Here's something else I stumbled across again today on Spamhaus, their definition of "Closed loop opt-in," which I like:

With Closed-Loop Opt-in the Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed from a working address and with the address owner's consent.

In case anyone missed this article in my delicious links, here's a great clip from a Mediapost article entitled "You're invited to email's coming out party - Again!" from June 20 that I particularly like:

Today's e-mail is not the e-mail you used to know. Today's e-mail has emerged as the cornerstone of digital media and digital relationships--and is now the way that over 60 million people communicate with their friends and family on a daily basis.

E-mail has become much more than a commoditized messaging platform; it is the glue that bonds the customer to the brand in a digital world. Ninety-five percent of companies who market use e-mail as a key marketing vehicle. If your company is not using e-mail in a strategic manner, or does not recognize that EVERY e-mail you send or respond to is an opportunity to deliver on the promise of your brand, you are clearly missing the party.

In the new world of e-mail, there are seven key strategic elements that need to be considered when planning a program or campaign:

1. Your growth and maintenance plans for your prospect e-mail database. 2. Your opt-in methodology and early engagement strategy. 3. Your e-mail "promise" and the way the brand is represented. 4. Your header information and deliverability score and reputation. 5. "Above the fold" placement of imagery that drives action and use of relevant content. 6. The Web site/landing page engagement flow and interaction. 7. The strategy for integrating the precious content in your e-mails with other digital media: blogs, rss feeds and communities.

I have had a lot of people ask why it's necessary to be so strict with permission. At Innucopia we are very strict with permission, and require that Addemar is used only for sending mails to recipients that have already given permission to receive the correspondence in question. Addemar is for building and maintaining relationships with customers. We believe permission is a matter of respect to your customers, as well as a matter of following best practices that are in place to ensure that your messages continue to be delivered and not blocked.

In our experience there's just no benefit in cutting corners. If you are a legitimate business accused of email spamming and blacklisted, ISPs may choose to block all email from your company, not just bulk. It's not so easy to move your whole company website in that case, plus it's horrible for your brand. Sending out unsolicited bulk email is not illegal as long as the CAN-SPAM guidelines are followed, but companies should seriously consider if it's worth the risk to entertain this strategy. I for one would never do business with a company that sent me unsolicited bulk email for which I did not first provide permission; I know I'm not alone in my distaste for this type of email. And even if you follow all the legal rules, customers can still blacklist you, perhaps because you're mailing them too frequently or otherwise dropping the ball. Companies have to consider not only legalities and best practices, but also the preferences of the customers.

As Bill Nussey put it in The Quiet Revolution in Email Marketing, "Permission is the tool that turns prospects into customers, and customers into lifelong customers." And today, TRUSTe and Epsilon released a nice whitepaper on the subject.

More evidence of the fact that email marketing is not going away...the DMA recently release results from a study that showed that, despite many problems with spam, email marketing volume has increased by 30%.

Email has a long way to go as a marketing tool, not only from early adopters with the time and manpower to small organizations with limited resources, but also as a more and more strategically aligned concern. Interesting snippet today talking about some of the ways that companies can think about evolving their email marketing program.

"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." --Dr. Emmett L. Brown (Back to the Future)

"The world is flat." --Thomas L. Friedman

I'm a firm believer in the former (plus I love the trilogy), and I believe the latter is making it more and more possible for individuals to accomplish amazing things even with limited resources. This is part of the reason Innucopia provides information about "tools" that businesses can use to get up there with the big guys.

There's always a downside however. We must be vigilant and keep an eye out for the bottom-dwellers. As a specialist in permission-based email marketing, I cannot find an explanation as to why anyone would send spam when it's so much smarter and more effective, and probably no more costly, to send permission-based emails. I for one will never do business with a company that contacts me via spam (unless they want to turn over a new leaf of course). There is unfortunately not only spam to watch out for; there was a good article recently about all the scams out there that are looking to exploit people who want to work at home or otherwise broaden their horizons, and all the scams to watch out for.