Builder brands: CAN-SPAM act and requirements for Creative Mail

What is the CAN-SPAM Act?

CAN-SPAM Act stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, and while this law does not stop or prevent spam completely, it does make the most common types of email spam illegal. This act outlines the requirements that organizations must follow to send commercial email campaigns and the penalties that can be enforced, including fines and/or imprisonment for up to 5 years. When sending email campaigns through Creative Mail Email Marketing, all users must abide by these rules as outlined in our Terms of Service.

The CAN-SPAM Act was enacted on January 1, 2004, and preempts all state laws. In May 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its Statement of Basis and Purpose and Final Discretionary Rule (Final Rule). This statement contains four new rules and some clarifications and guidance to the text of the original act. For more information, you can read the FTC press release. These new rules went into effect on July 7, 2008.
 

Ensuring Compliance

Constant Contact Website's terms of service require that when using the Creative Mail Email Marketing tool, any contacts you send are permission-based and already built into the system and being followed. To guarantee that the content you create and send complies with the policies, you can:

• Write your email campaign's Subject Line to be straightforward and not misleading to the readers.
• Stay on top of Unsubscribe Requests by removing any contacts that request to be removed from your mailing list via email reply within 10 business days from their original request.
• Ensure that a Physical Address is included in your email campaign. While the Constant Contact Website requires you to have an address in the footer of your email campaigns, you will want to ensure that this address is up-to-date and has a valid PO box or physical postal mailing address.
• Label your From: Address and From: Name to be easily understood and recognizable as belonging to your organization.
• By not offering Incentives for readers to forward your email campaign with items such as coupons, discounts, or vouchers, since email campaigns that are forwarded do not provide the recipient the ability to opt out of these messages in the future, and thus do not make them compliant.
• Don't resubscribe contacts unless they opt-in, since unsubscribe requests never expire, even if you change mailing platforms or companies.