All mailing lists used with Direct Mail must meet our opt-in requirements, which we describe below. These requirements are designed to protect your email reputation and ensure that we're able to deliver your email campaigns quickly and reliably. Failure to meet these requirements is grounds for suspending your Direct Mail account.
Permission Required
You must obtain email permission from each contact on your list before sending them an email campaign. Here are some examples of what does and does not constitute acceptable permission:
OK to Email
- Contacts who opted-in via your website or app (for example, via an email sign-up form)
- Contacts who knowingly opted-in to your list via some method offline
- Current or recent customers or clients. Recent means within the past two years.
- Customers or clients who attended an event you hosted recently and signed up for your list
- You're sending on behalf of a client and their list complies with the requirements described in this document. Remember that, as the account holder, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring their list meets our opt-in requirements.
Not OK to Email
- Purchased, rented, or borrowed email lists
- Lists provided by third-party online marketing services, even if they claim to be "opt-in"
- Lists obtained from a third party
- Email addresses that have "gone stale" (this means that you haven't used the list in over a year)
- Email addresses obtained without the recipient's permission (even if you think they really want to hear from you)
- Email addresses that were rejected, marked invalid, or marked as unsubscribed by another email provider
- Lists that you want to "clean" by sending a test email campaign with Direct Mail
- Lists from a previous business that you now want to use for a new venture
- Lists you harvested off your hard drive or the internet
- Lists obtained from real estate MLS databases, Advertising Red Books, ADBASE lists, Fresh Lists, etc.
- Do not import your personal or business address book into Direct Mail unless you have obtained permission from each and every contact to send them marketing emails
Why These Requirements Are Important
We want to make sure that Direct Mail is able to deliver your email quickly and reliably. Major mailbox providers and anti-spam vendors rely heavily on a sender's reputation when deciding whether to accept delivery of an email. As such, it is important that you build and maintain a good email reputation. The way to do that is to use only mailing lists that meet the above guidelines, and to only send content that is relevant to what your contacts signed up for.
Using lists that do not meet the above requirements will result in high numbers of spam complaints, bounces, and unsubscribes. This kind of negative feedback damages your email reputation. Low reputation senders will have trouble getting their emails to inbox.
If you have any questions about your mailing list or the above guidelines, please contact our support team.