This presentation is from Affiliate Summit East 2013 (August 18-20, 2013) in Philadelphia, PA). Session Description: Compliance doesn’t end with CAN-SPAM. With inbox access more challenging than ever, learn about the increasing importance of compliance on deliverability.

1. Peter Wilson
LashBack, LLC
Affiliate Summit East
Email Evolved: Compliance and Deliverability
Philadelphia, PA
August 20, 2013

2. Introduction
 Peter Wilson, CEO of LashBack
 Leading provider of compliance services, brand protection, and marketing intelligence
to digital marketers
 We provide critical visibility on compliance and email marketing to our clients
 Growth business, celebrating our 10th year
 We have unique products and deep expertise in the email market
 ComplianceMonitor and BrandAlert used by major brands, agencies, and networks
 Heavily investing in technology
 Review millions of B2C emails on a weekly basis
 Hold a U.S. patent for processing unsubscribe requests
 Manage a large database/blacklist based on sender reputation
 Member of the PMA‟s Compliance Council and the Leadership Council of the Online
Trust Alliance
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3. Key questions
 With all of the focus on social media and other channels, how important is email
anyway?
 Does email marketing still work?
 How is email changing?
 What are the key compliance issues?
 What are the key deliverability issues?
 How are compliance and deliverability related?
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4. What does the email market look like?
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Social media
Search
Integrated, cross-channel branding
Email

5. What does the email market look like?
 Email is not dead or dying, but the market is evolving significantly.
 "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated“ -- Mark Twain
 It is, in fact, HUGE.
 Over 3 billion active email accounts
 95% of adult Internet users use email
 72% have more than one address
 More than 90% of Internet users between 18 and 72 said they send and receive
email daily (Pew Internet and American Life Project)
 For the most part, EVERYONE RELIES ON EMAIL.
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“Not having an email address is the digital equivalent of being homeless”
“Facebook is the largest email sender in the world”
Dela Quist, Alchemy Worx

6. Email is a priority for most people
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7. Email dominates online communication
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8. Email is the #1 use of smart phones
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9. Email is the #1 use of tablets
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10. Email is a trusted channel
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11. Email‟s core dynamics
 Email is ubiquitous and easy to use
 It is a market dominated by 4 providers
 In general, there are a few key types of mail
 Commercial (3rd party)
 CAN-SPAM defines a “commercial message” as “any electronic mail message the
primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial
product or service”
 Acquisition mail - Offers sent to lists of consumers that have provided permission
 Spam – “Unsolicited commercial email” or “unsolicited bulk email”, email sent without
consent
 Transactional (1st party)
 Messages that relate to existing business relationships or transactions
(customers/subscribers)
 Also known as relationship or retention mail
 Receipts, follow-up messages and information, coupons, newsletters
 Other
 Personal and corporate
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12. Email marketing works
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72% of survey respondents described email's ROI as excellent or good.
Econsultancy
Promotional emails are one of the top influences of retail website visits.
ForeSee Results
57% of global consumers say they are more likely to buy a product in a store after receiving a
marketing e-mail about it.
eDialogue
More than 50% of consumers make purchases as a direct outcome of email. It also drives more
ROI than any other channel including social media and PPC advertising.
ExactTarget
Email brought in $39.40 for every dollar spent in 2012.
Direct Marketing Association
44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email.
Forrester Research
Customer acquisition via email has quadrupled over the last four years.
Custora
Most of the $690 million Obama raised online came from fundraising e-mails.
BloombergBusinessweek

