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Our best expert advice on how to grow your business — from attracting new customers to keeping existing customers happy and having the capital to do it.
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Ensure your commercial messages comply with regulations. Follow these email best practices to protect user privacy, prevent spam, and avoid hefty fines.
Most countries have anti-spam and privacy regulations for email marketing. Failure to adhere to guidelines can tarnish your small business reputation, terminate your contract with email service providers, and result in financial penalties. Thanks to the internet, many small businesses reach a global audience. While this provides many benefits, it also comes with additional responsibilities.
Fortunately, the guidelines from the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and others are similar. You can maintain compliance while connecting with your customers by understanding the rules and following email marketing best practices.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act was passed in 2003. According to the Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM sets rules for all commercial messages, defined as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service.” Each CAN-SPAM Act violation can cost your company up to $50,120.
Follow these guidelines to ensure CAN-SPAM compliance:
[Read more: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating and Managing an Email Marketing List]
The CCPA was enacted in January 2020, and updates rolled out in January 2023. It gives individuals control over their data. However, CCPA only affects for-profit companies that do business in California and gross over $25 million a year; buy, sell, or share information of 100,000 or more California residents, households, or devices; or earn half or more of their yearly revenue from selling California residents’ data. CCPA is much stricter than CAN-SPAM and similar to GDPR.
Email marketers should take the following actions for CCPA compliance:
CASL was implemented in July 2014. It applies to any company sending emails to Canadian email addresses, regardless of the business location. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission provides a helpful CASL FAQs page explaining the various electronic communications covered, including text messaging.
Businesses must obtain express or implied consent to email Canadian recipients. Express consent means you ask them to opt-in to receiving emails from your company and tell them how you will use any collected data. Implied consent is action-based, like a customer who purchased from your business within the past two years. Like CAN-SPAM, your commercial emails must provide identification information and an unsubscribe mechanism.
Introduced in 2018, the GDPR has the strictest data privacy regulations and covers all EU member states (27), including Germany, Ireland, and France.
Australia’s spam laws resemble CAN-SPAM and CASL. Businesses must obtain written or implied consent, provide contact details, and make unsubscribing easy. However, the Spam Act requires companies to honor opt-out requests within five working days, whereas CAN-SPAM allows for 10. The Australian Communications and Media Authority advises against using email lists created with address-harvesting software.
PECR covers electronic mail marketing in Regulation 22. It requires express or inferred consent, valid contact information in all communications, and a way for consumers to opt out of receiving emails. Additionally, businesses can’t hide their identity. The Information Commissioner Office warns against encouraging email recipients to forward messages to friends, as by “instigating” this action, you must comply with PECR.
[Read more: 20 Smart Ways to Boost Your Email Marketing Campaign]
Introduced in 2018, the GDPR has the strictest data privacy regulations and covers all EU member states (27), including Germany, Ireland, and France. It also has the steepest fines. GDPR goes beyond CAN-SPAM by giving consumers personal data rights, such as access to their information, the ability to delete or correct it, and knowing how it’s used. Because of this, businesses need to take additional measures to comply with GDPR, like creating a web page with relevant privacy data information that you can link to from emails.
Here’s what you need to know about GDPR compliance and email marketing:
Email marketing laws constantly change. And consumer privacy and security remain key issues. Therefore small businesses should evaluate their current email lists and workflows. Get into the habit of protecting email recipients’ rights now, and you’ll be well-positioned to handle future regulations.
Use the following guidelines to ensure compliance with U.S. and international email marketing laws:
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Washington, DC 20062