Email Marketing - What Are The Rules And Law

Email Marketing — What Are The Rules And Law

As an email marketer, you need to comply with laws that were put in place to protect consumers. While it is tempting to buy a list of email addresses and start sending messages to everyone on that list, this may not be a good idea for a few reasons.

Firstly, you may be breaking the law, and secondly, you may be hurting your chances of your future messages getting into people’s email inboxes. The bottom line is, that your action as an email marketer can affect the deliverability of your email today and in the future.

The vast majority of email doesn’t make it to the inboxes. Return Path’s 2020 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report revealed that 17% of emails that people have opted-in to receive emails never make it to their inbox. This means that about one-fifth of the people don’t get to see the message that asked to receive. So following the written or unwritten laws of email marketing is critical to securing a positive return on your investments.

The Can-Spam Act of 2003

Different countries have their own laws related to email marketing. In the US, the law you need to understand and follow is the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. The law applies to all forms of commercial email messages and not just commercial email messages sent in bulk to a list of people.

What exactly are commercial messages? It is not clearly defined in the law, e.g. a message doesn’t have to promote a product or service directly to be considered commercial. Messages that promote content on a commercial website such as blog posts, e-books, educational articles, or tutorials would be considered commercial since they indirectly promote the company. It does not matter if you are sending messages to your current customers, former customers, or newsletter subscribers who have never had a customer relationship with you. If the message is considered commercial, then you must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

The cost of non-compliance can be very high, especially since you can be charged penalties for each separate email violation, the amount can be up to $50,000. Furthermore, if your email messages violate other laws such as those related to deceptive advertising, you could face even more fines or criminal penalties, including imprisonment. Ignorance is not an excuse so you need to familiarize yourself with the CAN-SPAM Act.

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There are 7 primary requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. The following is a basic explanation of each of the main ingredients.

Header Information

The header information must not be false or misleading. This includes the information in the message’s “From”, To”, and “Reply-To” as well as other information. In other words, your message should accurately identify both the person and business that initiated the message. Furthermore, the header information should include the originating domain, which is typically your business’s web domain and real email address.

Subject Line

The subject line of your email message must reflect the true content of the message. Do not try to conceal what the message is about with a deceptive subject line. Instead, the subject line should clearly explain what the recipient will get when they open the message. Both inaccurate and vague subject lines could get you into trouble.

Ad Disclosure

You must identify that the message is an ad or promotional material. The good thing is the CAN-SPAM Act provides a great deal of flexibility in terms of how you disclose this information. The most important thing here is, that you must explain that your message is promotional, even if it’s indirectly promotional or it is an advertisement. Do not leave any room for confusion here.

Location

You must include your physical address in your message. This has to be your valid postal address, which means, it can be your street address or a post office box registered with the US Postal Service. It could also be a private mailbox registered with a commercial mail receiving agency, but make sure that agency was established under postal service regulations or it won’t meet the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act.

Unsubscribe Option

Your message must include an easy way to unsubscribe if recipients want to opt out of receiving an email message from you in the future. You cannot create any conditions to opt out, such as requiring a person to pay a fee or providing any personal information aside from email addresses. Furthermore, the opt-out process must not require a person to do more than just send a reply email message. If you send multiple types of messages e.g. newsletters, product updates, etc. you can offer a way for people to choose which types of email messages they want to opt-out from you. However, you must also provide a way for them to opt out of all of the messages that you are sending to them.

Opt- Out Completion

After you send a message, recipients must have 30 days to unsubscribe. If someone unsubscribes, you must honor that request within 10 business days. Once a person unsubscribes, you’re not allowed to transfer or sell that person’s email address to anyone else to avoid violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

Third Parties

If you hire another person or company to manage your email marketing, you’re still required to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. In fact, both you and the person or company handling your email marketing are responsible and could get into trouble if there is a violation of the law. So make sure anyone you work with knows the laws and complies with them. To do this, you just need to monitor their activities from time to time.

Get In Here For Free Training On Email  Marketing

That’s all for now, my friends. See you all in my next article.

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