I'd like to know when a group of emails becomes a list. If my sales managers take a marketing email and send it to a few dozen of their sales contacts without their opt-in, does that mean their list needs to follow the can-spam guidelines?

Thanks, Michelle

From an e-marketer and sales management perspective, I always discouraged this from happening, because they were not "permission based lists." This practice could easily anger of alienate some customers. However, if you extended permission to mean "prior business relationship", then perhaps it's allowed.

Based on how the law reads (and, I'm not a lawyer, so consult yours), this is what's stated:

* If your e-mail list isn't opt-in or double opt-in ("prior affirmative consent"), include a clear notice that states the e-mail is an advertisement or solicitation in commercial messages (section 5(a)(5)(A)(I)). If your list is opt-in or double opt-in, you're exempt from this provision.

* Also, your sales rep has no way of adding an automatic unsubscribe mechanism to his/her list, unless using a legit, database-driven, email marketing software package.

* The practice I always encouraged with my sales reps (especially in the case of special events, road shows, or anything else they wanted to alert their contacts of) was to send me the list, and I'd add it to a separate database in our email campaign manager, and send out with the opt out functionality, as well as the tracking benefits. This now is doubly important with CAN-SPAM, that you add the additional compliance requirements into you communiqué.

* More to the point, this could violate the 'suppression list' concept included in the law, which states, basically (again, consult your legal counsel) that a customer can 'globally unsubscribe' from marketing messages from your company. If you have a number of divisions, and your customer has opted out of a division list, or a parent company list, you sales person will most likely not know that. Only by having them run their lists through your 'corporate email marketing clearing house' to test the list against your unsubscribe and suppression list, would you be near compliance with the law.

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive email campaign software package? Up until now, we've managed our own lists without automated help. Now it's time.