13. Email marketing works (July 2013 update)
 Direct Marketing News - July 10, 2013
 Email services provider AWeber stated it expects 85% of SMBs to increase
use of email in 2013.
 TIME Magazine - July 29, 2013:
 In a new survey from Forrester Research and Shop.org, a division of the
National Retail Federation, 80% of retailers said they planned on spending
more this year on e-mail marketing campaigns.
 WIRED - July 1, 2013:
 “Email is Crushing
Twitter, Facebook
for Selling Stuff Online”
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14. Email players and issues
 The cost of sending is so low and the information/access so great that there is a TON of mail,
much of which consumers hate
 Users feel it is a “personal” and constant channel, and want it simple and uncluttered
 Providers try to filter and organize (like the new Gmail tabs)
 Senders try to increase relevancy or get around the filters (and, now, the tabs)
 Regulators try to enforce standards and litigators try to profit from noncompliance
 Often the only options available to a consumer are:
 Read, ignore, delete, report as spam
 Senders with permission have generally done a poor job of establishing relevance
 I get too much of this… I don’t want it… I don’t remember signing up for it…
 Often consumers don‟t realize that they did provide consent and label messages as spam as
the easiest way to stop them (even though they are not spam)
 Significant issue for legitimate advertisers and senders
 Senders must keep a good record of opt-ins
 Senders have to deal with unpredictable changes in mail filters
 “Gaming the system” has become increasingly difficult
 Focus needs to be on engagement and relevance
 Senders also have to deal with undelivered mail
 According to Return Path, more than one in five opt-in messages don‟t get to the subscriber‟s
inbox
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15. Few clear trends in performance
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Silverpop
Mean
2010
Report
(2009 data)
2012
Report
(2011 data)
2013
Report
(2012 data)
Unique open
rate
22.2% 20.1% 19.7%
Gross open
rate
42.1% 44.9% 38.6%
Click-
through rate
4.5% 5.2% 3.6%
Click-to-
open rate
18.5% 19.3% 18.0%
Hard bounce
rates
5.5% 2.1% 2.2%
Unsubscribe
rates
0.21% 0.31% 0.25%
Complaint
rates
0.09% 0.08% 0.07%
Epsilon Q4
2009
Q4
2011
Q1
2013
Q1
2013
Acq. only
Open rate 22.0
%
24.8
%
31.1
%
24.5%
Click-
through rate
5.9% 5.2% 5.1% 2.9%
Click-to-
open rate
11.8%
Bounce
rates
3.7% 3.6%
“People have lives… If you want a 100 percent open rate, send one email to your
mother.”
Dela Quist, Alchemy Worx

16. How is email evolving?
 “If you don‟t like change, you‟re going to like irrelevance even less.”
General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, U. S. Army
 Inbox organization solutions are proliferating
 Changing the visibility of offers beyond the existing bulk versus inbox paradigm
 Messages must be designed for mobile and multiple screens/devices
 Consumers have little patience for slow or incorrect rendering
 Increasingly customized and dynamic multi-channel messages
 Optimization - customer profile, behavior, and location impact message
content, timing, and frequency
 Integration with social
 Real-time testing
 Providers like: AdStack, LiveIntent, Movable Ink, Sailthru
 Filters are increasingly effective
 Filter changes are coming more frequently and are more effective and, as a
result, some email publishers are struggling with consistent deliverability
 DMARC and other authentication protocols are increasingly important
 IPv6 is coming and likely shifts the reputation focus toward domains
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17. Takeaways
 The good
 Email is universal and not going be displaced anytime soon
 Billions of non-spam messages every day
 Email marketing is very effective
 The bad
 Consumer frustration with clutter
 Evolving rules for deliverability
 Insufficient focus on compliance
 The ugly
 70-95% of all email sent is spam
 50+ billion spam messages daily
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18. Compliance
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Failing to comply can be
very costly in terms of
reputation, delivery, relatio
nships, fines and other
costs
Compliance is a critical
piece of email marketing
“Compliance is the
foundation of best
practices that shapes
reputation and drives
profits and deliverability”
“Responsibility and
Results”, two critical
aspects of success in direct
marketing

