How Two FTC Actions Affect Email Marketing
The FTC recently took action against two companies because of bad email practices. Here’s what you can learn from their mistakes:
1. Marketers should ensure that their subject lines accurately inform recipients of the content of the e-mail.
2. CAN-SPAM requires that marketers clearly and conspicuously identify a commercial e-mail as an ad if the marketer lacks the affirmative consent of the recipient.
3. Provide clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity to decline to receive further e-mail messages from your company.
4. Honor opt-out requests with CAN-SPAM’s 10 business-day window.
5. The FTC’s assertion that the placement of the friend’s e-mail address in the "from" line constituted the initiation of a commercial e-mail with deceptive header information suggests that the FTC does not believe the referring friend is an "initiator," as defined under CAN-SPAM. Marketers that send "refer-a-friend" e-mails from their own mail solution and under the referring friend’s e-mail address need to reconsider this practice.
