This post gives a cursory look on anti-spam law in Malaysia and other countries.

anti-spam law in malaysia

Malaysia does not specifically have a SPAM Act in operation.

That does not mean however that we are free to break our ethics in carrying out our e-mail campaigns.

Below I quote verbatim the page from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) which link is here. A soft copy of the Malaysian Anti-Spam Toolkit is available for download at MCMC.

1. Is sending Spam illegal in Malaysia?

There are no specific provisions on the illegality of Spam. However, the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 provides that a person who initiates a communication using any applications service, whether continuously, repeatedly or otherwise, during which communication may or may not ensue, with or without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person at any number or electronic address commits an offence.

2. Will Malaysia be enacting new laws to make Spam illegal?

Presently, Malaysia has no immediate plans to legislate. It will pursue this recourse when there is no other viable alternative. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission is of the opinion that for legislation to be effective, anti-Spam laws in all countries must be of similar nature and standard so as to prevent Spammers from forum shopping. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission also feels that legislative action would consequently be dependant on continuous co-operation between countries and legal systems to ensure that Spam received in one country will result in legal action being taken in another. Thus, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission will follow closely the development of countries that have enacted anti-Spam legislations.

3. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s approach in tackling Spam

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission will pursue the following ways to tackle Spam :
-Self regulation by users through education and awareness initiatives; and
-Management by Service Providers.
More information on the implementation are found in the "Report on a Public Consultation Exercise on Regulating Unsolicited Commercial Messages" dated 17 February 2004.

4. Management of Spam

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission is adopting a four-tiered approach in managing Spam.
Tier 1 : Self-management by users
Tier 2 : Forward complaint to Service providers
Tier 3 : If complaints remain unresolved, next recourse is to complaint to Consumer Forum of Malaysia
Tier 4 : Still unresolved, matter escalated to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission

5. Industry Codes

The Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia is currently drafting the Internet Access Service Provider Consumer Code of Practice.

spam in other countries

OECD task force on SPAM can be found here and another good reference is here.

Cheers!

Before you conduct any e-mail campaigns it is prudent and ethical that you practice permission marketing.

concept of e-mail spam

Other names for e-mail spam include junk e-mail or unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE).

Spam has several definitions, varying by the source.

Unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE)—unsolicited e-mail, sent in large quantities.
Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE)—this more restrictive definition is used by regulators whose mandate is to regulate commerce, such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Any email message that is fraudulent.
Any email message where the sender’s identity is forged, or messages sent though unprotected SMTP servers, unauthorized proxies, or botnets.

Source: Wikipedia

concept of opt-in and double opt-in

Below is a simple example of permission marketing.

Permission Marketing Example

Cheers!

Here are some web-based image editors that will prove useful in our editing work, and they are free!

Make use of them in creating exciting content for your sections.

1. Pixlr

2. Splashup

3. Phoenix

4. pixer.us

5. FotoFlexer

6. SUMO Paint

Cheers!

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu

Good Day!

In this age of consumerism demanding simplicity and ease of use, I wish I too could run away from this plethora verbiage of robust corporate talk –  from the bloated and grandiose to the flatulent and turgid –  things like “strategy”, “business re-engineering”, and best of all “marketing myopia” (the grand daddy version of Alzheimer’s disease that marketers eventually suffer and adamantly not wanting to admit).

Spiritual beings in order to heighten through this human experience will have to ascent up these lexical smudge in order to mature into a greater state of spiritualism, so I believe.

My own definition of strategy is plain and simple: do something others find it hard to follow. Catch the early worm, so the maxim goes. As the economist would preach, be early and you get the bigger pie of the economic profit.

Easier said than done because the proliferation of knowledge has flatten the playing field indeed.

the offline-online interplay, or the foreplay before the cash flow

Fig. 1 has a few pointers:

1. Apply the 80/20 rule for branding to make sense. If 20% of customers provide you 80% of value, then branding should wrap around the 20%.
2. There is less justification to wrap on the 80% because they don’t have the money.
3. You can “think-out-of-the-box” (another pompous lexicon) by branding around the 80%, if you aspire to be someone like  Tony Fernandez.
4. Offline strategy should be slanted for the “local neighborhood” market whilst online strategy should cater for “international” markets as the reach is bigger.
5. PR and Marketing should jointly synergize around well-planned, long-term activities where PR head start by “starting the fire” and marketing follow suit to reap the ROI. Remember what Al Ries said? Otherwise it would be quite a disjointed alignment of resources, don’t you think?
6. Any tactical campaign that speaks loud offline and online is an ideal candidate for execution.