19. Regulation and compliance
 Regulation
 CAN-SPAM
 California Business & Professions Code
 All publishers who market to an individual residing in California need to comply
 Other state-based regulation
 Canada‟s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)
 Applies to anyone sending to an address in Canada
 Serious questions about its future
 Industry-based standards and best practices
 Such as in the education and lending industries
 “OLA takes compliance seriously and we expect all of our Members to as well”
 Corporate policy
 Specific advertiser requirements
 Obligation to monitor your partners
 Consumers often don‟t distinguish between advertiser, sender, list owner, network, etc.
 Responsibility and exposure can‟t be delegated, and that indemnification likely isn‟t worth what you
think it is
 Per the FTC: “you can‟t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law”
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20. CAN-SPAM basics
 Content compliance
 Message contains no false or misleading header information - “From”, “To”, “Reply-To”, and
routing information must be accurate, and not deceptive or misleading
 “Subject” line should be relevant and not misleading
 Message must be identified as an advertisement
 Message must include a valid postal address for the sender (note: “sender” is the party who‟s
product, service or site is advertised or promoted by the message)
 Best practice: should contain two valid postal addresses (sender and publisher)
 Unsubscribe compliance
 Message must include an opt-out mechanism for the sender
 Best practice: should contain two visible, functioning, hyperlinked opt-out addresses
(sender and publisher)
 Unsubscribe requests must be honored within 10 business days
 No suppression list abuse
 Sending & data compliance
 Message not sent through open relay
 Message not sent to harvested email
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21. Examples of industry-specific compliance issues
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 Education
 Employability cannot be guaranteed
 All citations and sources for school statistics must be present and up to date
 Credit reporting
 “Subject” line should not offer to improve consumers‟ credit ratings, credit history, or credit
record, nor give advice or assistance to consumers on how to improve their credit ratings,
credit history or credit record
 Jobs
 “Subject” line should not imply guaranteed income
 Lending
 “Subject” line should not offer amounts in excess of $1,000 or same day credit
Grant offers used to promote education, job, or business opportunities and
advertising easy access to cash are a major red flag, as evidenced by recent FTC
action.
In May, the FTC began mailing refund checks totaling $1.7 million to more than
20,000 consumers that were defrauded by a group that falsely claimed they could
help consumers get free government grant money.

22. Impact of non-compliance
 Per CAN-SPAM, each separate email in violation can generate a fine of up to $16,000
 FTC, FCC, State Attorneys‟ General
 Multiple recent prosecutions (e.g., Acquinity) and fines involving email marketers, affiliate
marketers, text messaging, online advertisers, and merchant processors
 Often personal liability
 Class action suits, litigation, and threats
 Attorneys – such as the precedent setting victory by Dan Balsam against Trancos
 Corporations – such as “Utah Court Issues $1.6 Million CAN-SPAM Judgment” in favor
of Zoobuh
 Consumers – such as “Dear CEO, you have sent me messages without permission, I
have documentation, send me „X‟ thousand dollars by „Y‟ date or I will file suit”
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If you work with lead aggregators and focus only on
whether the lead works, you are overlooking your real
exposure. How was that lead driven to the form? An
education lead that originated with a misleading grant
email comes with significant liability to all of the parties.

23. Aggressive does not equal non-compliant
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 Direct marketing requires a strong message/call-to-action
 People often wrongly equate “compliant message” with “weak or ineffective message”
 It is important to recognize that acquisition email can be both compliant and effective, if not
aggressive
 The key threshold is that the message cannot mislead
 Subject lines like this are compliant and effective:
 “Free credit scores with enrollment”
 “Financial aid is available for those who qualify”
 Further, the use of personalization and geo-location (“merge tags”) in subject lines are not a violation
of CAN-SPAM
 “Bob, you may qualify for financial aid”
 “Philadelphia area auto coverage”
 A commitment to compliance does not mean that messages can‟t be strong and aggressive, it
just means that they can‟t mislead

24. Deliverability
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“Is this really that
big of an issue?...
I've learned the
answer is a
resounding „yes‟.”
“Deliverability is an issue that keeps
many email marketers awake at night.”
“Deliverability remains the
biggest challenge faced
today”
“Email deliverability
is the single most
critical factor to the
success of email
campaigns.”

