Emails to send that are CAN-SPAM Compliant: What to look for?

The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) became a law in America, in 2003. The act was passed to prevent any misuse of Internet marketing, and was modified to a certain extent by the Federal Trade Commission, earlier in 2009. According to the new guidelines, companies conducting marketing campaigns on the Internet could use their post office box or an email address, in place of a conventional postal address. It is important to abide by the CAN-SPAM act because it is a law, and it will help you to develop a better email marketing campaign. Take a look at the following tips:

Well-established ESPs always assist when applying the clauses included in the CAN-SPAM act. The law demands that clients should have an easy way to unsubscribe from emails. Hence, ESPs will add an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of each email. There should also be a legal and active email address in the ‘from’ field. Some ESPs have a system in place through which they automatically dispatch a validation email to those addresses in the ‘from’ field. Apart from all this, the law also requires that a traditional postal address is sent with every email.

The law makes it very clear that there has to be a postal address in every email you send. ESPs can initiate action if you do not comply with this clause. It’s not very tough to fulfill this requirement, yet, people tend to ignore it for some reason. However, good and successful marketing depends a lot on transparency. If your email marketing campaign is transparent, then your customers will trust you. Secondly, you should have a good subject line for the emails you send to your customers. If your subject line is not relevant and clear, then your campaign will not be treated as one that’s within the legal framework of the CAN-SPAM Act. The email you intend to send might have ‘newsletter’ in the subject field. Though relevant, it may not entice users to open your newsletter. Hence, you must have a subject line that’s reflective of your brand and contains what you want to convey in your emails.

The CAN-SPAM act ensures that there is no misuse of Internet marketing. You should only conduct business with individuals or organizations that have signed up for your marketing emails to keep track of the latest developments of your company. Otherwise your readers may lodge complaints against you. Still, in certain cases, spam complaints are unavoidable. However, they should be minimized because if there are too many spam complaints against you, then it can damage your reputation as a company, and consequently your business prospects.

Some companies use free web based mail services to carry out their email campaigns. However, it is a better idea to use an email address with your company’s name in the domain of the address. You are not legally bound to do this; but, doing so will make you look more genuine. Hence, register your domain name at the earliest.