Spamming ESPs

In my mailbox there is a definite uptick in spam from ESPs advertising their services.
Today’s email was from a company that has the following in their anti-spam policy:

To send email to anyone using [ESP name], you must have clearly obtained their permission. We consider qualifying methods for obtaining permission are as follows:

  • An email newsletter subscription form on your web site.
  • An opt-in checkbox within a form. This checkbox must not be checked by default, the person completing the form must willingly select the checkbox to indicate they want to hear from you.
  • If someone completes an offline form like a survey or enters a competition, you can only contact them if it was explained to them that you would be contacting them by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like you to contact them.
  • Customers who have purchased from you within the last 2 years.
  • If someone gives you their business card and you have explicitly asked for permission to add them to your list, you can contact them.

Apparently this only counts for customers, as I have never heard of this company before receiving the spam.
I’m sure they’ll argue it wasn’t spam, it was a holiday greeting, and in fact everything above the fold was wishing me a Happy Christmas. But, down at the bottom was a message.

PS: Still not sorted your customers Christmas cards out?
You could send every one of them a fun ecard in no time at all… just click here to contact [ESP] today.

I don’t know anyone at this ESP. They hit an address that was only ever published on a website and was removed from use more than 5 years ago. It was never entered into any forms. I have never purchased from them.
It’s so blatantly spam, couched in a “HOLIDAY GREETING!” It’s not the first one I’ve gotten. It’s not even the first one I’ve gotten this year.
EDIT: Make sure to read the followup
How can this ESP claim with a straight face that they expect customers to only send opt-in mail? How can they claim they force customers to follow good practices when they don’t? This message even violates CAN SPAM – failing to have a postal address included.
At least I know what to answer if any client ever asks me about this particular ESP and what I know about them. “Well, they are spammers themselves.”

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There are dozens of people and companies standing up and offering suggestions on best practices in email marketing. Unfortunately, many of those companies don’t actually practice what they preach in managing their own email accounts.
I got email today to an old work email address of mine from Strongmail. To be fair it was a technically correct email. Everything one would expect from a company handling large volumes of emails.  It’s clear that time and energy was put into the technical setup of the send. If only they had put even half that effort into deciding who to send the email to. Sadly, they didn’t.
My first thought, upon receiving the mail, was that some new, eager employee bought a very old and crufty list somewhere. Because Strongmail has a reputation for being responsible mailers, I sent them a copy of the email to abuse@. I figured they’d want to know that they had a new sales / marketing person who was doing some bad stuff.
I know how frustrating handling abuse@ can be, so I try to be short and sweet in my complaints. For this one, I simply said, “Someone at Strongmail has appended, harvested or otherwise acquired an old email address of mine. This has been added to your mailing list and I’m now receiving spam from you. ”
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“Thank you for your thoughtful response to our opt-in request. On occasion, we provide members of our database with the opportunity to opt-in to receive email marketing communications from us.”
Wait. What? Members of our database? How did this address get into your database?
“I can’t be sure from our records but it looks like someone from StrongMail reached out to you several years ago.  It’s helpful that you let us know to unsubscribe you.  Thank you again.”
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How many bad practices can you mix into a single send, Strongmail? Sending mail to addresses where you don’t know how you got them? Sending mail to addresses that you got at least 6 years ago? Sending mail to addresses that were never opted-in to any of your mail? And when people point out, gently and subtly, that maybe this is a bad idea, you just add them to your global suppression list?
Oh. Wait. I know what you’re going to tell me. All of your bad practices don’t count because this was an ‘opt-in’ request. People who didn’t want the mail didn’t have to do anything, therefore there is no reason not to spam them! They ignore it and they are dropped from your list. Except it doesn’t work that way. Double opt-in requests to someone has asked to be subscribed or is an active customer or prospect is one thing. Requests sent to addresses of unknown provenance are still spam.
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