Email Marketing Laws and Regulations, You Absolutely, 100% Need to Follow

Hands down — email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels available today. It’s more effective than social media for customer acquisition, extremely economic and cost effective, allows for some killer personalization and provides measurable results. But, all of these awesome advantages mean nothing if you aren’t using ethical email marketing strategies. Yes, buying a list of contacts might seem like a great way to boost your messaging and reach new potential customers, but in the end, this simple purchase could cost you a lot more than just a few unsubscribes.

There are a number of different laws that guide ethical email marketing for commercial purposes; in the United States, these laws are known as the CAN-SPAM Act. This act dictates a number of conditions that all commercial and promotional emails must follow to avoid significant fines. Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $42,530, so non-compliance can be costly. But, following the law isn’t complicated. Keep reading to learn more about the email marketing laws and regulations you absolutely, 100 percent need to follow.

Ensure You Have Permission to Email Recipients

You must have permission in order to email recipients on your lists. In general, there are two types of permission: implied permission and express permission.

Implied permission describes those individuals who you have an existing business relationship with.

Business relationships are defined as when the email recipient has:

• Bought or leased a product, good, service, or land from the business owner in the past two years.
• Been involved in a business, investment, or gaming opportunity with the business owner in the past two years.
• Entered into a written or electronic contract with the business owner in the last two years.
• Made an inquiry about products, goods, services, or land in the past six months.
• Made an inquiry about or submitted an application for a business, investment, or gaming opportunity in the past six months.

It is important to note that you can not keep contacts with implied permission on your lists forever. Implied permission expires after six months or two years, depending on the type of relationship.

If you don’t have implied permission to email a person, then you must have express permission. Express permission is granted when someone specifically gives you permission to send them emails, either by entering their email on a subscribe form or marking a check-box online or on a physical form.

Bottom line: You should never email contacts who you do not have implied or express permission from. This means that purchasing contact lists is a no-go.

Clearly State Who The Email is Coming From

The CAN-SPAM act is all about transparency. In order to comply, you must ensure that your “From,” “To” and “Reply to” labels tell the recipient where your email is coming from. In other words, these fields should contain the sender’s name or the business name.

Etsy makes it clear in their emails who they are and provides an email to reply to if necessary.

Provide a Way for Recipients to Opt-Out

Just as recipients are able to opt-in to receive your emails, you must also provide a clear and easy way for them to opt-out of your messaging — in every email you send. If you are using email service providers such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact or ActiveCampaign, they make this easy by automatically providing an “Unsubscribe” button at the bottom of each of your emails. The unsubscribe process should take no more than a few clicks and should contain no misleading fine print.

Warby Parker does a great job of providing a simple one-click opt-out process.

Honor Opt-Out Requests Promptly

If a subscriber wants off your list, you legally have 10 days to comply. You’ll want to make sure that users who have unsubscribed are automatically placed on a separate unsubscribe list to ensure that no future emails are sent to them and their information cannot be re-added to any list. If you are using a designated email service provider, this process will typically be managed for you.

Include Your Address and Contact Information in All Emails

Every email must contain a physical postal address for the person or business sending the email. This helps when showcasing the credibility of your business and offers recipients an additional way to learn more about yourself or your company if they choose to. A great way to ensure all emails contain this vital information is to include it in the footer of every email sent — just like Mailchimp does below.

Identify Your Message as an Ad

While you don’t need to specifically state “This email is an advertisement” every time you send an email, you do need to make it clear that the email is an advertisement. This law is more about not purposely deceiving your recipients into thinking they are receiving a personal email.

The above examples don’t specifically state that their campaigns are advertisements, but by using their company name and having honest subject lines, they make it clear to recipients that they are promotional messages and not personal emails.

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Learn more about the CAN-SPAM Act.