Tips on staying compliant with new e-mail marketing legislation

Proposed new legislation covering electronic commerce practices will compel marketers to modify how they market online. However, marketers can take some steps now to ensure that their e-mail campaigns are compliant and effective. A key reason why e-mail marketing has successfully evolved is e-mail-related legislation. These rules of conduct, imposed by national and international governments, are designed to achieve customer protection while encouraging commerce. And, on this front, there is a new development that marketers need to prepare for now. Specifically, Canada’s Bill C-27 (the Electronic Commerce Protection Act) is projected to become law in 2010 – adding another set of rules that all marketers sending e-mail to Canadian recipients will need to follow. These rules will be in addition to those set out in the American CAN-SPAM Act which has long served as the rules that North American marketers have followed. Bill C-27 also augments PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) which outlines a set of rules designed specifically to protect consumer privacy. Here are practical actions you can take to address all of your e-mail marketing campaigns: To whom you can send e-mail Under Bill C-27, you can send e-mail to anyone who has provided either explicit or implied consent. Specifically, implied consent is present when there is an existing business or non-business relationship between you and the recipient of your e-mail. In contrast, explicit consent exists when the recipient provides you with permission to send them messages. This is dramatically different from the regulations set out in CAN-SPAM that allowed marketers to send e-mail to absolutely anyone as long as they hadn’t unsubscribed or opted-out from an existing e-mail subscription. E-mail Best Practice: Segment your subscribers (and targets) based on their expressed preferences, observed behaviours, demographics and customer lifetime value. When you can send e-mail According to Bill C-27, you can send e-mail when you have gathered explicit consent. Alternatively, you can send e-mail to customers from whom you’ve received implicit consent – for a period of 18 months after obtaining that implicit consent. E-mail Best Practice: Only send e-mail when you have relevant and timely content. One option is to use preference centres that allow subscribers to choose the timing and frequency with which they receive e-mails. What you can do to acquire new e-mail subscribers While Bill C-27 does not outline any specific actions, it does demand that all marketers have permission prior to sending an e-mail. E-mail Best Practice: Follow the guidelines set out in the Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act (PIPEDA) and work with your e-mail service provider to take advantage of online contests and offline marketing campaigns. What you need to include in all e-mail messages In all e-mail marketing messages, marketers need to include the identity of the person who is sending the e-mail message. If the e-mail is being sent on someone’s behalf other than the sender, the name of that person needs to be included. You also need to include your company’s name and your company’s contact information. E-mail Best Practice: To increase the likelihood of e-mail being delivered by the internet service providers (ISP), ensure the domain naming system (DNS) and the internet protocols match the corporate brand sending the e-mail; run tests (e.g. HTLML coding, spam words, subject lines, spelling mistakes, text on graphics, etc.) on your content prior to deploying; and include your postal address as the form of contact information. What you need to do to accommodate recipients who don’t want to receive your e-mails To comply with Bill C-27, marketers must maintain clear and conspicuous unsubscribe procedures within the e-mail and honour requests for unsubscribing within 10 calendar days of the request. This is in contrast to CAN-SPAM that requires 10 business days. At the same time, marketers must provide a method for e-mail recipients to easily contact the persons responsible for sending the message. And, this method must be active for 60 days from the day the e-mail was originally sent. E-mail Best Practice: Include an e-mail address unsubscribe and a web page for unsubscribing; use a preference centre to ensure that subscribers can opt out of individual publications rather than all of your publications; and route unsubscribe reports to a customer service representative so that they can be reviewed rather than to an unattended mailbox. What recourse you can expect from recipients who don’t want to receive e-mail Because of the importance of electronic commerce to our economy, the price tag for non-compliance is considerable. The maximum penalty for violating Bill C-27 is $1 million in the case of an individual and $10 million in the case of a business. And, unlike CAN-SPAM, Bill C-27 allows individuals to bring cases against non-complying senders. Chris Carder is president of e-mail service provider ThinData, a Transcontinental Company (www.thindata.com). He can be reached at president@thindata.com.

Tips on staying compliant with new e-mail marketing legislation

News | 08/27/2009 2:17 pm EDT

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