Spam, the term for using electronic messaging to send bulk unsolicited communications, started life innocently enough as an homage to a Monty Python comedy sketch. It was used in the early stages of the Internet and BBS as an expression for adding a large block of text to a topic to scroll a message off the screen. Spam eventually (de)volved further, and started its new life as an e-mail “phenomenon” in the mid-1990s.
Here are some of the latest facts about spam:
- The country of Brazil originates the most spam at 13.76 percent.
- Over 10 years, the majority of e-mail spam has switched from get-rich-quick solicitations to the more subtle Internet and computer services.
- According to a study in New Scientist, one pharmaceutical-based spam sent out 35 million e-mails in a single month, with 8.2 million reaching e-mail servers.
Avoiding the Spam Label
Having your e-mail marketing communications labeled as spam is detrimental to your message and your brand identity. No one wants their important promotions and messages segregated into the Junk Mail folder or just deleted outright – that type of association can do serious damage to your brand. Being regarded as a spammer can have punitive effects as well – gross abuse can have your website banned, result in a blacklisting by your ISP, and may lead in lawsuits.
Since our founding in 2005, SproutLoud has followed a zero-tolerance spam policy to ensure our clients’ communications are never considered as spam. We strictly adhere to the CAN SPAM Act of 2003, as well as the spam laws in force in a customer’s country of residence. Our additional spam safeguards include:
- Clients must provide true and accurate information in the From, To, and Subject lines in e-mail communication.
- Clients must include a true postal address within the footer of every e-mail.
- Each e-mail recipient will receive a confirmation message from SproutLoud, verifying their interest in receiving e-mail from a sender.
- Each message from SproutLoud will contain an unsubscribe link that allows the e-mail recipient to be removed from a mailing list.
- SproutLoud does not provide the ability to purchase e-mail mailing lists using our networking resources.
- The use of any type of automated solutions – such as software or scripts – is viewed as spam and is forbidden.
More information about our Anti-Spam Policy can be viewed here.
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Good stuff here and thanks for sharing! Are there any tools out there that help find things that are considered spam in an email?
Good question. Good e-mail platforms like SproutLoud have spam checkers built in to do this work automatically, often referred to as a SPAM score. The higher the SPAM score, the lower the deliverability.
If you want to do this on your own, check out SpamAssassin.