CAN Spam Compliance Secrets

Making sure your e-mail marketing is CAN-SPAM Compliant © BusinessDoctorSecrets.com

If you use your e-mail marketing in your business (and you should, after all) then you need an understanding of the CAN-SPAM law.

President George Bush signed the CAN-SPAM act into law in 2003. CAN-SPAM stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing. It is a play on the word spam. In 2005 the FTC reported to congress that as a result of CAN-SPAM, the amount of overall spam has finally tapered off a little and the amount of sexually explicit spam has decreased significantly.

Some anti-spam activists say the CAN-SPAM act doesn't go far enough because it does not require marketers to get permission before sending e-mails. Even though the law doesn't require this, you should definitely get permission before sending e-mails to your customers. An opt-in form is a must. Unfortunately, 75 percent of the e-mail that is sent is spam so people are still very put off by spam. If you send unsolicited e-mails the chances are good that the recipient will delete it without reading it.

If you do send unsolicited e-mail, the law permits it, as long as you meet the following criteria:

•    Include an unsubscribe link in all e-mails and honor unsubscribe requests within ten days.

•    Accurate from lines and subject lines. A physical address also has to be present in the e-mail.

•    It can't be sent to a harvested e-mail address.

Even though CAN-SPAM violations are very expensive ($11K penalty per violation per e-mail recipient) don't let CAN-SPAM compliance put you off from e-mail marketing. Autoresponder service providers like Aweber are CAN-SPAM compliant and if you use them you won't have to worry because your e-mails will automatically have all the necessary CAN-SPAM features.

Opt-in e-mail marketing is part of the permission-based marketing trend that Seth Godin described in his popular Permission-Based Marketing book. Someone that signs up for your e-mail list is much easier to market to than someone who receives unsolicited e-mail. People hate spam; people are sick of interruption-based marketing (commercials) so, with the right e-mails, you can effectively reach your customers and prospects and still abide by the CAN-SPAM law.

Make sure your e-mails don't resemble spam in any way. The subject lines should be low-key and you should just send e-mails that are full of offers and discounts and don't have useful content. Make sure you also send e-mails that have helpful information that they can put to immediate use. Don't just talk about your products all the time. Write the e-mails as if you were writing to a good friend. Let the personal side of your company show and tell stories.

If you treat the people on your e-mail list with great respect, both with great content in your e-mails and also with CAN-SPAM compliance, your customers will in turn, reward you with their loyalty. After all, the person the most likely to buy from you is the one who has already bought from you, and you can help make that happen with an autoresponder e-mail series like this.