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Newsletter Email Guidelines

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Chris Carlevato edited this page Mar 27, 2017 · 1 revision

When you use Helios Calendar to send newsletter mailings you become responsible for compliance with a variety of laws, rules, guidelines and common decency. In an effort to provide the best possible experience in creating, managing and sending newsletters Helios Calendar includes a number of features designed to assist you in these efforts.

Double Opt-In

This is perhaps the most important step in conducting any newsletter mailing. Mailers must ensure that everyone who receives their newsletter does so by choice. Helios Calendar includes a double opt-in registration designed to ensure that users are only added to the subscriber list at their own express request to be added.

After completing the public sign-up form (Opt-in #1) the subscriber will receive an email notifying them that their registration request was received and ask that they confirm their subscription by clicking a link within the email to activate it (Opt-in #2). Subscribers will only begin to receive newsletters once they have completed the second opt-in and approved their subscription.

Admin users adding new subscribers have the option to send an opt-in confirmation email that requires the subscriber to approve their subscription prior to receiving newsletters. It is strongly recommended that all new subscribers be sent this opt-in confirmation.

Additionally, this Double Opt-In provides two important spam prevention services:

  1. It reduces the likelihood the user will manually flag emails sent to them as spam because they have expressly confirmed their subscription as authorized.
  2. It confirms that the user has successfully received an email sent from your calendar.

Subscription Cancellation (Opt-Out)

Users can edit or cancel their subscriptions anytime without administrator approval or interaction. Access to subscription editing and cancellation is available in the same location as registration to ensure users are:

  1. Aware of this option prior to signing up.
  2. Familiar with how to access it in the future if they choose.

Additionally, Helios Calendar provides administrators with the ability to include a link to the subscription cancellation tool with every newsletter sent. It is strongly recommended that administrators employ this feature and include it with all newsletter templates.

Helios Calendar employs a double Opt-Out that works in the same manner as the registration (Opt-In) process to ensure that only the subscriber can cancel, or edit, their subscription.

User Privacy

In an effort to improve user privacy and security, subscription management is only available via personalized links emailed directly to the subscriber. A unique GUID is assigned to the user with each subscription modification or cancellation request to ensure that only the subscriber is able to modify or cancel their subscription.

Additionally, admin users with newsletter management permissions can edit or delete subscribers (who have previously completed the double opt-in and have active status) directly within the admin console.

Subscription Restrictions

Newsletter sign-up is limited, by default, to persons age 13 or older. Subscribers are required to share their birth year when registering to ensure they meet the age restriction requirements. This restriction is imposed to ensure COPPA compliance.

Email Throttling & Server Connectivity

Every server, and every network, is different. The appropriate number of emails to send at one time and the time to wait between sending of those emails varies from server to server and network to network. Helios Calendar allows for custom configuration of email throttling to allow administrators to match the sending of newsletter emails to the unique requirements of their computing environment.

Additionally, Helios Calendar includes a variety of mail server settings allowing users to customize how emails are sent including support for both secure and authenticated mail server connection settings.

  • Reference email and newsletter settings in Preferences.

rDNS Support

A common spam prevention technique is for mail servers to verify, for messages received, the sending domain and IP address via rDNS lookup. Enabling rDNS support for a domain can improve the acceptability of emails sent from it.

rDNS Criticism

A criticism of rDNS support, is that while it reduces automated spam filter denials and increases delivery rates for many networks, for larger shared email services successful delivery rate increase can actually increase spam rates. In some larger email services, with shared “learning” spam filters, it is possible for a smaller subset of users to manually flag emails from individual senders as spam and increase system wide spam denials for larger numbers of users.

This risk can be mitigated by following subscriber best practices discussed above, including:

  1. Ensure all subscribers are provided a double opt-in option with a subscription confirmation email.
  2. Provide an obvious opt-out option in all newsletter mailings.

From and To Headers

Helios Calendar sends emails to subscribers exactly as they are registered. First Name, Last Name and Email Address are among the required fields when a user signs up to receive newsletters. This is done to ensure that users receive newsletter emails that clearly identify them as the intended recipient.

When adding news subscribers within the admin console administrators are encouraged to be complete in adding the subscribers contact information.

Additionally, Helios Calendar allows for both a From Name and From Email address to be configured for sending of all emails. Helios Calendar publishers are encouraged to configure these settings for a monitored email address so that subscribers have an easy means of contact with any issues or concerns they may have regarding newsletters they receive.

Monitoring Responses

It is recommended to use an active email account for the Send As Address setting. This will allow the monitoring of both bouncebacks and replies sent by subscribers in response to newsletters.

Bouncebacks can occur for a variety of reasons. Some bouncebacks, such as a full mailbox notice or service outage, can be temporary. Others, such as an address not found, can be permanent. It is critical that bouncebacks be monitored so that they can be properly addressed to ensure that future mailings reach the largest number of valid recipients possible. Repeated mailings that ignore bounceback notices can result in undesired consequences.

It's important to remember that email communication is a two-way street. It is very possible that newsletter recipients will wish to contact you regarding mailings and providing as easy a means as possible is good practice. The easiest option is to allow them to reply directly to the newsletter. Doing so will allow you to provide high levels of customer service and encourage increased subscriber loyalty.

Descriptive Email Subjects

Helios Calendar allows for the custom creation of newsletter email subjects. Descriptive, informative and unique subject lines for all newsletters are strongly recommended.

Reporting Abuse

In an effort to assist users in reducing abuse Refresh has included a set of custom email headers for all emails sent using Helios Calendar. Under normal use these headers will never be needed, however, in the event that you wish to report abuse their contents will be valuable in addressing any concerns that may arise.

Custom Email Headers

X-Helios_Calendar-Version: [VERSION]
X-Helios_Calendar-ID: [ID_STRING]
X-Helios_Calendar-IP: [SERVER_IP]
X-Helios-Calendar-Report-Abuse: http://www.refreshmy.com/abuse/

Additional Resources

A variety of laws, rules and guidelines govern sending email. The following resources discuss some of these in more detail.

Note: This list is in no way exhaustive and the specific laws, rules and regulations that you are uniquely subject to may vary depending where you are sending email from and who you're sending it to.

FTC.gov Resources

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