This article gives you a four-point CAN-SPAM compliance checklist that will help you stay compliant. Check it out below plus more information on CAN-SPAM regulations and more.
Key Takeaways (TL;DR)
This guide outlines a comprehensive four-point CAN-SPAM compliance checklist for businesses engaging in email marketing. You’ll also find details on mandatory requirements like truthful headers, clear subject lines, conspicuous advertisement disclosures, and the inclusion of a physical address.
Learn more about providing clear opt-out instructions, promptly handling opt-out requests, and taking responsibility for affiliates’ compliance.
Violations of the CAN-SPAM Act can result in severe penalties, underlining the necessity for businesses to adhere strictly to these guidelines to maintain transparency and trust with their customers.
The CAN-SPAM Act was created in 2003 to serve as a set of guidelines directing email marketing campaigns and initiatives – compliance is necessary. It also serves as a methodology for creating better relationships and opportunities with prospective and future customers. When properly implemented, it not only protects your business from incurring hefty fines but also creates a set of expectations that customers can understand and appreciate.
Whether you’re sending out emails in-house, or partnering with an affiliate who will send out emails on your behalf, we’ve created a list of email marketing tips that every company can leverage to protect their business and keep customers happy.
What Does the CAN-SPAM Act Regulate?
The CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) Act regulates all and any emails that promote commercial websites and products. These are generally classified as commercial emails and are under the CAN-SPAM Act.
More specifically, the CAN-SPAM Act law protects users against deceptive and unwanted commercial emails. Moreover, it makes the communication more transparent. The CAN-SPAM act applies to incoming commercial email messages sent by the US and sent by foreign citizens.
What Are CAN-SPAM’s Main Requirements?
So what are the main requirements of CAN-SPAM Act? Check them out below:
Accurate Header Information
All header information in your emails—including the “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information accurately identifies the person or business responsible for sending the email. Avoid any misleading header information or false content.
This means the domain name and email address must be legitimate and linked to the sender, and such messages are not disguised or misleading. This transparency helps recipients know who is communicating with them, fostering trust and reducing confusion.
Truthful Subject Lines
The subject line of your email must be straightforward and reflect the actual content of the email. This rule is designed to ensure that the subject lines are not deceptive and misleading subject lines do not mislead the recipient about the purpose of the email, which helps maintain the integrity of email communications.
Disclosure of Advertisements
If the email is an advertisement, this must be clearly and conspicuously stated. The law allows flexibility in how you disclose this, but the disclosure must be obvious to the recipient at a glance. This could involve the layout relationship content, formatting, and positioning of the disclosure in the email to ensure it is not hidden or ambiguous.
Provide a Physical Address
Every email must include a valid physical postal address where you or your business can be contacted. This could be a street address, a post office box registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a commercial mailbox registered under Postal Service regulations.
This requirement lends credibility to the sender and provides a way for recipients to know where the business is located and how it can be reached physically.
Clear Opt-out Instructions
You must clearly explain how recipients can opt out of receiving future emails from you. This explanation should be easy to find, read, and understand. Using clear font size and color can enhance readability. You must provide a simple method for opting out, like a return email address or a link to a single internet page with an unsubscribe link.
You should also allow recipients to stop receiving all types of marketing emails, not just select categories, ensuring they have complete control over their inbox.
Prompt Handling of Opt-out Requests
The opt-out mechanism you provide must remain active for at least 30 days after the email is sent, and you must honor opt-out requests within 10 business days. You cannot charge a fee or require more information than an email address to process an opt-out request.
Additionally, once someone opts out, you are prohibited from selling or transferring their email address, except to a company you’ve hired to help comply with CAN-SPAM regulations.
Responsibility for Affiliates
If you hire another company to manage your email marketing, you are still responsible for ensuring they comply with CAN-SPAM laws. Both the company whose product is being promoted and the company sending the email are legally accountable.
This means you need to monitor the practices of any third parties handling your email marketing to ensure they are not violating these rules.
CAN-SPAM Compliance Checklist
1) Make Opting Out of Emails Simple
Per the letter of the law, CAN-SPAM compliance depends on your business being able to acknowledge unsubscribes from emails within a period of ten business days. It also requires that each email that you send contains a link to unsubscribe from all future emails, remaining active for at least 30 days.
