Permission Email: 5 Key Requirements
In this article, we will review the Can-SPAM Act and set out 5 key requirements that will ensure that our email is considered legitimate by our customers, email clients and ISPs.
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.
