is your permission to email them commercial messages. Blasting promotional emails to any of these people won't be effective and will more than likely see your email marked as spam by many of your recipients.
What content must you include in my email?
Every email you send using MailCampaign must include the following:
- A single-click unsubscribe link that instantly removes the subscriber from your list. Once they unsubscribe, you can never email them again.
- The name and physical address of the sender. If you're sending an email for your client, you'll need to include your client's details instead.
How we'll know if you don't have permission
MailCampaign has numerous layers of approval and monitoring to ensure you comply with our anti-spam policy. Here's a few of them:
- Until your account has been approved by a member of our team, every email you send will need to be approved.
- Our team verifies all large lists imported into our software. These lists will be screened and any may result in your account being terminated if it is deemed to be for spam purposes.
- We look at our abuse accounts every day. We can find out who is causing us delivery problems or attracting complaints.
If we do discover that you're emailing people without their permission, we will terminate your account with MailCampaign immediately.
Sometimes all you have to do is put yourself in your recipient's shoes. If they don't recognize who you are or aren't interested in what you're sending, they'll think you're a spammer.
If you have any questions about our Anti-Spam Policy, or if you want to report spamming activity by one of our customers, please contact our abuse department at:
Postal Address
MailCampaign
P.O.BOX 23877, Claremont, 7735.
Cape Town
South Africa
Telephone
+27 21 658 4109
Fax
+27 11 507 5227
