Nobody likes spam or receiving unwanted marketing communications. We want the Marsello platform to help you create valuable, personal interactions between you and your customers. Combatting spam is part of our mission to help you deliver smart, targeted marketing, designed to increase customer retention and sales.
The below guidelines are written to protect both your and Marsello's email and SMS sending reputation. Before you can send your first email and SMS campaign or automation, it will go through an approval process to ensure you adhere to these guidelines.
Our guidelines:
👌 Have permission: Sending unsolicited SMS or email is an offense in many countries. Always ask your customers if they wish to receive marketing communications from you.
📩 Message valid customers: Marsello doesn't tolerate the use of purchased, rented, scraped or borrowed lists. You should only message your own customers, verifying the validity of the email addresses and/or mobile numbers that you're sending to.
📝 Only great content: Don’t send anything offensive, distressing, or illegal, including “get rich quick” or pyramid schemes, using the Marsello platform.
👍 Be authentic: Don’t mislead the recipient into thinking they’re hearing from a good friend or a very generous, long-lost relative with Swiss bank accounts.
🕵️♀️ Be transparent: Include an easy to use unsubscribe option (and for emails a physical address to your business) on all email and SMS campaigns.
Message content that is not permitted:
Promotional language such as "buy now," "limited time offer," "cash," and "discount"
Scam-related phrases like “make money fast,” “get rich quick,” or “claim your prize”
Suspicious links or URLs, especially if they are shortened or from an unfamiliar domain
Use of all caps and/or the excessive use of exclamation marks or symbols
Requests for personal information like passwords, bank account details, or social security numbers
Words or phrases related to illegal activities, drugs, or gambling
Illegal Substances
All class 1 & 2 drugs
High-Risk Financial Services e.g. Payday loans, Student loans, Short-term high-interest loans, Auto/vehicle loans, Mortgage loans.
Words or phrases related to illegal activities, drugs, or gambling
Messages containing phishing attempts or malware links
Pyramid Schemes
Debt Collection & Debt Forgiveness
Other: Deceptive marketing, Affiliate marketing,(commission for marketing another person's or company's products), Gambling
Adult content or profanity
Messages from unknown or unverified numbers
Sending the same message repeatedly to multiple recipients
SMS marketing also observes several types of content that are prohibited by the legislation and the mobile carriers, such as SHAFT. S.H.A.F.T. stands for Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco, and these types of text messages can’t be sent due to moral and legal issues. As of recently, S.H.A.F.T. also covers any messages that contain verbiage related to Vaping, CBD, marijuana/cannabis, and any content associated with either one of these. Please refer to our SMS Marketing Compliance Introduction article for further details.
📝 Note: In the United States, SMS messages containing alcohol-related content only is permitted on a Toll-Free Number with a proper age gate. Age verification must require users to enter their date of birth, rather than simply answering yes or no.
Sender domains
Email providers are now stricter than ever. It is highly recommended to send by a personalized email domain. This will help ensure your emails are delivered to your customers and not being marked as SPAM.
Here are some key details to note about email custom domains before getting started:
Custom domain authentication is highly recommended for Marsello retailers
If you don't have a custom email domain yet, here are some useful resources on how to do this:
To set up authentication, you need to change some account settings with your DNS provider. If you don't know who your DNS provider is, reach out to your hosting service. Here's step-by-step instructions on how to send emails via a custom email domain in Marsello.
Sender performance 📈
Bad sending practices are not just bad news for Marsello, but for your business too.
Email Performance: High bounce rates mean your emails are not reaching their intended destination. High complaint and unsubscribe rates mean customers receiving the emails aren’t happy about it.
SMS Performance: High unsubscribe rates mean customers receiving the SMS messages aren’t happy about it.
If you exceed our reasonable internal thresholds, we will be entitled to suspend your ability to send emails or SMS while our delivery team investigates.
If we don’t see an improvement within a reasonable, defined period that we set, we may withdraw your access to the Marsello platform altogether.
If we feel you are misusing our products or services, we reserve the right to withdraw access to our products and services entirely.
The legal bit 📖
These guidelines sit alongside and are in addition to our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. As a Marsello merchant, you accept that you will adhere to these guidelines and that they are subject to change periodically.
In compliance with applicable data, privacy, email marketing, and SMS marketing laws, you must have permission from a recipient to contact them with marketing emails or SMS. If you don’t, that email or SMS may legally be deemed as spam and in violation of the law. You should ensure that your email and SMS activities always comply with these laws.
You must ensure you are meeting all your legal obligations. Don’t use Marsello's products in connection with data you don’t have permission to process.
You will fully indemnify Marsello against any and all losses we incur as a result of any personal data processed in relation to your use of the Marsello email service which breaches any applicable laws or causes us to be in breach of any such laws.
Please do make sure you’ve read and understood these documents. If we feel you are misusing our products or services, we reserve the right to withdraw access to our products and services entirely.
Contact ✉️
We know that occasionally things can go wrong and mistakes can be made. If at any time you are concerned that these guidelines may have been breached then please do notify us as soon as you become aware at [email protected]
Thanks for reading this far - we hope that Marsello can help you to increase customer retention and sales, at every stage of the customer lifecycle.
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