Question One: How do I make sure I don’t break
the law?
I've been asked this question many, many times by people interested
in email marketing, and this question always surprises me, because
it is very easy to avoid violating federal law when you're sending
permission email to your customers, prospects, readers, or members.
In fact, there is far too much worry and concern about breaking federal
law that is justified because the federal law is proving to be very
weak on clamping down on spam. Now I don't mean to say this is a good
thing, because I think the federal law should have been much stronger;
however, it does make it easy for you to avoid violating the law. The
truth for legitimate businesses is there is little to be concerned
about as long as you respect your customer and conduct your email marketing
campaigns in accordance with a high level of respect and integrity.
For example: a company that respects its subscribers would always
offer its subscribers an opportunity to opt-out of any email list or
newsletter. This same opt-out mechanism is of course stated in the
federal Can-Spam law. It really doesn't need to be stated there
because any person conducting high integrity email marketing automatically
puts opt-outs in each email because they want to keep their subscribers
happy and they don't want to anger prospects or customers who don't
want to receive their emails.
You can also avoid running afoul of the federal Can-Spam law by making
sure that you document the permission of each person you are emailing.
This is also very easy to do. Simply make sure that you have a subscription
form that sends out a confirmation email—the double opt-in process—and
then make sure that you respect the permission of each subscriber by
only emailing those who are remaining on the list.
There are several other things you must avoid to stay in compliance
with the federal Can-Spam law, including not harvesting email addresses
from the web, not engaging in what are called “dictionary” attacks,
and not using misleading subject lines or email headers. In other words,
don't do the kinds of things that spammers would do. Make sure your
email is sent only to people who have opted-in—those
who have given you permission to send them email—and ensure your
email message is relevant to that person. Again, it should also have
a clearly labeled subject line and offer each subscriber and opt-out
mechanism in case they do not wish to receive further emails from you.
Staying in compliance with the federal Can-Spam Act is very simple,
and the vast majority of honest, responsible email marketers who have
experience in the business will have to make absolutely no changes
to their email campaigns in order to comply with the law. The only
ones who will have to alter their behavior to comply with the law are,
in fact, the same people who would never comply with the law: the spammers.
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