| By Tom O'Leary
There is a lot of confusion about who we can send email to these days. Since the emergence of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM), which became public law in December, 2003, the lines have only become more blurred. In this article, we will review the law and set out 5 key requirements that will ensure that our email is considered legitimate by our customers, email clients and ISPs.
The Law
The CAN-SPAM law sets forth the following protections against spam:
- a prohibition against false or misleading transmission information;
- a prohibition against deceptive subject headings;
- mandatory inclusion of a return address or a comparable mechanism in commercial electronic mail;
- a prohibition against transmission of spam after objection (including a prohibition against transferring or releasing an email address after an objection);
- mandatory inclusion in spam of information identifying the message as an advertisement or solicitation, notice of the opportunity to decline to receive further unsolicited messages from the sender, and the sender's physical address;
- a prohibition against initiating transmission of spam to a protected computer, or assisting in the origination of such message through the provision of addresses, if the person had actual knowledge, or knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances, that the recipient's address was obtained from an Internet website or proprietary online service that included a notice that the operator will not provide addresses for initiating unsolicited messages;
- a prohibition against using automated means to register for multiple email accounts for the transmission of spam; and
- a prohibition against relaying or retransmitting an unsolicited message that is unlawful under this section.
* Mandatory inclusion in spam actually suggests that we can spam, but we have to identify the message as an advertisement or solicitation?! This is why Spamhaus, Wired, and other industry resources claim that the law should be called the YOU-CAN-SPAM act.
Unfortunately, even though the law seeks to protect us from malicious providers inasmuch as it:
"Expresses the sense of Congress that:
- spam has become the method of choice for those who distribute pornography, perpetrate fraudulent schemes, and introduce viruses, worms, and Trojan horses into personal and business computer systems; and
- the Department of Justice should use all existing law enforcement tools to investigate and prosecute those who send bulk commercial e-mail to facilitate the commission of Federal crimes."
...it affects legitimate business email efforts more than it does malicious operators.
But as criticized as the law is, it exists. If your email is considered to be SPAM, your email address can be placed on a blacklist and will have difficulty getting through to your customers in the future. So what steps do we have to take to ensure that we are compliant when sending our commercial email? Here are 5 key requirements for distributing email messages so that they are considered legitimate by customers, email clients, ISPs and the law.
5 Key Requirements for Legitimate Email Messaging
Sending bulk email remains an integral part of any company's online communications strategy. It is the most efficient and effective way to inform your customers and prospects about your product, services, promotions, and relevant information about your business. Here are 5 key requirements to ensure that your email message is sent legitimately to individuals:
1. Use Legitimate Email Lists: Only send email to individuals who have agreed to receive your message.
(a) You can contact existing customers with information relevant to the product or service that they purchased.
(b) You can contact any individual who requests information from you by registering to receive information from you from your website. BUT, you should only send them information relevant to what they subscribed to.
(c) You can contact individuals from legitimate 3rd party list providers if those individuals gave permission to the list brokers to share their email addresses with other related businesses. Beware: There are illegal list harvesters who will offer email lists to you that are not legitimate. Ensure that your 3rd party list provider is a legitimate, opt-in, permission list broker with lists relevant to your business.
2. Use Double Opt-In Confirmation: Because anyone can subscribe another to receive email from a site, it is important to confirm registration by sending an email requesting confirmation from the subscriber. Spamhaus calls this Closed-loop opt-in and defines it as: The Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed from a working address and with the address owner's consent.
3. Allow Recipients to Reply: There is nothing more frustrating than receiving an email to which you cannot reply. Provide a legitimate Reply To address that recipients can respond to with questions, concerns, questions, etc. If they cannot reply to your e-mail directly, ensure that there are links within the message with contact information that they can reply to.
4. Provide an Opt-out Facility: All recipients of your email should be able to easily discontinue receiving future messages by opting-out of your list. Make opting-out easy to do and ensure that the recipient is removed immediately when they opt-out. Normally, an opt-out or “unsubscribe†link is placed at the end of the email. Remember though, providing the link is only worthwhile to the recipient if it actually works. I have personally unsubscribed to countless email lists only to continue receiving them after doing so. A legitimate, compliant business will actually remove emails from their list when the recipient opts-out.
5. Keep Your Message Relevant: Your message should be relevant to everyone on your list. If your email doesn't relate to the needs of the recipients of your message, then it will be considered spam, even if you acquired the list legitimately. The relevance of your message is instrumental to the perception of your recipients. Besides, if your message isn't relevant to your list, you're probably wasting your time and money sending it to them. Use relevant and topical subject lines and content that is desirable to your audience.
The CAN-SPAM law requires email communicators to jump through some hoops today to successfully connect with their audience. It might be poorly written law, and perhaps even unfair to legitimate businesses who want to approach their online market with what they consider to be information of interest or value; but it exists and we must adhere to the current guidelines. The good news is that it really isn't that difficult to adhere to, especially with modern group email software like Infacta's GroupMail. In fact, it forces us to think strategically about forming highly a relevant, interested, and targeted customer base. It prohibits us from being lazy and blindly communicating with an unknown audience. Adhering to these 5 basic tenets of permission-based email will ensure that your email is considered legitimate. So go on now, you have my permission. |
