I received this question today: "We interpret CAN-SPAM to mean that we must include a statement that says, 'This is a promotional email.' Is that correct?"
Since I spend so much time training clients on how to do the right thing (including how to comply with CAN-SPAM), I felt that it was a pretty basic question. But, clearly, not everybody is knowledgeable about CAN-SPAM. Not everybody has the experience of dealing with it to the degree that I have had. So, I though it would be good to make this into a quick blog post, with the hope that it will help others who may be wondering the same thing.
IF you're sending spam, then YES, you need to label your email as a promotional message (advertisement).
BUT: If you're sending email to people who didn't sign up to receive emails from you, then you're sending spam. You should never import an address into ExactTarget if the owner of that email address didn't choose to hand you their email address, didn't choose to sign up for your list. That's not the only definition of spam, but it's a very common one, and it's something that you must avoid, if you want your email to get delivered.
If you're NOT sending spam, then NO, you don't have to label your email as a promotional message (advertisement).
If you're sending email only to people who signed up to receive emails from you, then you're not spamming. What you need is "affirmative consent," meaning that "the recipient expressly consented to receive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuous request for such consent or at the recipient's own initiative."
If you have that affirmative consent, then under CAN-SPAM, you are exempt from the labeling requirement, and you don't have to include a notice about your email message being an advertisement.
That's just one of the many reasons why it is important that you do not send spam, and it's a very practical one. If you are forced to label your messages as advertising, ISPs are more likely to filter out the messages, because the people who label their messages that way tend to be spammers.
This goes without saying, but I figured it best to include it explicitly: ExactTarget doesn't allow spam. ISPs don't want it, and neither do we want to allow clients to send it. If a client tries to use our service to send spam, we have a number of ways we pick up on that fact, and suspend the accounts of the offenders. Spammers tend to have short, unhappy tenures on the ExactTarget platform.
(Josh Fruchter raises a good point: He reminds us that "certain professional service providers such as law firms may be subject to additional restrictions imposed by regulatory bodies. For instance, some bar associations require law firms to add disclaimers to their mass emails such as 'This is an Advertisement.' So law firms also need to check their local bar rules for any further labeling requirements." Thanks, Josh!)
Since I spend so much time training clients on how to do the right thing (including how to comply with CAN-SPAM), I felt that it was a pretty basic question. But, clearly, not everybody is knowledgeable about CAN-SPAM. Not everybody has the experience of dealing with it to the degree that I have had. So, I though it would be good to make this into a quick blog post, with the hope that it will help others who may be wondering the same thing.
IF you're sending spam, then YES, you need to label your email as a promotional message (advertisement).
BUT: If you're sending email to people who didn't sign up to receive emails from you, then you're sending spam. You should never import an address into ExactTarget if the owner of that email address didn't choose to hand you their email address, didn't choose to sign up for your list. That's not the only definition of spam, but it's a very common one, and it's something that you must avoid, if you want your email to get delivered.
If you're NOT sending spam, then NO, you don't have to label your email as a promotional message (advertisement).
If you're sending email only to people who signed up to receive emails from you, then you're not spamming. What you need is "affirmative consent," meaning that "the recipient expressly consented to receive the message, either in response to a clear and conspicuous request for such consent or at the recipient's own initiative."
If you have that affirmative consent, then under CAN-SPAM, you are exempt from the labeling requirement, and you don't have to include a notice about your email message being an advertisement.
That's just one of the many reasons why it is important that you do not send spam, and it's a very practical one. If you are forced to label your messages as advertising, ISPs are more likely to filter out the messages, because the people who label their messages that way tend to be spammers.
This goes without saying, but I figured it best to include it explicitly: ExactTarget doesn't allow spam. ISPs don't want it, and neither do we want to allow clients to send it. If a client tries to use our service to send spam, we have a number of ways we pick up on that fact, and suspend the accounts of the offenders. Spammers tend to have short, unhappy tenures on the ExactTarget platform.
(Josh Fruchter raises a good point: He reminds us that "certain professional service providers such as law firms may be subject to additional restrictions imposed by regulatory bodies. For instance, some bar associations require law firms to add disclaimers to their mass emails such as 'This is an Advertisement.' So law firms also need to check their local bar rules for any further labeling requirements." Thanks, Josh!)
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