Compaliance

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE AND DATA HYGIENE: POSTAL REGULATIONS, SPAM RELATED RULES & DO NOT CALL

Compliance is fun when the regulations actually help you make money or save money. While a lot of regulations governing business in US tell us what we can't do, the data related regulations actually make way for a standardized business process that is streamlined, efficient and profitable.

Here is the bottom line. The Government and the DMA would like us to respect the wish of a prospect when they communicate to us that they do not wish to hear from us. That's all. Everything else is really an open game. As a matter of fact, the compliance process actually identifies people who are definitely not going to respond regardless of your marketing message thus actually saving you money.

If you know that someone is just not going to respond... would you still market to them?

Would you want to send an open house invitation to someone who is in prison?

Would you want to send a catalog to someone who passed away this year?

The data related regulations actually standardized the list hygiene process. Let us look at some regulations and how they can help you save money.

A DIFFERENT MARKETING APPROACH

We look at compliance process differently. We enforce every applicable rule & regulation to your database and identify records that fall out of compliance. Once identified, we help you build a strategy as to what we are going to do to these records.

POSTAL REGULATIONS & MOVE UPDATE

Post office provides deep discounts to mailers who confirm to rules published by the post office. Following these rules not only saves you a lot of money on postage, but also identifies records that are not going to be delivered by the post office. If you have an incorrect or insufficient address, wouldn't you rather know about it before you spend your dollar on that mail piece? Doesn't it make sense to send out a list cleansing post card via first class mail with 'address services requested' endorsement prior to mailing out the $20 annual report or holiday catalog to the entire list?

DO NOT CALL REGISTRY

This regulation has teeth. Depending on the state and county you operate from, the consumers have certain rights under the national do-not-call regulations. Penalties can be severe and probability of getting caught are substantially high because the consumers are actually encouraged to report the violations. Some states allow the consumers to actually fie a law suite against the telemarketer in a small claims court for few hundred dollars for violation.

Compliance on the other hand is easy and could be inexpensive. Here is the fun part. The net deliverable of the compliance process will identify people who do not wish to hear from you or any telemarketer. Do you really want to call them knowing that they will hang up on you before you finish the introduction?

Of course, if you are a non profit organization or if you are calling on your existing customers or prospects who have contact you in recent past, you are allowed to contact them. If someone owes you money, you have every right to call them.

CAN SPAM LAW

The Federal CAN-SPA*M Act, recently signed by President Bush, went into effect on January 1st, 2004. This new federal law preempts the 37 state laws regarding email, and requires both a valid physical mailing address of the sender (your organization's address) as well as a working unsubscribe mechanism. Without these in place, your organization could be liable under this law, which allows for substantial financial penalties.
You can download a PDF to learn more about this regulation.