How the CAN-SPAM Act affects online marketing
Spam is defined as
unsolicited mass email to persons with whom you do not have a business
relationship or have not requested (confirmed or opted-in to) your mailing. In
2003, Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) to establish guidelines for those
businesses that send out commercial emails, and to cut down the on volume of
spam through the U.S. As ethical email
marketers, we follow very strict guidelines for our messages to stay in
compliance with anti-spam laws and policies. iContact goes even further
than the CAN-SPAM act with our no tolerance anti-spam policy, which you can
view in full detail here.
The six main
provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act are:
- The email message must not have
misleading header information.
- The message must not have a misleading
subject line. In a recent post, I discussed the importance of subject
lines in your messages, and how to write your subjects to avoid having
your message getting caught in spam filter.
- The message must come from a functioning
return email address.
- Senders must remove all unsubscribe
(opt-out) requests within 10 business days. It’s very important that all
of your messages include an unsubscribe link. If you use iContact as your
email marketing service, we automatically process these opt-out requests
for you.
- Commercial email must display the
physical postal address of the sender.
- Any unsolicited emails must clearly
identify that it's an advertising message. The recipient must have the
opportunity to decline further emails.
Complying with the CAN-SPAM Act will significantly improve
your email deliverability by keeping your emails out of spam filters as much as
possible. Having a permission-based email marketing campaign with contacts who
have opted-in to your lists allow you to stay CAN-SPAM compliant, and help you
build a good rapport with your customers.
Enjoy your weekend, and I will be back soon with more tips
for your email marketing campaigns.
Cheers,
Ryan Allis
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Good for people to know.