The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

About six years ago, The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 put in place some very good guidelines and rules that must be followed by email marketers. One aspect of this act dictates that every email communication must include a link that allows the subscriber to opt-out of future communication. From a mechanics perspective, here is what the act dictates as it relates to Unsubscribe Compliance:

• A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism is present in all emails.
• Consumer opt-out requests are honored within 10 days.
• Opt-out lists, also known as suppression lists, are used for compliance purposes only.

The Nightmare

This part of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 is fairly cut and dried. What is not well defined or mandated in the act is the ease and simplicity of the unsubscribe process. As a result many people click on an unsubscribe or subscription management link, typically found at the bottom of an email, and end up on a website somewhere with about 30 or 40 decisions to make before they can officially unsubscribe. In other instances, the subscriber that wants to opt-out ends up reading an opt-out message that is confusing, worded in a very tricky manner, and because of such ends up actually not being unsubscribed. See the graphic below for a great example of clever wording, trickery, graphics placement, and overall deception practiced during the unsubscribe process. This is one that I personally experienced just a few days ago.

I’d like to point out a couple of things here. First, notice that I had to highlight the text in the second paragraph so that I could actually read it. Mysteriously, the logo is placed behind that text making it hard to read. (Anyone got any thoughts on their motive there? Yeah, me too). Secondly, take a minute and actually read the highlighted paragraph. Is it me, or does it take three to four times reading through it to decipher what action needs to be taken? Notice two other things please. The submit button is placed well above the check box that must be unchecked in order to discontinue getting emails. I’ll point out too that when I experienced this, I was on my MacBook and because of the smaller size, I didn’t even see that checkbox initially because it was below the bottom of the display.

Piss Poor Experience with IDG

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, the email marketer behind this is IDG Connect. Their email content is never SPAM. However, their opt-out/unsubscribe process is ridiculous. It’s always in the best interest of the email marketer to make the unsubscribe process as simple and clean as possible. Here’s how it should work…

1. Click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
2. You get directed to a nice clean web page that says, “Thank you. You will no longer receive our email communications. If you wish to subscribe again in the future please visit: http://websitename.com.”

Hey, I haven’t ranted in a while. If you’ve got some experiences to share about the unsubscribe process, either positive or negative, please share them in the comments. Oh, and if you work for or are affiliated with IDG, please feel free to engage in the conversation as well. I’d be happy to dialogue with you about it.

I’ll start out by letting you know that I am currently reading a book called The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman. I’ve just started reading it, but suffice it to say that if you plan to be alive 10 years from now, it’s a must read. The premise of the book is actually very simple. The World is Flat because of the rapidly growing ability for everyone in the world to be connected via the Internet. This leads me to my brief story.

Part of our vacation package for this trip was a plethora of amenities such as a free round of golf everyday, some boating/fishing trips, a Dolphin Cruise, and many other activities. These amenities were “free” for the most part but some were available to us at a discounted rate. The amenities that we utilized were in and of themselves excellent experiences. However, the process for claiming these amenities was at the very least, painstaking.

The process went something like this…

Telephone the organization that administrates the amenities. The person who answers, (all of them were extremely nice and polite by the way), asks for some information in order to verify the legitimacy of your desire to claim your amenities. Next, its on to which amenities you’d like to schedule. During my first call I wanted to schedule a golf tee-time, a fishing trip, and a dolphin cruise. Sounds easy enough right? It only took 30 minutes. Yes, 30 as in thirty. The reason it took so long is that the person who answers the phone and arranges your amenities for you has to put you on hold to call each of the merchants providing the amenities.

While this didn’t ruin my vacation, it did cost me at least 25 valuable minutes, (30 minutes minus the 5 minutes that such a call should have taken) almost every time I wanted to schedule something. As connected, and flat, as the world is today, folks should at least have the option to handle this type of process themselves via the internet, thus making it faster for the guest and cheaper for the amenities organization. And, if not the ability to DIY via the internet, the people on the other end of the phone should at least have the ability to schedule these amenities electronically.

The moral of the story is this, think about everything from the user’s or consumer’s perspective. This particular process could cost a vacationer hours of their hard earned, much needed vacation. An experience like this devalues the whole vacation package.

There is a silver lining to this story…DDS has found a new prospect. It’ll be tough to spend all that time at the beach…working. But hey, somebody’s got to do it because I don’t want to have to go through that again.