25. Deliverability myths
 From a June posting on Deliverability.com, by Spencer Kollas, the head of delivery for
CheetahMail:
 “… despite the vast amount of information available on the subject, email professionals and
marketing experts alike still have many questions around deliverability.”
 “Deliverability is all about who you know, if you have the right contacts at the right ISPs, you
can get all of your clients mail through to the inbox -- FALSE”
 “I can‟t use certain words in my emails, especially not in my subject lines -- FALSE”
 “Deliverability is a black art that only a couple of people really understand, and those people
want to keep it that way -- FALSE”
 “Deliverability folks are always working for the „other team‟ -- FALSE”
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26. What determines deliverability?
 Factors impacting deliverability (inbox versus bulk versus blocked versus promotions folder)
 The components and intent are straightforward, but the details are constantly evolving
 Reputation
 Complaints (unrecognized, unexpected, unwanted)
 Working unsubscribe
 Bad addresses
 Invalid addresses/unknown users and rejected/bounces (list source, hygiene)
 Spam trap hits (list source, hygiene)
 Sending infrastructure (IP address/domain, trusted sender/whitelists/blacklists)
 Sending stability (size, volume, frequency, timing)
 Engagement (open, read, clicked, moved from spam folder)
 Right message - Good, relevant content
 Right design - Good design, rendering
 Right time
 Right frequency
 Authentication
 DMARC, SPF, DKIM
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27. Varied approaches to delivery
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Gmail Yahoo Outlook AOL
Reputation and
engagement
• Most
aggressive at
blocking bulk
commercial
mail
• No whitelist
• SpamGuard
looks at
complaints and
engagement
• Whitelist
• Reputation
metrics
• Subscriber
“safe” lists
• Reputation data
via Smart Network
Data Services
(SNDS) program
• Symantec/Brightm
ail Probe Network
• Smartscreen
filtering
• Proprietary
content-level
filtering
• Whitelist
• Spam filter
(complaints,
content, traps,
etc.)
• Spamhaus
Authentication • SPF, DKIM,
and DMARC
• SPF • DKIM

28. Trends in deliverability
 Vast majority of commercial messages sent are spam and blocked
 According to Kaspersky estimates, the percentage of spam in email traffic in June was up 1.4
percentage points and averaged 71.1% (this compares to 71.9% a year earlier)
 Commtouch estimated daily spam messages at approximately 54 billion in June, the lowest
level in years, and the share of spam in the entire email volume at 81.2 percent in Q2
 Of worldwide commercial, permissioned mail during the first half of 2013, Return Path has
estimated:
 18% was blocked or missing
 4% went to spam folders
 78% was delivered to the inbox (down 4% from a year earlier)
 In the U.S., 86% was delivered to the inbox (unchanged from a year earlier)
 Anecdotally, delivery of acquisition mail is getting much more difficult
 Filters are more sophisticated and changing more frequently
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29. The links between compliance and deliverability
 In many respects, both deliverability and compliance are about the quality and
perception of the message
 A message that isn‟t misleading, has a relevant subject line, and contains clear
postal and opt-out addresses, is likely to be compliant and more engaging, and
result in fewer complaints
 The opposite is also true – a message that doesn‟t contain these elements is
more likely to be dismissed by the consumer, labeled as spam, and negatively
impact delivery
 Ensuring that messages sent (by you or on your behalf) are compliant will not only
protect your interests in terms of CAN-SPAM and other requirements, but should
also improve delivery
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In a February 2012 MAAWG presentation called “Case for
Compliance”, iContact described how an increased focus on compliance
dramatically increased their delivery and profitability. Tighter controls have
helped them to reduce complaints, “turn the ship around” in terms of
delivery, and “dodge a bullet”.

30. Unsubscribes
 Unsubscribes are a particularly important part of both compliance and delivery
 If it is not a simple or trusted mechanism for the consumer to unsubscribe, then they
are much more likely to report the message as spam, which will significantly impact
reputation and future delivery
 Further, if an unsubscribe request is not honored, it will impact blacklisting and
potentially being blocked by the ISP
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31. Conclusion
 Email marketing is a huge opportunity with a great ROI
 It is a multifaceted and evolving market that requires understanding and dedication
 Success comes from delivering a message that is acted upon
 No one would debate the relationship between delivery and engagement/relevance
 Compliance is a significant issue on its face, in terms of actions by regulators, lawyers, and
consumers
 It is also linked to delivery just as engagement is… non-compliant messages will impact
delivery
 In today‟s market:
 What makes it to the inbox and what a consumer wants are increasingly tightly connected
 Consumers expect quality ads that are compliant, and ignore or report those that aren‟t
 Gaming this is increasingly futile
 A successful campaign has to “check all of the boxes” – engagement, reputation, authentication,
and compliance
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32. Conclusion
 Thanks for your time and let me know if you have any questions.
Peter Wilson
Chief Executive Officer
Direct: 314.754.2286
Email: peter@lashback.com
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