Question: Isn't all bulk email spam?
Answer: No. The Can Spam Act does not prohibit you from sending commercial
email messages to bulk recipients unless a recipient has submitted an opt-out request.
The bill permits e-mail marketers to send responsible commercial e-mail.
As long as it adheres to 3 basic types of compliance defined in the CAN-SPAM Act:
Unsubscribe, content and sending behavior compliance:
This is the law.
We help keep you safe.
Our email platform makes it easy to adhear to the can spam act.
We are always here to answer any questions you may have and to help you
feel comfortable with your email marketing business.
Here are some simple steps to remember:
1. Unsubscribe compliance
* A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism is present in all emails.
* Consumer opt-out requests are honored within 10 days.
* Opt-out lists also known as Suppression lists are only used for compliance purposes.
NOTE* You can not sell opt out email addresses or reuse them for other offers.
* A recipient cannot be required to pay a fee for an opt-out request, or be forced to provide information
other than his or her email address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps other than sending
a reply email message or visiting a single page on an Internet website.
2. Content compliance
* The contents of the email must state that it is commercial in nature.
* Accurate from lines. From line must not be deceptive.
* Relevant subject lines (relative to offer in body content and not deceptive)
* A legitimate physical address of the publisher and/or advertiser is present.
- This can be physical address, a post office box or a private mailbox
* A specific label must be present if the content is adult.
* NOTE* adult emails, need to say in the subject line "sexually explicit" all 19 letters must be readable.
** We do NOT allow Adult emails to be sent from our servers, nor do we allow hate speach or those
engaging in criminal enterprise. All other types of email sending is permitted.
3. Sending behavior compliance
* A message cannot be sent through an open relay
* A message cannot be sent to a harvested email address.
- This means any automated system that harvests email
addresses without the recipients knowledge.
* A message cannot contain a false header
Seven Simple Steps To Your Email Marketing Success:
1. Do not use false or misleading header information. Your From, To, Reply-To, and routing information, including the originating domain name and email address must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Do not use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you have registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you have registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that is easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your email spam filter does not block opt-out requests if someone sends a remove request to your reply email rather than using the clickable unsubscibe link. Unfortunately some people just hit reply with a manual request to be removed.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient opt-out request within 10 business days. You can not charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they do not want to receive more messages from you, you can not sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you have hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can not contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.
