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What do the new CAN-SPAM laws mean to you?
In February 2004, AMAZING! staffer Ann Wagoner attended the Oregon Chapter of the American Marketing Association (http://www.ama-pdx.org/) panel on "Anti-Spam or Anti-Marketing: What Do These New Regulations Mean to You?" Speakers from CoolerEmail, Anvil Media, @Once and ExactTarget discussed their understanding of what the new law means to businesses that send email. The following is a summary of that discussion.
Opt-Out vs. Opt-In
The new Opt-Out law in effect in the United States requires that all email campaigns must include a working unsubscribe option that processes requests within 10 business days of the initial request. Opt-outs are the responsibility of the marketer (or sender of the email/advertiser) if it is different from the list owner. Legally, businesses can send one email to anyone, and then must delete names of people who opt out. (Although that's not a recommended best practice.) In the next three months, the Federal government will create a definition of what a "commercial email" is. So it looks like some people will spam on until that gets defined.
The U.S. law is much different than the rules for Europe and the rest of the world. Everyone else follows an Opt-In regulation--customers have to subscribe before they can be sent ANY marking emails.
Who's Following the Rules?
The new law, called CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) that went into effect in January of this year already has a 69% compliance rate. Of the businesses polled,
17% aren't sure if they are compliant, 8% plan to be shortly and 6% aren't following the law and don't plan to either.
New SPAM rules
Under the new rules, anyone who sends marketing emails must identify the advertisement and the advertiser: All email campaigns must be clearly identified as an advertisement and include the marketer's physical, snail mail, address. And now the subject lines must be accurate and relevant to the campaign content.
What to do when sending email:
- Create a universal opt-out suppression file
- Implement and maintain a branded email domain
- Use a consistent "From" email address
- Encourage recipients to add your address to their lists of acceptable addresses
- Provide a link to a hosted version of HTML email
- Automate the welcome message for subscribers
- Be careful or don't do list rental!
- Simplify unsubscribe process
- Use website as conversion method to gather email addresses with permissions
- Use email for list retention not acquisition
- Manage unsubscribe lists weekly
- CYE-cover your email-identify who you are when sending email
- Focus on trust, reliability and compliance
And we also found out that Bill Gates is trying to come up with an email postage stamp that will guarantee delivery of email. Stay tuned!
What are the penalties for being caught spamming? Fees up to $2 million.
More Questions? Check out these links:
Btobonline.com
Clickz.com
Dmnews.com
Emarketer.com
Ftc.gov/bvcp/conline/edcams/spam
Ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall
Law.spamcon.org
Spamhaus.org
Spamlaws.com
The-dma.org
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/ama
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