The CAN-SPAM act was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003, and outlines the guidelines that email marketers need to follow when sending commercial email. CAN-SPAM applies to all commercial messages, and carries tough penalties for violations – up to $16,000 per email – so compliance is essential for any legitimate email marketing firm. Another important point is that if a company outsources email sending operations to affiliates or another third party, that company is still responsible for CAN-SPAM violations (see point #7 below).

According to the FTC, CAN-SPAM includes seven requirements for organizations that send email:

1. Don't use false or misleading header information.
2. Don't use deceptive subject lines.
3. Identify the message as an ad.
4. Tell recipients where you're located.
5. Tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving future emails from you.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly (within 10 days).
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.

More information can be found on the FTC website:
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business

Or, check out the Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003

The CAN-SPAM act is straightforward and encourages a common-sense approach to sending commercial email. List Armor makes this process trivial compared to an in-house solution, and excels the competition when it comes to pricing and performance.

Drop us a line to find out how easy CAN-SPAM compliance can be for your business.