D
Deleted member 29780
Howdy, ya'll,
We often resort to multiple marketing methods to help grow our communities, and the most common method is email marketing. We usually send newsletters to encourage the recipient to check out the new activity and or promote new changes we made to our websites. Statistically, email marketing is still one of the most popular channels for marketing simply because everyone has an email. When using marketing emails, you should consider various anti-spam laws, perform regular list hygiene and monitor bounce logs.
Before sending any emails, you should review anti-spam laws from where your users are; some countries may have different regulations for how you can email their citizens. In some cases, you could receive up to a $50,000 penalty. Some examples of these laws are CASL (Canada) and CAN-SPAM United States. The point of these laws is to protect the recipient from receiving unwanted emails.
As a webmaster, you can stay compliant by keeping your email list hygiene healthy. The most important thing is to gain consent from your users before sending them any marketing mail. You can maintain a healthy list simply by ensuring you are sending newsletters to valid email addresses and accounts no older than two years. Once an account reaches the two-year mark, you should remove them from your mailing list unless they have recently opted-in.
You should also monitor your email bounce logs. Constantly monitoring the logs will also help with list hygiene, as you can determine which users are receiving emails or which emails are bouncing, which is very important. For example, you shouldn't send emails to an inactive account. You can use services like Sendgrid/Mailgun to send your mail for you, then have a webhook notify, something like a slack channel, to help you keep an eye on these types of bounces (It's what we do here at FP).
That said, take your email marketing seriously; don't send your members emails they do not want. Mailbox providers have their own filtering and are generally very strict about delivering mail to their customers' mailboxes. You may see your email go to the junk folder or not be delivered.
Some tips:
We often resort to multiple marketing methods to help grow our communities, and the most common method is email marketing. We usually send newsletters to encourage the recipient to check out the new activity and or promote new changes we made to our websites. Statistically, email marketing is still one of the most popular channels for marketing simply because everyone has an email. When using marketing emails, you should consider various anti-spam laws, perform regular list hygiene and monitor bounce logs.
Before sending any emails, you should review anti-spam laws from where your users are; some countries may have different regulations for how you can email their citizens. In some cases, you could receive up to a $50,000 penalty. Some examples of these laws are CASL (Canada) and CAN-SPAM United States. The point of these laws is to protect the recipient from receiving unwanted emails.
As a webmaster, you can stay compliant by keeping your email list hygiene healthy. The most important thing is to gain consent from your users before sending them any marketing mail. You can maintain a healthy list simply by ensuring you are sending newsletters to valid email addresses and accounts no older than two years. Once an account reaches the two-year mark, you should remove them from your mailing list unless they have recently opted-in.
You should also monitor your email bounce logs. Constantly monitoring the logs will also help with list hygiene, as you can determine which users are receiving emails or which emails are bouncing, which is very important. For example, you shouldn't send emails to an inactive account. You can use services like Sendgrid/Mailgun to send your mail for you, then have a webhook notify, something like a slack channel, to help you keep an eye on these types of bounces (It's what we do here at FP).
That said, take your email marketing seriously; don't send your members emails they do not want. Mailbox providers have their own filtering and are generally very strict about delivering mail to their customers' mailboxes. You may see your email go to the junk folder or not be delivered.
Some tips:
- Monitor email logs and check for bounces, clicks and opens.
- Remove any emails from your list if they bounce (Xenforo set account to email bounced).
- Email Inactive
- Inbox full
- greylisted
- blocked emails
- Avoid sending mail to accounts older than 1-2 years; I recommend turning off their mailing preferences. If they re-enable them, they should be good for another 1-2 years.
- Comply with unsubscribes and remove email addresses from your mailing list immediately if it's not already automatic.
- Send emails that are not misleading or have no relation to what the recipient originally opted in for. For example, if your site is about the new Barbie toys, don't send them information on the newest airplane.
- Ask before you send.
- DO NOT EVER BUY A LIST.
- Do not email accounts you may have on a previous site or database.
- Ensure it's easy to understand how to unsubscribe from your emails.
