As business owners take their marketing plans to the Internet, a viable component of those plans is the commercial email. This type of advertising works, brings potential consumers to your site and generates sales. But, there are very specific rules that you should follow to avoid being in the spam category.
Enter the CAN-SPAM Act. This law sets requirements for commercial messages and gives your recipients the right to have you stop emailing them. This law is also applicable to business-to-business email, including messages to former customers announcing a new product line.
False or misleading header information is unacceptable. The “From,” “To,” “Reply-To” and routing information must be real and identify you or your business as the initiator.
Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately identify the content of the message.
Tell recipients where you are. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This could be a street address, a USPS post office box or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency.
An opt-out feature is required. Recipients must be able to stop receiving your emails. This is called an opt-out. Design the opt-out so it can be easily located with a clear explanation. Usually this a return e-mail address at the bottom of your message.
Honor opt-out requests promptly. You must process opt-out requests within 10 business days and any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process these requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial e-mail.
Selling or transferring opt-out requests is illegal. Once people have told you they don’t want your e-mails any longer, you may not sell or transfer this information.
Pay attention to what others are doing for you. Even if you hire a company to manage your e-mail marketing, you are still responsible for any mistakes or non-compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act.
Penalties for violating these rules can be very stiff–up to $16,000 per violation for both you and the company that managed your commercial e-mail.