Fig. 1: Multi-channel Marketing Strategy

deploying in a matrix

Below mind-map is the overall online activities.

Fig. 2 basically wraps up the potential matrix where multi-channel  strategies can be deployed. So you’d have to “push-and-pull” with the techniques we propounded earlier to get to from one quadrant to another.

My desire is to go to 4 ultimately of course. The real challenge.

Fig. 2: Matrix Deployment to Multi-channel Strategies

Cheers!

similar and reinforcing

In terms of methodology, internet marketing is similar to traditional marketing.

Internet marketing still involve actions such as defining the business goals, targeting the audiences (and messaging per audience), measuring existing internet presence and programs, defining/refining the internet marketing strategy, implementing and measuring results.

In this posting I wish to delineate the advantages and disadvantages of online marketing techniques.

Please note that e-marketing is composed of online PR as well.

The extend to how deep one wishes to deploy the below techniques greatly depend on the business nature, product mix, and target segments, amongst other things.

The internet marketer should be intimate on the pros and cons to these techniques to ensure good success to marketing campaigns carried out.

Pro and Cons to E-Mail Marketing

Pro and Cons to Advertising via Social Networks

Pro and Cons to Online Advertising

Pro and Cons to Affiliate Marketing

Pro and Cons to B2C & B2B E-Commerce

Cheers!

So what are the benefits of e-marketing?

Do they supersede those of traditional marketing?

No, we do not want to pitch the two against one another. It is not correct to do so. Both are marketing processes that work in different mediums that are not totally disconnected in any shape or form.

As we have delineated in the early post, e-marketing complements traditional marketing. The former does not replace the latter.

If both processes are well-coordinated, the whole sum is greater than the sum of the parts.

Some of the potential benefits of e-marketing can be assessed from the following three core areas:

Customer Management

Better Targeting of Market Segments: e-marketing allows the business to offer specific and customized content to well-targeted customer segments.

Global Reach/Wider Access: e-marketing can reach anyone in the world who has internet access and this allows the business to find new markets and compete globally for only a small investment. Affiliate marketing helps to extend the sales force, besides giving wider awareness and exposure.

24/7 Marketing: e-marketing removes the constraint on time, day, and geography.

Interactivity: Whereas traditional marketing is largely about getting a brand’s message out there, e-marketing facilitates conversations between companies and consumers. With a two-way communication channel, companies can feed off of the responses of their consumers, making them more dynamic and adaptive.

Marketing Operations

Measurable and Trackable Results: e-marketing are highly measure and trackable, and this will help to better evaluate whether a campaign has been effective (as compared to similar evaluation under traditional methods).

Quickness: e-marketing has the advantage of being much quicker to set up and put into play than other methods. The response mechanisms are equally quick as well.

Easier to Test and Refine: e-marketing offers a better platform to test and refine similar campaigns in the future.

Corporate Strategy

Competitive Edge: e-marketing gives the firm an extra edge over a firm that solely relies on traditional methods.

Cheaper Cost of Doing Business: a properly planned and effectively targeted e-marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional channels. E-Marketing also helps to decrease time spent on customer support, besides removing barriers to communication with customers and prospects.

Cheers!

Below are the slides for online marketing which are also self-explanatory.

The search for the holy grails for online marketing, at least to me, are indeed two:

1. Affiliates globally accept us as the merchant of choice for affiliate marketing, and
2. Our products and services are accepted globally thus we are legit to join this e-commerce community.

Affiliate marketing is akin to extended sales force. Besides earning revenue, the other beauty is the exposure that we get when affiliates advertise our product. The backlinks are enormous.

You know that trust has already been established when customers and partners show willingness to conduct e-commerce with us.

Of course the hard work begins before that … in a far, far away galaxy … when you decided to break independence and be a Yoda.

Cheers!

Below are some of the slides I have prepared under this subject matter. I believe they are self-explanatory especially to the PR practitioner.

I particularly like the idea of a “microsite” that devotes entirely to an online PR Press Room. It aggregates all the "PR metrics” in one page.

