A Practical Definition of Spam

I was involved in some discussions relating to email marketing and spam last year (may require registration to access). It was an enlightening exercise as I discovered that there are so many individual interpretations as to what constitutes spam.

Apparently, many people feel that abiding by the CAN-Spam Act alone will ensure that their message is perceived as spam-free by recipients.

Unfortunately for them, that’s not the case.

Ultimately, your recipient determines what is and what isn’t spam; and that determination usually has nothing to do with the intricacies of the CAN-Spam Act. During my participation in these discussions, I sounded a few things off Mark Brownlow, who has what is perhaps the most comprehensive email marketing site on the Internet. Fortunately for all of us, Mark took the time to clarify a few things about the issue.

Please read his blog post and associated article, Marketing Email or Spam?

I can’t recommend it enough, even for those of us who think that we have a good understanding of the issue already.