Entering into an email marketing campaign requires customer consent. It should be just as easy for customers to stop receiving emails from your company as it was for them to sign up in the first place. This should be done with a legible button at the bottom of each email you send.
While opting out of your business’ emails may be seen as a net negative, the reasons people opt out of emails vary. This can be used to your and your customer’s advantage. Offering different types of opt-outs, such as opting down, can ensure neither of your businesses are wasting their time.
For instance, if a customer wants to receive emails from specific departments of your organization, or receive them less frequently, these features can be customized with a robust unsubscribe platform.
2) Remove Opt-Outs in a Timely Manner
CAN-SPAM compliance requires that you acknowledge these requests within a period of 10 days. In the age of the internet, this time frame is far beyond what your customers expect. In the era of one-click purchasing, customers expect immediacy from unsubscribe requests. Failing to acknowledge unsubscribe can lead to duplicate unsubscribe entries in a system, which can cause a backlog of requests that go unacknowledged.
This can be a problem with affiliate marketing campaigns. For a CAN-SPAM request to be acknowledged, it needs to speak across multiple databases to ensure that the request is logged in each account. Using a centralized unsubscribe platform can help ensure that every unsubscribe request is accounted for.
3) Keep Information in Each Email Relevant
When a customer receives an email from your company, the intent of your email should be immediately apparent. This means that your subject line, your header, and the content of your email should clearly dictate that the email is coming from your organization. Additionally, your current physical address must be included in the marketing email. If your business doesn’t receive mail, your P.O. box may be used.
Under CAN-SPAM, customers need to understand that each email you send is from you, and acknowledge that it is an advertisement. This is as much a function of good email compliance as it is good email marketing. The more relevant an email is to a customer, the better the results of your campaign are likely to be.
4) Leveraging A Centralized Unsubscribe Database to Manage CAN-SPAM Compliance
CAN-SPAM compliance is as much a law as it is a critical element of good marketing methodology. When you send messaging out to clients, the intent is to provide them with content that is relevant both to their industry while offering your product or service as a solution. Every email is a facet of your branding. Content should be relevant and matter to your customers. A centralized unsubscribe database is essential in any marketing campaign.
While you may have ten business days to acknowledge a request, faster results yield a better customer experience. Centralized databases prevent requests from being siloed across departments or affiliates, and can sort between different types of data. Just one bad interaction with your company can spoil your image in the eyes of a customer.
UnsubCentral offers a single turnkey solution that makes unsubscribes easier than ever across dozens of email service provider integrations. Contact us today to learn more about our services.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What kind of emails does CAN-SPAM Act apply to?
The CAN-SPAM Act applies to any business sending commercial emails, regardless of the business size. This includes unauthorized emails sent by an online store to advertise its services. The criteria to determine if an organization falls under the CAN-SPAM Act are specific.
Emails that you receive from other businesses which then permit you to send them email or other communications are generally not exempt under the CAN-SPAM Act. However, the Act does exempt certain types of emails, specifically those from political organizations, charities, and religious organizations.
How can I determine if the CAN-SPAM Act applies to emails sent by my business?
The content of the message is key. If the email contains only commercial content, it must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
If the email serves a transactional or relationship-based purpose, it also needs to comply but is not required to avoid misleading routing information. Misleading or false routing information is prohibited by the CAN-SPAM Act in all cases.
How can I identify if an email is transactional or relationship-based?
An email is considered transactional or relationship-based if its content pertains strictly to these aspects. You should not automatically assume that emails sent to subscribers or members of your program are transactional or relationship-based.
You must evaluate whether an informed consumer would understand the email as transactional or relationship-based, considering five specific categories under the Act.
What are the consequences of violating the CAN-SPAM Act?
Violating the CAN-SPAM Act can result in severe penalties for each offending email. Entities responsible for the product promotion or the actual sending of the email can be held legally accountable. Sending emails with misleading information about products or the company can lead to penalties.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also investigates whether such violations constitute email fraud. Furthermore, serious violations can lead to criminal charges, including imprisonment.