Email Marketing News and Tips

The DMA hosted a conference call this past Friday to discuss the Federal Trade Commission’s recent update to the CAN-SPAM act of 2003, which they released on May 12th. In this post we’ll touch on the most important takeaways from that call, and how they apply to Boomerang customers.

But before we go too much further, I want to make a few things clear about Boomerang’s position on CAN-SPAM and spamming in general. As stated in our Acceptable Use Policy and in the Terms of Use agreement, Boomerang does not tolerate spamming. We support the CAN-SPAM law as a bare minimum, and strongly urge our clients to grow their list organically and to not rent or buy email lists, not only because list rentals ruin our reputation and that of our clients, but also because they simply don’t work.

Please also be aware that Boomerang.com is not liable if a client of our’s violates CAN-SPAM. Instead it is the company that is considered the sender (who provided the list, is in the “from” address, and so forth) of the email who is responsible.

As a review, CAN-SPAM covers commercial email, and to be compliant with the law marketers really only have to do a few simple things:

-Include a viable opt-out method, and act on unsubscribe requests within 10 days
-Include a physical postal address of the sender
-Use a real “from line/address” that does not mis-lead the recipient as to who has sent the email
-Make sure that the subject line of the email corresponds to the content of the email and is not mis-leading
-Indicate the email is an advertisement

With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about the call. The 100 page update from the FTC basically clarifies questions that were raised by the DMA and other organizations regarding existing provisions, and ruled on certain changes to the law that had been proposed.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. In the event that you’re co-marketing with one or more affiliates, you’re now able to designate one of the companies as the “sender” of the email. That company should have control of the content, be in charge of the list, be in the “from” line, and be in charge of the opt-outs. This essentially clears up the identity of the sender for the recipients when they receive an email with several advertisers in it. However, the commission did not create a “safe harbor” for the other companies represented in the message, so they are responsible for making sure that the “sender” goes by the book.

2. The update includes several clarifications on what the law considers to be “transactional” email which, as you know, are excluded from the need for CAN-SPAM compliance. However, here at Boomerang we encourage our clients to use our Confirmation Plus tool to add relevant up-sell opportunities to their transactional email, so another part of the update applies. When there is commercial content included in a transactional email, the committee will use the “primary purpose” criteria to determine if it falls under CAN-SPAM. To be on the safe side, Boomerang reccomends that you include the CAN-SPAM compliance elements if there’s any commercial aspect to your email.

3. The definition of a “Physical Postal Address” was further defined, and now an accurately registered PO Box or private mailbox registered with a commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) is acceptable to the FTC. However the DMA guidelines, which Boomerang supports, still require a true physical address.

4. The next point regards liability as it relates to Forward to a Friend (FTAF). The FTC has said that emails that are forwarded on by the recipient using a FTAF mechanism (that reach the recipient without CAN-SPAM compliance elements) are not considered for prosecution, unless the marketer is paying the recipient to forward the email along.

5. The commission decided to continue the 10 day window for unsubscribes after considering a proposal to reduce that window to 3 days.

6. They also reaffirmed that there is no expiration to an opt-out request, no matter how old.

7. There is a prohibition on charging a subscriber a fee or imposing any other requirements on people who wish to opt-out.

As you can see, for the most part these rulings and clarifications touch on subjects where most responsible email marketers are already doing the right thing. As long as you make sure to include those original CAN-SPAM compliance elements I mention above every time you send a commercial email, you’ll be in good shape.