Does the new law require you to change your current process? Here is a legalese-free clarification of its new email marketing requirements.

President Bush officially canned spam on December 16 by signing the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act). The first federal move to crack down on unsolicited mail, the act swiftly took effect on January 1. Non-compliance can cost violators as much as $2 million; offenders may even serve jail time. Michael Mayor, iMedia’s resident spam expert, discusses the new law’s influence on email list rental transactions. And he explains in plain English what is now required of marketers.

CAN-SPAM is yet another anti-spam law that does not specifically mention email list rentals but, of course, affects them. You’ll recall this omission last occurred in California’s flawed S.B. 187 and essentially outlawed rentals not addressing them.

CAN-SPAM’s omission has far less disastrous consequences on email list rentals, but it fundamentally changes the process for both buyers and sellers just the same.

Below are five general areas that list owners and renters should pay particular and immediate attention to (my usual “I’m not a lawyer, check with yours” disclaimer applies):

• Upfront Suppression
  The new law requires all advertisers to maintain their own internal Do-Not-Email file. Hopefully, this is a widespread practice already. What isn’t widespread, however, is the practice of sending this file to list-rental vendors so they can suppress any of the names that you are about to rent which may also be on your DNE. Upfront suppression is a good thing and it’s here to stay. Renters and vendors would be well advised to work quickly to smooth out the logistics and make this a painless process for both parties.
  
• From Line
  While not as clear-cut as suppression, most experts feel that since the law defines the Sender as “a person who initiates such a message and whose product, service or Internet Web site is advertised or promoted by the message,” the From line should name the advertiser. This is a best practice already, but many lists out there still incorporate the list owner in the From line. This begs the question: If and when these lists make the switch from using their own name in the From line to the advertiser’s, how will the list members react?
  
• Subject Line and Content
  The key area here is that the message must be identifiable as an advertisement. Identifying the message as an advertisement doesn’t mean adding “ADV:” to the subject (not just yet anyway), but it does mean subjects, headers and content should state the purpose of the message clearly.
  
• Postal Address
  The inclusion of an advertiser’s postal address is another new requirement. I also feel strongly that the list owner should do the same in their footer (or advertisers may start receiving correspondence that isn’t really intended from them). Further still, add a phone number! Nothing lends itself more to credibility than a live person.
  
• Unsubscribing
  The opt-out language in the new law is clearly intended for the advertiser. This means one of two scenarios will occur in list rentals; the message will contain both the advertiser’s and list owner’s unsubscribe links or the list owner will develop a universal link for both purposes. I much prefer the second option as it’s less confusing to the list member and eliminates message clutter for the advertiser.

So what does the politically correct standalone message look like when you put all of this together? I asked my graphics wizard to mock up a sample. Keep in mind, much of what you see here exceeds the new law’s requirements (and is what my company will be using going forward).

http://www.postmasterdirect.com/samplemessage.htm

One last item; obviously all of these changes translate into new language for list rental agreements and insertion orders. Make certain both parties are doing what they now are required by law to be doing by first getting it in writing.

No doubt many advertisers and vendors will face a few growing pains early on, but these changes are healthy for all parties concerned, especially the recipient. From now on, list members will have some additional criteria by which to separate the good actors from the bad. This, alone, will go a long way toward helping us reduce the bad actors dramatically.

For more guidelines, see Industry Organizations Pledge Against Spam.

As President and Chief Operating Officer of NetCreations/PostMasterDirect, Michael Mayor is an 18-year veteran of direct marketing and a recognized pioneer of email marketing. Michael joined NetCreations as one of the company's first employees in 1998, and played a key role in helping to build the largest and most successful email list management company in the industry today. He has also pioneered many of the email marketing industry's standards and best practices. Mayor is a leading advocate of privacy and is a frequent speaker at industry functions. Mayor is also the Chairman for the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Email Committee.