Earlier this week I had the good fortune to attend a highly informative panel hosted by Lyris Inc and moderated by Dianna Dilworth of DMNews. The speakers were Michael Kelly of Click Mail Marketing, Craig Spiezie of the Online Trust Alliance, and Lyris’s own David Fowler.

It would be impossible to summarize the whole of their webinar in a single blog entry, so for the next several weeks I will use my Thursday blog posts to hit the highlights.

Legal Standards for E-Mail

In 2003 the George W. Bush signed the CAN-SPAM act into law.  The name CAN-SPAM is derived from the full bill name of Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003.

These rules set down by the CAN-SPAM act and its subsequent modifications set the minimum legal standards necessary to avoid federal prosecution.

For the sake of convenience, I am listing some of the key provisions below.  These are not direct quotes from the law, and should not be taken as a legal advice or definition.  If you wish to learn the specific legal provisions of the CAN-SPAM law and what they mean for your business, you should consult with a business or communications lawyer.

Basics of CAN-SPAM: Unsubscription Compliance

• All e-mails must include a visible and functioning mechanism for unsubscribing from the e-mail list.
• Opt-out requests must be honored within 10 days.
• You cannot charge an e-mail recipient to take them off your mailing list.
• You cannot use opt-out or suppression lists for any purpose other than making sure that you do not e-mail someone on that list.

Basics of CAN-SPAM: Content Compliance

• Avoid misleading “from” lines.
• Subject lines should not be misleading and should be relevant to content.
• A legitimate physical address of the publisher or advertiser should be present.
• Adult content should be labeled as such.

Basics of CAN-SPAM: Sending Behavior Compliance

• Content cannot be sent through an open relay.
• Content cannot include a false header
• Content cannot be sent to “harvested” e-mail addresses.

SPAM is in the Eye of the Beholder

SPAM filters try to remove all junk e-mail, not just those e-mails which fail to to meet the CAN-SPAM standards.  Compliance with CAN-SPAM is a necessary starting point, but additional methods are required to ensure deliverability.

As this series continues I will highlight a number of these additional methods.

For Additional Information on CAN-SPAM and E-Mail Deliverablity, Please Read:

• Wikipedia’s Entry on the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
• Text Copy of the CAN-SPAM Law
• Marissa Berger on Using Constant Contact
• Marissa Berger on What Types of Content Work Best in Newsletters

What Else Do You Want to Know about E-Mail Delivery?

This series is still young, so ask now and I can be sure to address your question here or in a future entry.