What's the CAN-SPAM Act, and what do I need to know in order to write compliant email-marketing campaigns?

Due to COVID-19 and its economic ramifications, many organizations are eliminating employee positions and furloughing workers. A skeleton crew often has to pick up extra responsibilities, so many trade show and event marketers are needing to craft their own email campaigns, assuming they haven't already been doing so. Curating effective messages is important, but it's more critical that your missives are compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act, which stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act.

Enacted in 2003 and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, the CAN-SPAM Act establishes requirements for commercial email, ensures recipients have the ability to opt out, and authorizes tough penalties for violators. Each email that breaches this law is subject to penalties up to $43,280, so it behooves you to ensure all of your marketing missives conform to the regulations.

Your first step toward compliance is to visit the FTC's website for specific guidelines. One helpful article to access is "CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business." However, for those who need some immediate guidance, here are the bare-bones basics of the legal requirements.

Your header and subject lines must be honest as opposed to misleading. That is, the header needs to accurately identify the business or person sending the email, and the subject line should be honest and straightforward so as not to mislead people into opening the message. Somewhere in the message you also need to disclose that it's an advertisement (assuming that it is), and you need to clearly include the physical address of the business. Most often, email marketers place this content in a footer below the main text.

In addition, your message must include an opt-out selection allowing people to unsubscribe from future communication or manage their email preferences. You must then remove these people from your list within 10 business days. Finally, if you're using a third party to manage your emails, it's still your job to ensure all messages are in keeping with the regulation.

While there are always gray areas, the act covers all email messages (and various other forms of communication) whose primary intent is commercial in nature. The FTC defines this as content that "advertises or promotes a commercial product or service, including content on a website operated for a commercial purpose." Once you understand the law, fulfilling its requirements is fairly easy. So if you're unsure whether your email is commercial, you're probably better off ensuring its compliance rather than risking the penalties.