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The Law: CAN-SPAM and Your Business Email Marketing

ByJudith Hours Posted on Comments Reading Time: 5 minutes
CAN-SPAM is the law for commercial email.

CAN-SPAM is not luncheon meat. It’s the law. What many don’t realize is that this is the law that will largely determine whether you are a spammer.

We have all experienced an increase in marketing campaigns hitting our inboxes—some of value, others not so much. With email campaigns relatively easy to send, we have more unsolicited emails in our inboxes.

Unfortunately, many business senders do not understand the basic rules for sending commercial emails. That is where professional email services that facilitate email campaigns help to keep you in line with the law.

This is because, no matter how well-intentioned, emails should be sent only to those who explicitly request that information. Opt-in and opt-out processes exist for a reason.

Most importantly, playing by the rules is good for branding. Emailing those who have given you permission is your best bet for establishing credibility and nurturing relationships. And experiencing conversions.

Don’t tick them off!

The last thing you want to do is tick people off by sending them emails they didn’t ask for—in some cases, repetitively. You then rub salt into that wound by making the recipient unsubscribe from a list they never subscribed to. You just lost a potential customer.

The solution, or so they think, of many business owners is to take the easy way out and buy lists. They also tend to assume that anyone they have communicated with in the past wants to be added to their list. Don’t make that assumption.

They then send commercial emails to online users who did not request their information or advertisement. (I bet you experience this every day, as do I.)

If you are one of those businesses that are buying lists of email addresses:

  1. What happens when you buy a list, send emails to people you’ve had no contact with, and then are reported as spamming?
  2. Is your email structured in a way to explain how you got their email and how they can opt out easily if they so choose?
  3. This is why it is important to be familiar with the CAN-SPAM Act requirements.

One could reasonably infer that many businesses, particularly sole proprietors and small businesses, underestimate the importance of following this Act. Keep in mind this is not an opinion or an option — it is the law.

Learn About The Law

Here’s a rundown of the CAN-SPAM Act main provisions (taken verbatim from the FTC):

  • Don’t use false or misleading header information in the “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information. This includes the originating domain name and email address, which must accurately identify the person or business who initiated the message.
  • Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
  • Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in doing this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
  • Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail-receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
  • Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future emails from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting an email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand.

    Creative use of type, size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to enable a recipient to opt out of specific messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filters don’t block these opt-out requests.
  • Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after sending your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.

    You can’t 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 an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request.

    Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
  • Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law clarifies that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t take away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. The company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that sends the message may be held legally responsible.

Visit the Compliance Guide on the FTC’s site for all the legal mumbo-jumbo and to download a PDF copy to have on hand.

Don’t be a Spammer

Most people who email without direct permission do not meet the above minimum requirements and therefore cannot complain when they are reported as spammers or when their emails/domains and websites are blacklisted. Not to mention the negative perception potential customers may have of them.

Your customers’ inboxes are being jammed with junk—junk they did not ask for, do not want, and inevitably do not read. Don’t be one of those offenders.

Do your best not to contribute to that clutter. Treat others’ inboxes with respect. Send your properly structured emails only to those you know want them and are open to your message. That’s how you grow your own organic list.

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