Email marketing is a great way to directly access potential clients and customers, when done correctly and in compliance with the law. Every so often, we receive an email from a store or business that we did not subscribe to. Perhaps the exchange of business cards landed our email on their blast list, or perhaps they harvested it from a website or related forum. Either way, no one wants to receive additional emails that are irrelevant, annoying, and simply unwarranted.
Email Marketing Laws
Despite its name, the CAN-SPAM act does not give commercial business the legal opportunity to spam your email with whatever correspondence they see fit. Instead, CAN-SPAM sets laws and requirements for commercial emails and email marketing services, grants rights to email receivers, and includes strict penalties if laws are broken.
Enacted by the Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM laws include requirements for your email headings, information contained within the message, opt-out requests, and business information. These regulations apply to all emails from a business account, including business-to-business email marketing and correspondence.
How These Laws Help the Consumer
As a person on the receiving end of a commercial email, we’re occasionally left wondering how and why we came to receive the email. Most email marketing services are good at providing opt-out requests right in the email message. Some even utilize the ability to unsubscribe with just one click, making it straightforward to opt-out.
Occasionally, however, companies don’t adhere to CAN-SPAM guidelines. They either don’t offer an opt-out option, don’t honor requests in a timely manner, or send misleading messages to people who did not subscribe. As a recipient of this message, you can find instructions for reporting the company to the FTC here.
The FTC also advises contacting your email service provider — i.e. Google, Yahoo, Outlook, etc. —, reporting the spammer and including the unsolicited correspondence. If the sender’s email contains their email service provider, send a complaint email to that provider, as well. If you are still receiving unwanted email marketing messages, file a complaint with the FTC.
Tips for Avoiding and Preventing Unwarranted Emails
While the FTC has put hefty fines in place for rule-breakers, companies still illegally spam and harvest emails without the email recipient’s consent. Prevention practices can put a stop to the problem before it even starts.
Use two email addresses, one for personal emails and one for mailing lists, discounts, etc. Checking privacy policies on company sites before subscribing is also vital. Companies are legally obligated to tell users if they share user email addresses.
It is in the company’s best interest to send marketing emails only to confirmed subscribers. If you’re on the sending end, your company’s reputation, revenue, and growth can take a hard hit if users are constantly bombarded with unwarranted emails. Regardless of whether companies use a third-party email marketing services, it is still their responsibility to ensure that emails adhere to CAN-SPAM laws. Have questions regarding this or other online marketing initiatives? Contact us for more information.