Postie takes spam and permission very seriously. By requesting an account on Postie, you are also agreeing to abide by this anti-spam policy when using Postie.

The law isn't enough, it's permission that counts

While the CAN-SPAM laws are a step in the right direction for reducing the spam problem, we don't feel they go far enough. 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.

But that's not enough.

Permission is a fuzzy word open to interpretation. Let's get into some specific scenarios so it's clear what does and doesn't constitute permission.

What kind of email addresses are OK to send to with Postie?

To send email to anyone using Postie, you must have clearly obtained their permission. This could be done through:

• A 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 checked 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 ARE NOT OK to send to with Postie?

Anything outside the examples above doesn't equal permission in our eyes, but here are some examples to make sure we're crystal clear. By using Postie, 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 addresses or won't remember giving their permission in the first place.
• You scraped or copy and pasted from the web. Just because people publish their email address doesn't mean they want to hear from you.

Sure, 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 I include in my email?

Every email you send using Postie must include the following:

1. A single-click unsubscribe link that instantly removes the subscriber from your list. Once they unsubscribe, you can never email them again.
2. Your name and physical address.

How we'll know if you don't have permission.

Postie has numerous layers of approval and monitoring to ensure you comply with our anti-spam policy. Here's a few of them:

1. Our software is directly integrated into the spam reporting systems for some of the biggest ISP's like Hotmail and AOL. If you don't have permission and someone marks your campaign as spam, we'll know about it the moment that button is pressed. If you receive a complaint rate greater than 0.25% of all recipients (that's 25 complaints for every 10,000 recipients) your account will be terminated. This is a generous figure that takes into account false spam reports.
2. We monitor blacklists and our abuse accounts all day every day. We can pinpoint who is causing us delivery problems or attracting complaints very easily.

If we do discover that you're emailing people without their permission, we will terminate your account with Postie immediately and may forward your name and details to the appropriate authorities.

In the end, it's really common sense. Take off your marketing hat and 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. It's that simple.

All Postie customers must follow the rules of the federal CAN-SPAM act and Posties Anti-Spam policy when sending e-mail through the service.

Accordingly, we require the following of e-mail messages sent through the Postie system:

1. All e-mails must contain a one-click unsubscribe link. MailBuild scans every campaign for the existance of an unsubscribe link. If an unsubscribe link is not detected, the user is informed and is recommended to include an unsubscribe link before continuing.
2. All e-mails must contain non-Internet contact information of the sender, such as your company's address, or your company's phone number.
3. All e-mails must state the reason the recipient is receiving the message. For example, "You are receiving this message from ABC Company because you signed up for our e-mail list at www.abc.com."

These 3 guidelines will help ensure that Postie maintains its reputation and white-listing status with a number of major ISPs and whitelisting programs. If at any time your campaign is flagged as SPAM by an AOL recipient, Postie reserves the right to cancel your account without notice.

So there.