Boomerang Email Marketing Blog

With this series of blog articles, it is intended to discuss the ‘did you know’ aspects of the CAN-SPAM ACT to help you remain compliant and improve the results of your campaigns. In this edition, we discuss deceptive header provisions.

Before we begin with this issue, we’d like to discuss some comments that were made on the last blog posting. This series of articles is intended to discuss the facets of CAN-SPAM compliance. It is not intended to be the end-all be all for legal compliance around the world. This blog posting is also not to be misconstrued as legal advice. As an email marketer, you will need to make sure that you remain in legal compliance for not only the locality where you reside, but also every territory you intend to email. While any ESP can give you tools to help you remain compliant, it is actually your responsibility to ensure that your campaigns and practices remain compliant with all laws.

So, the point in this blog series is to inform and educate you. However, if you have questions about legal compliance, you should consult with an attorney who is familiar with laws in your location (and any locations where you intend to email).

Deceptive Headers

What exactly are deceptive headers? Let’s reverse this question to understand this issue better. When isn’t a header deceptive? An identifying header is not deceptive when it accurately identifies and describes the person who originated the email. When you utilize an ESP such as Boomerang, there are two parties involved. You, the email marketer and Boomerang, the infrastructure provider. Because you are using Boomerang’s infrastructure, there will be some level of Boomerang information that remains in the headers. This accurately identifies Boomerang as the ESP. Some of the information is customizable. Also, Boomerang offers methodologies to prevent people from inserting deceptive headers to help maintain compliance. For example, Boomerang verifies an email address prior to allowing its use in an email campaign. Boomerang also inserts additional headers that allow us to identify the client who sent the email.

So, as long as the headers accurately identify the individual or company who sent the email, then it is not considered deceptive from the identification standpoint. What about content?

Content Deception

When sending your email campaigns, CAN-SPAM has rules regarding who becomes responsible when a product or service is advertised in an email. For example, if the From: line contains a completely different company than the product or service that’s advertised in the email, then all businesses must handle and process opt-out request and complaints and also be equally responsible for the email and its content. If an affiliate chooses not to identify themselves in the email and sends the email on behalf of different company, then the company that’s advertised becomes the responsible party over the content. As long as the header and body accurately reflect the actual sender, this does not violate CAN-SPAM.

Your content links should also accurately reflect what you are intending to sell. For example, links to a product or service in the email should take you to a page that primarily discusses that product or service. These links should not take you to foreign sites, to login pages or other pages that don’t directly relate to that product or service. Note that this is just a best practice overall. If you want to sell your service, your email links should accurately reflect where they lead.

Note: there are other laws that may also apply to your advertised products and services, such as local or federal fraud statutes. So, you will also want to ensure that your product or service advertising claims do not violate these laws.

But I didn’t send the email, CAN-SPAM doesn’t apply!

Wrong. If you have an affiliate, a marketing firm, a freelance company or any other outfit send email containing your company name, logo or information, you become responsible for that email and must comply with CAN-SPAM. On the other hand, if someone begins sending emails rogue on your company’s behalf without anyone’s knowledge or consent, you should probably try to find out who it is and get them shut down fast. With regards to rogue email, this is a problem area that CAN-SPAM doesn’t fully address.

Overall

To avoid deceptive headers and body content, it’s best to make sure that the From: line and body content accurately reflect who is sending the email. Body content and links should point to where they appear to point. Making sure that your campaigns keep these basic rules in mind, your campaigns should comply with these above discussed CAN-SPAM provisions.

Next up… May 2008 update provisions