Guest Blog by Jenny Busch

$46,517.00. That is the maximum fine for each email that violates regulations outlined in the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act passed here in the United States in 2003.

Do not panic. Odds are good you already follow this act, as its requirements are now considered standard practices for respectful and successful email marketing. Nonetheless, it is wise to know or revisit the seven main compliance requirements found on the Federal Trade Commission’s website: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business.

1. “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information, including the originating domain name and email address, must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.

2. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message. Creativity and attention-grabbing are fine, outright deception is not.

3. You must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement containing primarily commercial content. Transactional/relationship content, or other non-commercial content, is not governed by the act.

Good so far, right? Check out the next requirement.

4. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

Whoops! You may need to jump on that one ASAP, but please continue.

5. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of receiving email messages from you in the future. The notice must be easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. You can offer the choice to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must also include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter does not block these opt-out requests.

If you are thinking, “What about opting in?” – good for you. This is where most of the violations occur and where things get dicey.

Dicey bit number one: The law. The (CAN-SPAM) Act passed here in the United States in 2003 does not include opt-in requirements. However, regulations in other countries passed after 2003 do require opt-in consent. The most recent legislation is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect in 2018 in the European Union https://gdpr.eu/. If you market outside of the United States, it is wise to include opt-in or even double opt-in capacity in your email campaigns.

Dicey bit number two: Permission. Do not buy an email list unless you intend to get opt-in permission from every name on the list that resides outside the United States. Often the purchase of an email list is not worth that task or the risk of breaking a law and damaging your, or the email marketer’s, reputation.

Dicey bit number three: Courtesy. No matter how you attain email addresses, it is considered professional behavior to gain consent before you put those names on your commercial email campaign list. Immediately adding email addresses collected while networking can backfire because networking is not selling. You have not built a relationship with those new contacts, and they may resent you for invading their inbox and privacy. You also risk having your emails reported as spam. After enough spam reports, your domain address will be blacklisted and automatically identified as spam.

It is very simple to avoid all this diceyness: Ask permission and gain consent to email people about the product or service you are selling with an introductory email that includes opt-in mechanisms.

Now back to the compliance guidelines for CAN-SPAM here in the United States.

6. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor opt-out requests within ten business days. You cannot charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on a website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. You cannot sell or transfer the opted-out email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is you may transfer the addresses to a company you hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

7. If you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you cannot contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product or service is promoted in the email message and the company that sends the message may be held legally responsible.

Not so bad, eh? You got this.

SugarCRM offers one more suggestion in their blog, “Eight Steps to Make Sure Your Email Marketing is Legal” They suggest you save and store the opt-in consent you receive from your recipients. Keep the email you sent, what the recipient consented to, and when and how the consent was given. This information will prove compliance if it is ever questioned.

There are a lot of resources to keep you on the right side of the law, permission, and, ahem, etiquette. Here are two more:

Campaign Monitor provides information and assistance with email compliance. Their guide “Understanding Email Laws and Regulations” fleshes out the guidelines offered by the FTC. 

Mail Chimp gives you examples in an easy-to-read table to help you understand what is and is not compliant with email regulations. Check out “Examples of Compliant and Non-Compliant Lists.” 

Knowing and abiding by the regulations outlined in CAN-SPAM, and other acts like it throughout the world is important. The fines and consequences for violating them are high. But like other legislation, over time, these requirements have become everyday email etiquette.

Know the rules, stay calm, and email on.

Jenny Busch
Copywriterjenn
copywriterjenn@gmail.com