Collection agencies face significant hurdles in email marketing due to the sensitive nature of their communications. Success hinges on balancing legal compliance with technical best practices and respecting recipient preferences. Adherence to regulations like CAN-SPAM, GDPR, TCPA, and FDCPA is paramount, necessitating clear consent procedures, easy opt-out mechanisms, and careful management of email content. Technically, email authentication using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial, as is providing a working List-Unsubscribe header. Proactive sender reputation management, including monitoring spam complaints and promptly removing unsubscribed users, is essential for maintaining deliverability. Avoid purchasing email lists, personalize communications appropriately, and ensure accessibility for all recipients. For problematic clients, isolate their IPs to mitigate damage to other senders.
11 marketer opinions
Collection agencies face unique challenges in email marketing due to the nature of their communications. Compliance with regulations like CAN-SPAM, GDPR, TCPA, and FDCPA is crucial, including obtaining consent where necessary and providing easy opt-out options. Maintaining a clean sender reputation is vital, achieved through practices like list segmentation, personalization (while avoiding sensitive data), sender reputation monitoring, and prompt handling of complaints. Deliverability can be improved by using dedicated IPs, authenticating emails, and adhering to best practices for email design and accessibility. Transactional email status does not exempt senders from compliance with spam laws when complaint rates are high.
Marketer view
Email marketer from EmailToolTester shares that collection agencies must comply with GDPR if emailing EU citizens. This involves obtaining explicit consent (if required), providing clear information about data processing, and honoring the right to be forgotten. This overlaps with marketing compliance.
19 Aug 2022 - EmailToolTester
Marketer view
Email marketer from Sendinblue responds that collection agencies should segment their email lists, send personalized messages, monitor their sender reputation, and use a dedicated IP address to help improve deliverability. Also ensure recipients are aware of why they are receiving the mail, such as overdue payments.
24 Nov 2023 - Sendinblue
6 expert opinions
For collection agencies, maintaining email deliverability requires strict adherence to best practices and respecting recipient preferences. Sending unsolicited emails, violating unsubscribe requirements, and ignoring complaints will negatively impact sender reputation and deliverability. It is essential to provide a working list-unsubscribe header to reduce spam complaints and respect user opt-out preferences. Avoid purchasing or transferring email lists without explicit consent as this can damage sender reputation. Focus on obtaining permission and taking action on feedback/complaints to maintain a healthy sender reputation and ensure deliverability.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that you cannot transfer data to another list without express permission and gives a real world example of a company who tried to purchase data and had a negative impact.
1 Feb 2022 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that there's no good way to deal with customers who send unsolicited mail, violate unsubscribe requirements, and whose mail is unwanted. Their delivery is going to suffer, and there's little that can be done due to their business practices. He also advised to isolate IP addresses or domains used by such customers to limit reputation damage to other clients.
9 Aug 2023 - Email Geeks
5 technical articles
Collection agencies must adhere to specific technical and legal guidelines to ensure email compliance and deliverability. Email authentication via SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is essential for bulk senders. Providing a one-click unsubscribe option via the List-Unsubscribe header (with both mailto: and HTTP options) is crucial. Following the best practices and sender support programs of major mailbox providers like Microsoft can improve deliverability. Compliance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is mandatory, restricting contact methods and content. DMARC helps prevent email spoofing and improves authentication between senders and receivers.
Technical article
Documentation from Google Workspace Updates explains that bulk senders must authenticate their email with SPF or DKIM, set up DMARC, keep spam rates low, and make unsubscribing easy with a one-click unsubscribe option in the email header.
14 Mar 2022 - Google Workspace Updates
Technical article
Documentation from RFC explains that including a List-Unsubscribe header with both mailto: and HTTP options provides recipients with a clear and easy way to opt-out, which helps reduce spam complaints. These should be honoured.
27 Oct 2022 - RFC2369, RFC8058
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