As a leading email marketing company in Australia, EzyMsg and their partners work closely to reduce and eliminate the occurrence of SPAM or UCE. EzyMsg has implemented various policies, procedures and technology to prevent would be spammers and their unwanted email including:

• Terms of Use that prohibits the use of EzyMsg for any illegal purpose including the uploading and sending of unsolicited commercial emails (UCE)
• Advocates the use of permission based marketing throughout customer acquisition processes and via monthly education programs.
• Adheres strictly to the National Privacy Policy
• Encourages the use of system tools for confirming subscriptions.

WHAT IS SPAM

Spam is the delivery of unsolicited commercial email that has not been requested by the recipient.

THE LAW ISN'T ENOUGH, IT'S PERMISSION THAT COUNTS

While local and international laws are a step in the right direction for reducing the spam problem, we don't feel they go far enough. Our definition of spam goes beyond the laws in most countries and encompasses what we believe to be true permission email marketing.

Spam is any email you send to someone who hasn't given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.

But that's not enough. Permission is a fuzzy word open to interpretation. Let's get into some specific scenarios so it's clear what does and doesn't constitute permission.

WHAT KIND OF EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE OK TO SEND TO WITH EzyMsg?

To send email to anyone using EzyMsg, you must have clearly obtained their permission. This could be done through:

• An email newsletter subscribe form on your web site.
• An opt-in checkbox on 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 they would be contacted by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like to be contacted.
• Customers who have purchased from you within the last 2 years.
• If someone gives you their business card and you have explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them. If they dropped their business card in a fishbowl at a trade show, there must be a sign indicating they will be contacted by email.

Basically, you can only ever email anyone who has clearly given you permission to email them specifically about the subject you're contacting them about.

WHAT KIND OF EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE NOT OK TO SEND TO WITH EzyMsg?

Anything outside the examples above doesn't equal permission in our eyes, but here are some examples to make sure we're crystal clear. By using EzyMsg, you agree not to import or send to any email address which:

• You do not have explicit, provable permission to contact in relation to the topic of the email you're sending.
• You bought, loaned, rented or in any way acquired your email list from a third party, no matter what they claim about quality or permission. You need to obtain permission yourself.
• You haven't contacted via email in the last 2 years. Permission doesn't age well and these people have either changed email address or won't remember giving their permission in the first place.
• You scraped or copy and pasted from the web. Just because people publish their email address doesn't mean they want to hear from you.

Sure, some of these people might have given you their email address, but what's missing is your permission to email them commercial messages. Blasting promotional emails to any of these people won't be effective and will more than likely see your email marked as spam by many of your recipients.

TECHNOLOGY USED TO ENCOURAGE PERMISSION BASED MARKETING

Web based forms
Web based forms are dynamically generated by EzyMsg to help users collect and identify individual subscribers. Users are encouraged to display their Privacy Policy on these forms and be specific about reasons for collecting information at the time of collection.

Confirmation Emails
When a person subscribes to a web based form, the system can automatically send the new subscriber an email asking them to confirm their subscription. This is commonly termed double opt-in.

Once the subscriber has confirmed their subscription, EzyMsg logs the time and date of confirmation next to the original registration time and date stamp. Each confirmed subscriber is then identified by a confirmed subscription icon throughout EzyMsg.

Existing subscribers, that may have been manually uploaded, can be sent an email with a Please Confirm Your Subscription link.

Search for Confirmed Subscribers
EzyMsg provides advanced search functions that enable the user to define search queries including searching for all subscribers that have confirmed their subscription. This enables the user to then send to all confirmed subscribers.

Unsubscribe Link
All emails sent from EzyMsg have, by default, an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email. When someone unsubscribes, they are automatically removed from the database. The account holder is also notified so they can remove unsubscribers from any other database they may appear on.

OTHER CONTROLS

Bounce Management
This function encourages proper bounce management and defines bounces in layman terms of either Permanent or Temporary. The account holder is given the option to manage these bounces independent of system directives.

Send to A Friend
This function allows the account holder to encourage subscriptions by recipients forwarding on the original message. This referral method encourages the rapid building of databases of opt-in subscribers. This method attaches the persons email address and name to all forwarded messages with a reply email going back to the original sender.  Permission is still required to send information to these people. 

Screening
EzyMsg screens unusual activity within the EzyMsg system. Screening includes automatic notification to Last Resort administrators in the following instances: the uploading of databases over 10,000 at a time, accounts that at any one time hold more than 20,000 email addresses, multiple credit card refusals, email campaign information (email address used, specific words used in the subject or content) and IP address of the account holder. In each instance the account is investigated for illegitimate activity and appropriate action taken.

Privacy
A recipient of a EzyMsg email will only be able to see their name and email address. No other information is provided regardless of the number of emails sent.

EzyMsg also takes your privacy very seriously. Click here to read the Privacy Policy.

Education
EzyMsg and its partners provide educational seminars, email tutorials and online archives that include best practice for email marketing. To register your interest in any of these programs, please complete the Enquiries form .

COMPLAINT HANDLING

EzyMsg has been recognized for its outstanding service to customers which includes being direct about anti-spam measures and how these are handled. The following outlines this process:

1. When a complaint is received, the account holder is notified immediately that they have received a complaint from a subscriber.

2. If the subscriber is known, EzyMsg will instruct the account holder to immediately remove the subscriber.

3. If the account holder claims to have permission to send to the complainant, evidence must be forthcoming.

4.  If no evidence is available, the complainant will be removed immediately from the account holders database.

5. After a complaint is received, the account holder will be educated on best practice to mitigate further incidence. The account holder will be flagged as having a complaint against it and the details of that complaint recorded.

6. If the account holder passes a minimum threshold of complaints, the customers account will be de-activated or terminated. Legal action may also be initiated in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of Use.

EzyMsg acts in accordance with the National Privacy Policy and encourages all customers to understand their local legislation and that of where their subscribers are located.

EzyMsg  encourages persons who believe they have been sent spam, by an account holder using EzyMsg, to contact the sender, where known, and / or report your complaint directly to us.