ARE YOU AT RISK OF ANTI – SPAM FINES?

The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) protects Canadians from misleading and unwanted spam.  And it poses challenges to marketers.

Surprisingly, with only eight months before CASL comes into full effect many companies, particularly small to medium sized businesses, still send non-compliant emails.

If your business uses digital marketing to advertise, promote or sell your product or service, you need to be ready when CASL comes into full effect on July 1, 2017. This legislation applies to email, texts and software installations. If your business is based in Canada or using a server in Canada, or if the recipient of your CEM resides in Canada, then you need to be compliant.

And CASL  is not to be ignored!  The penalties for non-compliance can be steep: up to $10 million for companies and $1 million for  individuals.  Already one company has been fined $1.1 million for flagrantly ignoring the regulations and well known companies  Rogers and Porter Airlines have paid fines for not strictly following   CASL requirements.

So what is required under the legislation?  There are four main points to follow:

Explicit permission.  CASL states you need either written or oral permission from the recipient  and it needs to be documented.  Documenting oral permission is possible, but a company should use a form that is signed and dated by the recipient.

The form can be simple – a check box next to ‘I agree to receive electronic messages from XYZ company.  I understand I can opt out at any time’, with lines for the date and customer’s signature.  Permission must be proactive – the customer must ‘check the box’.  A pre-checked box is not acceptable.

Be sure to save these forms.  You may need to show proof of your company’s compliance with CASL.  Ironically, you cannot email a customer to ask for permission

B to B marketers may have ‘Implicit consent’ – if you have a business relationship with a customer prior to July 1, 2014, you have a three year transition period to get explicit consent.  The law also provides a 2 year window if the business relationship stated after that date.  But implicit permission does expire.  Get explicit permission and you will not have to worry about expriring permissions.

There must be an unsubscribe option. Electronic communications must have an option for the recipient to unsubscribe from your electronic distribution list.  Have an unsubscribe link that is easily found by the recipient.  Failing this requirement caused Rogers and Porter to incur fines.

Best practice is to have a link directly to your marketing platform so the unsubscribe request is immediately recorded and no further communications are sent to the recipient.  The unsubscribe mechanism must be simple, preferably one step.  Forcing the recipient through several steps to unsubscribe is not acceptable.

Your company’s contact information must be in the communication. It must be clear to the recipient who is sending the communication and how to contact them, even if the email is being sent by a third party.

The subject line cannot be misleading. Prior to CASL coming into effect on July 1, 2104, I sent an email on behalf of my company with the subject line ‘Free Beer’.  We had a fantastic open rate, and we did mention that we were joking about the free beer in the email text.  But under CASL, this would have been totally unacceptable.

It’s not too late to get started to ensure you are ready for July 1, 2017.  A few suggestions:

• Create a clear CASL compliant policy and process for  your company.
• Create an explicit permission form.  You may want to include a link or URL for your company’s privacy policy.
• Train all customer facing employees on CASL.  Whether it is a marketing email sent to thousands through your marketing automation software or a single email from a sales rep to a customer, your company must be compliant.
• Start getting explicit permission.  Provide your sales team with the permission form.  Include an opt in form in current customer emails.  Create an opt in form on your website.  Have the permission form at trade shows and customer events.

If your company is not compliant with CASL, start now!  For more information, you should check out the government site:  http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home