A lot of newbie marketers see the words Federal Trade Commission and get a bit, shall we say, freaked out. The truth is, if you’re not scraping email addresses off the Internet, and you’re not sending out thousands (millions!) of emails all about getting cheap V!agra, then all you need to do is follow a couple of very simple rules and the FTC will never bother you.
(Here’s where I have to tell you that I am not an attorney, and this should not be construed as legal advice. This is my opinion, and while I personally follow these guidelines, I cannot guarantee that if you follow them you’ll stay out of trouble with the Feds forever and ever. If you’re worried about it, you should get a lawyer.)
Number one thing: Don’t lie. Make it clear in your email who you are and where the email is coming from. That doesn’t mean you can’t use a pseudonym, but it does mean that you’re not allowed to use an email address that you don’t own.
You also cannot use deceptive subject lines. If your business is selling roses, you might say “One Dozen Long Stemmed Ways to Get Her to Say YES!” but you can’t say “Important Announcement Regarding Your VISA Card.” Creativity is good. Lying is bad.
Tell your subscribers where you are. You must include a physical address. For safety and privacy reasons, many marketers prefer not to include their home address. A PO Box is fine, and will probably cost you about $5 per month.
Tell your subscribers how to get rid of you, and honor their request when they do. You must include a way for your subscribers to opt out, or stop receiving emails from you. You must also process these requests promptly. You may not continue to send them emails for days or weeks while your “database is being updated.”
There are certain circumstances in which you do not need to be CAN-SPAM compliant, such as sending an email confirming a purchase or stating that a payment has been received. This type of email is considered transactional, meaning that it facilitates an already agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer about an ongoing transaction. However, you lose nothing by maintaining your compliance even with this type of email, so I would still avoid lying in the subject line or in the contact information, and I would still provide a way for the recipient to opt out of receiving future emails from you.
The best way to make sure your email campaigns are CAN-SPAM compliant is to contract with a reputable email list management system like Aweber. Their business is at stake, so you can be sure they’ll do their best to make sure you stay compliant.
If you need more information, check out what the FTC has to say about it, or contact your lawyer.
P.S. Stay tuned, because in a future post I’m going to talk about disclaimers and testimonials. Fun stuff!
