Anti-Spam Policy

 

Scratch takes permission extremely seriously.

So if you’re a self-confessed spammer looking for an easy way to get your message out there, you’ve come to the wrong place! All clients of Scratch, by default, agree to this anti-spam policy.

First and foremost – if you’re going to do something, do it right!
We’re passionate about email marketing. We like to see strong readership, excellent click-through – and ultimately a good ROI. What we don’t like are high unsubscribe and SPAM report rates that inevitably result from sending unsolicited emails to people you’ve never met, who more than likely won’t want to hear from you.

We understand it may be difficult to avoid the temptation to broadcast when you’ve got 10,000 emails available at the click of a button. But take off your marketing hat for a minute and consider the subscribers perspective – what will they think when your mail arrives in their inbox, and how are they likely to respond?! Is it relevant? Is it timely? Is it worthwhile?!

And think about it this way – high readership/clickthrough rates from smaller, targeted campaigns are not only more cost-effective to send, but more likely to produce the desired results than mass-market untargeted campaigns!

So in summary – it won’t do your business any favours … perhaps a no-brainer then?

It ruins the fun for everyone else
If we allowed you to SPAM from your ScratchMail account, we’d be running the risk of having our own servers black-listed, and none of our clients would get their mail delivered.

It’s illegal!
Aside from the above reasons – it’s illegal! For more information, we recommend you have a read of:

 

OK, how do I know if it’s spam – or not?
Admittedly, there can be a bit of a grey area around what constitutes SPAM, and what doesn’t – especially if you’re new to the email marketing game. To help you along the way, we’ve put together a bit of a cheat sheet that should cover most scenarios.

If you’re still not sure – or would just like to talk it through – get in touch, we’ll be happy to advise!

What should I do to ensure my list stays clean?

There are a few things you can do:

  • Include in every email an easily visible single-click unsubscribe link. Once a reader clicks this link, you can never email them again. This is a MANDATORY requirement
  • Include in every email (usually in the footer), the name and physical address of your company
  • Offer a 2 step subscription process, where-by the subscriber is sent an email confirming their subscription to the list (this functionality is built into the ScratchMail system).

Does ScratchMail have systems to prevent spamming?

Yes – unfortunately we realise that all the good intentions in the world are not always enough to stop people making bad decisions.

So if you’re a client, worried about other clients sending SPAM and potentially making life difficult for you – don’t be! Some information below on how we monitor and control the situation:

Approval process
To ensure that our clients are doing the right thing we have a tiered approval process to ensure that your subscriber list adheres to the guidelines provided above. So when you go to send your first email, you’ll be asked to apply for approval, and will need to provide some background information on your list.

If your list increases dramatically in size over time (or suddenly), we’ll then ask you to re-apply for a new level of approval, just to make sure you’re still operating within best-practice guidelines.

This shouldn’t ever hold you up more than 12 hours (usually far less), unless we have questions or issues regarding your list that need to be addressed.

Ultimately, we’re building a relationship with you based on good business ethics and trust. If we trust that you are doing the right thing, then there won’t ever be an issue with the size of your list.

Spam-tracking
If we see an email go out, with an unusually high SPAM-report rate (or unsubscribe rate), we know there’s something not quite right.

Under most circumstances if your list has passed through the approval process, it’s likely to be an issue with your design, subject-line, content or timing. We’ll be happy to make suggestions to improve performance for the next time around.

Account termination
If we discover a client is sending unsolicited messages, account access will be blocked and the situation investigated. The likely result will be account termination.

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