Summary:
- You need to build a reputation for not being a spammer; more on this below
- You must have certain legally required information set in your account – specifically,
- Your physical mailing address defined.
- Your company legal name defined (this may differ from your “common name” i.e. YourCo, LLC might be a legal name, as per terms & conditions, etc.)
- You must honor and comply with opt-outs, or people that ask to be removed.
Bulk messaging can be legally risky. Legally, SMSs are the same as a phone call, so if someone is on the do-not-call list, and you have SMSd them, that could be “legally actionable” (i.e. you could get sued for even a single text).
Email has it’s own set of rules. Subject lines must be accurate.
Be advised there are people who get quick $5,000 legal settlements from people / companies over this, and they win all the time, because if it goes to court, you could be paying a lot more. Most people settle, take the “black eye” and learn a lesson.
You can cold email businesses, and people do all the time. For more details, see the FTC guidance below and/or speak to an attorney.
Note SwiftCRM is a platform. If legal action comes to us, we will pass it to you directly. We have certain duties to comply with, and if the rules are broken, will ban you from the platform – just like any other platform.
So, with that warning, here’s a few more details.
We do all this with “reputation points”. You win points by…
- People responding. This serves as a signal to Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook etc that you are sending real messages to real people
- People not hitting “flag as spam”.
- People not deleting unread & unopened
You lose points by…
- People flagging you as spam
- People deleting unread & without replying
To warm up your list, send narrowly targeted messages to people likely to favorably respond. Test your headline, subject line, your offer on a tiny, tiny group – 20 people for example. Then another 20, then you’ll get to 100, then 1,000, and later, 10,000 or 100,000.
