Microsoft will start honoring p=reject DMARC policies for incoming email which does not pass a DMARC check when the associated DMARC record designates a policy of p=reject. This affects inbound messages at Microsoft Outlook email addresses, Microsoft Hotmail email addresses, Microsoft Live email addresses, and MSN email addresses.
New data privacy laws in Tennessee, Indiana, Montana, and Iowa put these states on par with Connecticut, Colorado, Virginia, Utah and Texas; all of them have new data privacy laws which, among other things, require affirmative opt-in and consent before you can use someone's email address, such as adding it to a mailing list or using it for targeted advertising. It's important to understand that this doesn't just apply to businesses which are headquartered in those states; in at least some of these states their law also applies to anyone doing business with someone in their state.
As we have always predicted they would, the shortcomings of the CAN-SPAM Act have given rise to new state email opt-in laws and email consent laws, in the form of their new personal data privacy laws. The new Connecticut privacy law, along with new privacy laws in Colorado, Virginia, and Utah, all require consent before you can send targeted advertising to someone whose personal data you have acquired.
Texas has passed their HB 4, joining a growing list of states which have passed their own data privacy laws, laws which impact email and email marketing, among other things. The new Texas law goes into effect on July 1, 2024, and affects any business which either is in Texas, or which does business with individuals who reside within Texas. It is also very strict on email address collection, email use, and email marketing, and among other things it requires consent before you do nearly anything non-transactional with someone's email address. We break it down for you here.
Here are the answer to the two most common questions we get about the law which allows you stop spam text messages being sent by an SMS spammer by making the SMS spammer pay you. This is your right under Federal law, specifically the TCPA (TCPA stands for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act). SMS marketing has become the darling of the marketing community, but if you haven't consented to receive their marketing text messages, and if your mobile number is on the Federal Do Not Call list, they are violating Federal law (the TCPA).
Just when you thought it was safe to turn your back on political email skirmishes, Ready for Ron (RFR) challenges the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) in Federal court over not being allowed to give a list chock full of email addresses to a candidate. Now before you get excited to imagine that the FEC and the court cared even a tiny bit about the privacy of the email addresses, they didn't. What they cared about, and what the FEC opinion letter and subsequent case turned on, is the value of an email address or, more precisely, the value of a list of contact information of 200,000 people, including email addresses. And both the FEC and the court cared enough to hold that the value of that list exceeds the maximum allowed contribution to a candidate by a single entity.
We talk a lot about email opt-in here, and you may be wondering "what is a good opt-in definition" or "what is the definition of confirmed opt-in" or even "how does double opt-in work?" (We get all of those questions.) If you are not sure about the exact definition of opt-in when it comes to building email marketing lists or other types of email lists, or the definition of spam, here is a quick review of what each of them mean.
So you want to be (or are) an SMS Marketer. As you navigate the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, it's crucial to understand the SMS marketing legal landscape and SMS marketing laws and best practices. One key thing that SMS marketers in the U.S. often overlook, but which actually requires your attention, is the Federal Do Not Call (DNC) list. The thing is, checking the DNC list is not only essential (in fact required by law), but it can actually increase your ROI, and benefit your customers and your business! Here's how.
There's a reason that email hygiene services are so popular: following regular email list hygiene best practices not only keeps email deliverability from tanking, but will also boost your list's performance to the moon! Regular mailing list maintenance gives you amazing open and click-through rates, and not just because you've removed the dead wood. So many email senders who know that they should follow email hygiene best practices often just can't bring themselves to abandon inactive subscribers. However, once you realize just how incredibly responsive a leaner, meaner list can be you'll not only want to perform mail hygiene maintenance regularly, you'll actually look forward to it, because it's the secret sauce that will keep you ahead of your competition. We call this secret sauce "compounded deliverability".
Here's a random question that we were asked "We just got an email with an unsubscribe link going to kmail-lists.com; who is behind kmail-lists?" It turns out that it's pretty hard for at least the average person to figure out who is responsible for the kmail-lists.com domain; the ESP behind kmail-lists.com is Klaviyo, who is an ESP for primarily B2C businesses, in fact they are a primary competitor to Shopify, who used to dominate the B2C ('business to consumer') and D2C 'direct to consumer') ESP space.
