The backbone of Inbox Group’s email policy is permission. Permission, or opt-in subscription, is a key element of our business and an essential factor for newsletter publishers to successfully with partners, clients, customers, and prospects. As a result, Inbox Group has implemented practices and procedures which:
Inbox Group’s Email Marketing Policy
To become an Inbox Group client, you must agree to and maintain compliance with the following policies:
Inbox Group offers our customers the tools to assist in building permission-based subscriber lists. Opt-in subscription management tools must be employed on every outgoing email and opt-out requests must be honored without exception. If you upload email lists, you must agree to these terms and are required to provide supporting document indicating the nature of the permission involved of your lists upon request.
Third-party lists are not acceptable for use on Inbox Group’s email marketing platform. It is our policy that permission cannot be bought, sold, or transferred from one person or company to another person or company.
Compliance Requirements for Email under CAN-SPAM
To be CAN-SPAM compliant:
Actions prohibited under CAN-SPAM include:
Email to Wireless Devices
Regulations have been implemented by the FCC which restrict the delivery of commercial email to mobile phones and other wireless devices. A stricter standard is applied when determining whether permission has been given by a mobile device user. A mobile device user must:
In addition, these regulations require greater evidence that such authorization was obtained. If the consent was obtained through electronic methods (such as e-mail), such authorization must contain the subscriber’s signature, including electronic signatures as set forth in the E-Sign Act (15 U.S.C. §7001).
Policy Abuse
Permission marketing is of the utmost importance to Inbox Group. Despite preventative measures and email policies, however, the possibility remains that a user of our service may send email to a recipient who will view it as unwanted email (spam). Every complaint that is received gets read and acted upon by Inbox Group’s abuse investigation team.
An abuse investigation consists of the following:
An abuse report can result in:
Customers shall be liable for any damages sustained by Inbox Group due to a customer’s violation of our email policy. Our license agreement gives Inbox Group the right to publish the names of any customer who has been terminated due to spam complaints. This information may then be shared with other permission-based providers to reduce the probability of the abuser simply taking their business to another provider and getting past their spam controls. Recipients who want to report abuse can do so by sending email to abuse@inboxgroup.com.
Education
Inbox Group provides training and education resources to educate our clients and the direct marketing and email marketing industries about the proper use of email marketing and how to market successfully without resorting to non-permission-based practices.
ISP Relations
Inbox Group has developed an excellent reputation with ISPs based on our history of distribution to opt-in customer email lists, and our stance on spam. Through these relationships, Inbox Group will to ensure that your email marketing messages are delivered to recipient inboxes.
On the occasion that an email is not delivered or “bounced,” however, it is categorized in two ways: hard and soft bounces. Hard bounces are those that are permanently undeliverable to non-existent or expired email address. These emails are removed from user lists automatically. Soft bounces are temporary bounces that aren’t always defined but are a result of technical difficulties such as down servers or full mailboxes. In these cases, emails are resent periodically until they are delivered.
Effective Date of Policy: November 1, 2011