Are You Leading Your Marketing Team To Comply With The CAN-SPAM Act? – Forbes
Published on May 30, 2019 on Forbes.com
Email marketing continues to deliver results for advertisers, four decades after the first promotional email message was sent. By 2023, there are expected to be 4.4 billion email users (subscription required) in the world. With that kind of user base, it’s no wonder that email continues to be among the most used marketing channels for many companies.
However, successfully leveraging email in your marketing program involves much more than simply getting a list of email addresses and blasting away mass email campaigns. The first step in any email program should be ensuring that every campaign is compliant with all appropriate regulations and laws.
In the United States, the most relevant law is the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. This law set the rules that all companies need to follow when sending marketing messages via email. Prior to CAN-SPAM, the email marketing industry was often compared to the Wild West. Following the passage of the law in 2003, the industry adopted the guidelines for compliance and used them as the foundation for the highly successful email marketing landscape we have today.
Despite the number of companies using email marketing, I find that not all of them have a firm understanding of the requirements for compliance under CAN-SPAM. Many email marketing platforms and services actually build in certain compliance components into their systems, meaning that companies don’t have to be experts in the law in order to leverage email marketing. However, it is always valuable for marketers to educate themselves and their teams on rules, guidelines and best practices around any marketing channel.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides a useful compliance guide for businesses using email marketing. The guide outlines seven main components of CAN-SPAM and also specifies potential penalties for noncompliance.
Seven Steps To CAN-SPAM Compliance
1. Use accurate header and routing information; clearly identify the sender (person or business)….
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You can also find more information on CAN-SPAM compliance here.