eNews Builder Email Policy

Background

eNews Builder has implemented various practices and procedures that:

• Encourage permission-based marketing.
• Help to prevent our system from being used for the purpose of unsolicited email campaigns.
• Respond to all complaints suggesting that the Company has been used as a vehicle to send unsolicited email.

Spam is Unsolicited Email
Spam is unsolicited commercial email (UCE), junk mail or bulk mail that has not been requested by a recipient. In addition to being perceived as intrusive, irrelevant and often offensive, it is also typical that spam emails do not contain an option to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Simply put, spam is the opposite of permission-based emails--those that are requested, anticipated, personal and relevant.

Email Policy

This policy is based on opt-in subscription. Opt-in subscription is a key element of our business and an essential factor for newsletter publishers to successfully communicate with partners, clients and prospects. This requires that publishers who make use of the eNews Builder service only distribute e-mail to persons or organizations who have explicitly requested it, or with which they have a pre-existing personal or business relationship that can be verified. For example, customer purchases, organization membership, or requests for information would be valid connections. Correspondence that is relevant and contextual to an original relationship is also acceptable.

eNews Builder offers customers tools to assist in building permission-based subscriber lists. Opt-in subscription management tools must be employed on every outgoing email and opt-out requests must be honored and remembered without exception. Customers who upload email lists must agree to these terms and are required to provide supporting documentation indicating the opt-in nature of their list upon request.

Third party lists are not acceptable for use on the eNews Builder network. It is not possible to transfer permission from one person or company to another person or company.

Policy Abuse

Permission marketing is of the utmost seriousness and importance to eNews Builder. However, despite preventive measures and email policies, the possibility remains that a user of our service will send email to a recipient who will view it as unwanted email (spam). Every complaint that is received gets read and acted upon by our abuse investigation team.

An abuse investigation consists of the following:

• Review of account history
• Request for information
• If requested, a customer must supply eNews Builder proof of opt-in status for any and all persons on a subscriber list.  Because of the short time frame in which eNews Builder has to respond to complaints, customers agree to supply requested information within 72 hours of receiving a request.
• Findings report by investigator
• Appeal
• Abuse Manager decision

An abuse investigation can result in:

• Termination or probation of an account
• Collection of all contract payments due
• Potential collection of damages

Customers shall be liable for any damages sustained by eNews Builder due to a customer's violation of this policy. Our license agreement gives us the right to publish the names of any customer who has been terminated because of spam complaints. This may then be shared with other permission-based providers to reduce the probability that the abuser will simply take their business to another provider and get past their controls. Recipients who want to report abuse can do so by sending email to abuse@eNews Builder.com.

Education

IMN uses training and education resources to educate our clients and the direct marketing industry about the proper use of email marketing and how to market successfully without ever resorting to non permission-based practices.

ISP Relations

eNews Builder has developed an excellent reputation with ISPs based upon its history of distribution to opt-in customer email lists, and its stance on spam. Through this relationship, eNews Builder will work to ensure that customer emails are delivered to recipient inboxes.

However, on the occasion that an email is not delivered or 'bounced', it is categorized in two ways, hard and soft bounces. Hard bounces are those that are permanently undeliverable due to non-existent or expired email addresses; these emails are excluded from user lists automatically. Soft bounces are temporary bounces that aren't always defined but are a result of technical difficulties such as down servers or full mailboxes; in these cases, the emails are re-sent periodically until they are delivered.