Lately I’ve been getting more and more local spam emails. The only good thing about local spam is that 9 times of 10 you can ‘reply’ and probe the sender on how they got your email from. If you can believe it 6 out of 10 recent cases had no opt-out link!

*Opt-Out-Link? Mandatory in any newsletter and other emails that uses a list of emails for business related purposes, normally out of the personal email context.

Anti-spam laws for the US, named the CAN-SPAM Act, and Canada, called ECPA or the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, each indicate similar laws to govern spammers and those like us who receive spam.

Being CAN-SPAM Compliant:

1. All ‘From’, ‘To’, and routing information needs to be accurate. (From a ‘real source’ or ‘email marketing business’ not a robot.)
2. Clear Subject Lines (Like HTML your Meta Data matches your content…)
3. Opt-Outs are a must (In the bottom of the email for quick opt-outs. The link should be catered to that recipient, so there is no need to enter in their email again. This is fairly standard for current online email marketing companies you can use.)
4. Information contained in the email is clear again matching #2.
5. Receivers need to be aware if there is sexual content right in the subject line.

Who can you send emails too?

‘The CAN-SPAM law covers email that’s primary purpose is to advertise or promote a product, service, or website. Personal emails and email updates and advertisements that have been consented to are not covered under this law. Also not covered are “transactional or relationship messages,” which are emails that pertain to agreed-upon transactions or emails that update a customers in an existing business relationship. That is because these types of emails are not technically spam – they are a result of previous consent or a business relationship.

Couple of ways you could collect emails:

1: You’ve gone to a local business event, collected business cards from people, or your company donated a door prize and entries were by business card.

2: You belong to a business group that has a business directory for members both past and present with email addresses you get in the mail and can get online.

Now that you have all these emails, you can easily add them to your newsletter or other lists of product emails….

WRONG!

Just because you have someone’s email address does not mean you have the right to send him or her spam mail even if it is about a deal a newsletter and even if there is an opt-out in your email that you think is a great deal. You must have some sort of business relationship, and getting a business card is far from a real business relationship.

Be creative. Open the door to a relationship by sending a personal email first, asking them to join your newsletter. Give users the option to receive information to make them potential customers.

Be smart about what you send out about your company and how your email marketing. Be creative and be conscious of the anti-spam laws and grow your business with effective marketing not spam marketing.

*For some tips and references about CAN-SPAM and being compliant read our other post:  Creating A Better Anti-Spam Compliant Campaign