Many of you will of heard of the CAN SPAM Act in the USA and other similar legislation such as the data Protection Act in the UK. CAN-SPAM does not ban spam emailing outright, but imposes laws on using deceptive marketing methods through headings which are "materially false or misleading".
What all of this legislation clearly states is that it is perfectly legal to use email marketing to commercial operations without requiring the recipients consent.
You should always offer any of your recipients the opportunity to be removed from your current and future marketing. Keeping an unsubscribe list is very important when carrying out responsible email marketing and is a legal requirement in many countries.
Following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:
- Don’t use false or misleading header information
- Don’t use deceptive subject lines
- Tell recipients where you’re located
- Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future
- Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days
Just make sure those to whom you are sending a hand-sent unique email are highly targeted leads, and, if they do not reply, do not contact them again.
