Legal compliance for email marketing can be confusing. There’s a lot of gray area, and it can feel challenging to gauge where you stand. While the topic might seem complicated, it all comes down to respecting your customers’ data preferences and being aware of any regulations that might apply to your organization.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important regulations:
Email Marketing Regulations
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): GDPR is an EU law that governs data protection and privacy. It mandates that businesses safeguard EU citizens’ data for transactions within the EU and regulates data transfers outside the EU. Key points include the need for explicit consent, data portability, and the right to be forgotten. Non-compliance can lead to substantial fines.
CAN-SPAM Act: The CAN-SPAM Act sets the rules for commercial emails in the US, giving recipients the right to opt out of receiving email. The Act was put into place to address the problem of unwanted commercial electronic mail messages.
Key requirements include:
- Not using false or misleading header information.
- Not using deceptive subject lines.
- Identifying the message as an ad.
- Telling recipients where you’re located.
- Telling recipients how to opt out of receiving future emails.
- Honoring opt-out requests promptly.
CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation): CASL covers all commercial electronic messages (CEMs) to/from Canadian devices. Businesses must get expressed consent, include ID info, and offer an unsubscribe option.
CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act): California residents have the right to know what personal data is collected, who it’s sold to, and access their data. Businesses must disclose data practices, let consumers opt out of email, and comply with deletion requests.
Once you understand the applicable regulations, you need to understand how to align your email marketing processes.
Here are the go-to steps for setting up your technical compliance:
- Consent Management: Use checkbox fields to track opt-in consent. Make sure to link your contact and subscription forms to your privacy policy. Implementing a Double Opt-in process is an optional but recommended step. This is an email marketing best practice for enhancing user consent verification. It ensures that the person who signed up is indeed the owner of the email address provided.
- Data Management: Once users have subscribed, managing their data is essential. Confirm that users are added to the right lists, given the correct tags, and that other fields are used to manage consent.
- Unsubscribe Mechanism: The most important thing to remember is always to include an unsubscribe or email preference center link in every email. You can leverage an email Preferences Center to allow users to manage their subscription preferences.
Best Practices for Email Marketing Legal Compliance
It’s important to align business processes with legal compliance. Start by confirming that your organization has a transparent data collection process. This means clear privacy policies to inform users about data usage. Use cookie and tracking disclosures to communicate your tracking practices transparently.
You’ll also want to plan for regular audits and process updates. Compliance regulations are expanding and can change quickly; staying current and periodically reviewing your data practices is essential. Make sure to train new staff and document your compliance process for consistency. You’ll also want to keep records of consent and data processing activities. Account Engagement makes it easy to maintain legal compliance by building a system that automates the process.
Account Engagement’s Compliance Tools
Track opt-in status across Salesforce and Account Engagement using standard and custom fields to store consent-related information. You’ll want to build opt-in and opt-out automation rules to handle changing field status. Separately, you’ll need to use completion actions on your forms to handle the fields when prospects enter your org. Once your forms and completion actions are coordinated, you’ll want to verify the salesforce connector Settings. Confirm you are syncing Account Engagement and Salesforce correctly.
By understanding key regulations for email marketing, industry best practices, and the tools to get the job done, you’re ready to dive into your email marketing system and improve in any area where you find gaps. Ensuring legal compliance protects your business from potential legal issues and helps build trust and credibility with your customers. Stay informed, stay compliant, and leverage tools like Account Engagement to make the process as smooth and efficient as possible.
