That goes without saying that email is one of the most effective marketing channels that available today.

What the best things about email marketing are it is incredibly quick and easy to get started.

The today’s email marketing tools even make it simpler and much enjoyable for the marketer of all level to create a campaign, upload a list and sending it out.

Before you started to jump into and sending campaigns, it is a worth of getting a basic understanding of the law about email marketing.

This is just a precaution step that you need to be taken to ensure your campaigns aren’t breaking any of the laws and regulations.

In this guide, you will understand the email marketing law and outline the things that you need to do to ensure your email marketing initiatives remain on the right side.

What Are the Laws Around Canada Email Marketing?

There are a number of different laws that guide the usage of email marketing for commercial purposes.

In Canada, it is called CASL laws which stand for Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL).

All of these laws are intended to dictate a number of conditions that email marketer need to follow to avoid any significant fines if violated.

It may have sounded a little bit scary. You don’t have to worry if you already complying with the rules.

But as long as you are a legitimate business that using proper email marketing tools to send legitimate email campaigns, then everything will be fine.

This is because the law is largely targeted at the spammers.

It is designed to prevent them from illegally acquiring other people’s email addresses and spamming them with unsolicited emails.

That’s being said, there might be a few little nuances in the laws that even marketers with the best intentions can accidentally violate.

So, it is worthy understand and reading on how you can be compliant to the Canada Email Marketing laws.

Canadian Email Marketing Software – MailChimp

MailChimp, one of the popular software used in Canada, which is a marketing automation platform and email marketing service.

MailChimp will help you to manage your email database and marketing in a single platform.

Wants to know more info about email marketing software? You can always visit our website to know more.

MailChimp Term of Use

In many cases, the term of use of Mailchimp seems to be stricter than what outlined in CASL.

This is particularly true regarding the third-parties and implied consent.

As a rule of thumb, you need to have a written permission from every subscriber.

You are not only required to stick with the Mailchimp policies, but you also need to improve your campaign deliverability and subscriber engagement.

Here are some of the Mailchimp’s terms that differ from CASL.

• Customers are required to make a purchase within the last 12 months. Inquires without a purchase does not count as permission.
• Family members and friends still need to provide the written permission.
• Any non-profit organizations, political groups or courts still need to secure written permission from the recipient.
• Referrals and published email addresses are considered as a third-party. Therefore, it is not allowed.
• Oral agreement to receive messages does not qualify as permission.

Additional Requirements:

In addition to understanding what qualifies as CASL – regulated message, and what type of consent is needed, there are a few other details to keep in mind.

• You must retain a record of consent confirmation. Checkboxes cannot be pre-filled to suggest consent when requesting consent.
• Each subscriber must check the box themselves for consent to be valid.
• All messages sent must include being included in your name, the person on whose behalf you are sending (if any), your physical mailing address and your telephone number, email address or website URL.
• All messages sent after consent must also include an unsubscribe mechanism, and unsubscribes must be processed within 10 days.

How to Comply The Canada Email Marketing Laws?

Rather than go into the full details of each country’s laws, we reviewed them all and compiled a simple list.

Thus, marketers like you can do to ensure your campaigns are compliant with all the laws across the globe.

1. Ensure you have the permission to the people permission

Most of the country’s email marketing laws stipulate that people need to give your permission to email them in order for you to send them the campaigns.

The definition of permission in a little loose and varies between each country’s laws, but generally, there are two types of permission – implied permission and express permission.

Implied permission covers anybody who you have an existing business relationship with.

This could your current customer, donate to your charity, or are an active member of your website, community or club.

If you don’t have implied permission to email a person, then you will need to express permission.

Express permission is granted when someone specifically granted you permission to send them email campaigns.

Let’s take for an example. When people visit your blog, you should include pop-up notification to encourage them to subscribe to their email list in order to get instant access to the information on the sites.

By entering their email address in the box, people are giving an express permission to email them.

2. Don’t use the misleading header of information

Header information is referred to the extra information sent along with your email campaigns, such as name, subject line and reply-to-address.

According to the email marketing laws of Canada, you must not include inappropriate and misleading information in these fields that intend to try to fraud people into opening your email campaigns.

The main key here is just avoided having any fraud intention that purposely to deceive your recipients.

However, arousing curiosity or getting creative with your subject line is perfectly fine!

As long as you don’t purposely try to deceive or trick your recipients, then you are safe!

3. Include your address

Most country’s email marketing laws stipulate that you must clearly include a valid postal address for your business in your email campaigns.

This could be your current street address, a post-box address or an address with a registered commercial mail-receiving company.

What You Need to Know More about Email Marketing Service Canada

By following the tips mentioned before, the majority of marketers can rest assured of their emails which compliant with the global anti-spam laws.

You are responsible even if you are not sending campaigns yourself!

Based on Canada email marketing law, even if you are outsourcing your email marketing efforts to a third-party, you still hold the responsibility for that.

So, if you do outsource the creation and sending of your campaigns, remember to make sure to review them before sending and check the above tips.

Canada email marketing laws are looser for transactional emails

Most of the anti-spam laws around the world are created to guide the sending of commercial email marketing messages.

This also applies to any sort of newsletters, marketing announcements or promotional campaigns your business might be sending.

However, there is an exemption when it comes to transactional emails.

These specific emails are exempted from the anti-spam rules which you are required to provide the information about an existing purchase or membership.

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