Again the chief aim of a successful implementation of online PR (in concert with traditional PR) is to drive quality audience to site, besides media professionals.

online PR helps in more ways than one

Online PR is about connecting and creating a good image/feeling about a product. It is like creating a good story line. A good story line incites strong desire to try the product before customers actually try it.

Online PR needs to excite that your organization is abuzz with activities. This will consequently creates the willingness for customers to identify with your brand.

If your brand is very much a talking point, an ORM audit will show this.

It is hard work. It takes time to develop good content and for customers to notice that our place is a “happening place”, kick-start the “A-I-D-A” process which in turn creates the desire within customers to associate with our brand.

Online PR will crucially play a big role when the bulk of the customer base is derived globally. In the international arena, image and first impression are keys.

The first slide hints about synergy …

http://www.dilbert.com/

Cheers!

Ever thought how to organize content creation and workflow across the many functional units in an organization that deploy a CMS?

As each site contains many functional units, organizing content creation and workflow needs some thinking, at least at the beginning.

As a prerequisite, an organization has to acculturate the workforce on the why and how of CMS. If the workforce is lethargic, the organization may not be able to fully realize the full potential of the CMS.

The organization has to give some thoughts on organizing, structure, work specialization, chain of command, authority, responsibility, accountability, delegation, and formalization.

I too have been thinking on organizing for a CMS.

a few ways to organize

At least for today, I have been mulling on these three possibilities:

“Matrix approach”:  The “functional” and “divisional” chains of command are implemented simultaneously and overlay one another in the same departments.  Two chains of command exist, and some employees report to two bosses.

“Team-based approach”:  The organization creates a series of teams to accomplish specific tasks and to coordinate major departments.  Teams can exist from the office of the president all the way down to the shop floor.

“Network approach”:  The organization becomes a small, central hub electronically connected to other organizations that perform vital functions.  Departments are independent, contracting services to the central hub.  Departments can be located anywhere.

View Full Album

… or meet just like this …

http://www.di.net

Cheers!

Below are the list of websites that are developed on commercial and open source platforms. They are not exhaustive. I have many more in my main write-up. Takes a bit of time to research all there is in Malaysia though.

I do not want to get in this perennial debate between commercial and opensource platforms. Suffice to say that each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages.

That said, if an organization can afford a commercial CMS, go for it. If an organization is on a tight budget, there are many opensource systems that offer equally good features.

Commercial CMS

Your feel good channel

http://www.ntv7.com.my

TV9

http://www.tv9.com.my

TV3

http://www.tv3.com.my

Palm Oil Industry

http://www.palmoilindustryinfo.com

Palm Oil Consumer

http://www.palmoilconsumer.com

Gua Music Portal

http://www.gua.com.my

CapSquare

http://www.capsquare.com.my

Bangsar Shopping Complex

http://www.bsc.com.my

8TV

http://www.8tv.com.my

Astro

http://www.astro.com.my/

Security Commission

http://www.sc.com.my

Proton

http://www.proton.com.my/

Joven Electric

http://www.joven-electric.com/

Stamford College

http://www.stamford.edu.my/

Bank Islam

http://www.bankislam.com.my/

Country Heights

http://www.countryheights.com.my/

Opensource CMS

Pusat Kokurikulum Kuala Lumpur

http://www.pkkkl.com

Lembaga Perindustrian Nanas Malaysia

http://www.mpib.gov.my

Jabatan Bomba & Penyelamat Malaysia, Negeri Selangor

http://www.bombasel.gov.my

Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran Malaysia

http://www.water.gov.my

Down at the time of surfing.

Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia

http://www.navy.mil.my

Government Computer Emergency Response Team (GCERT)

http://gcert.mampu.gov.my

http://www.mycert.org.my

Kastam Diraja Malaysia

http://www.customs.gov.my/

Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna Malaysia

http://ttpm.kpdnhep.gov.my

Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia

http://www.moe.gov.my/lpm/

Universiti Teknologi Mara

http://www.uitm.edu.my

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

http://www.utm.my

Akademi Sains Malaysia

http://www.akademisains.gov.my

Computer and Network Security

http://www.security.org.my/

Kementerian Sumber Manusia

http://www.mohr.gov.my/

Institut Jantung Negara

http://www.ijn.com.my

The Edge

http://www.theedgedaily.com/

Cheers!