how to make your email marketing legally legit

Written by Paige Griffith, J.D. of The Legal Paige

It’s no exception that marketing is the lifeblood of a business and email funnels are one of the many ways you can get the word out about your offerings or services. But do you know how to legally obtain and keep customer emails? What about how to honor unsubscribe requests? If you don’t know how to market legally through email lists, don’t worry The Legal Paige has you covered! Here are three legal email marketing tips for you to implement into your business. 

1. Email Lists and CAN-SPAM Act Compliance

Email funnels are a great way to gain new customers and get your products in front of them. However, when you are collecting data like emails from consumers you want to make sure you are doing it the right way! The CAN-SPAM Act is the legal framework that governs commercial email messages in the United States. It requires businesses to include certain information in their marketing emails, such as a physical mailing address, whether an email is an ad, whether the information in the email is true, an opt-out mechanism, and whether businesses honor opt-out requests promptly. Failure to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act can result in fines of up to $42,530 per email so it’s extremely important that when you have an email list you follow these rules.

2. Opting in and Opting Out of Email Lists

One of the most important parts of complying with the CAN-SPAM email list requirements is making sure that people in your email funnel have actually opted into receiving marketing emails. For instance, if you have a guide where you require someone to put in their email address to access it and you want to use their email for a marketing funnel, first make sure they understand that they are agreeing to that when they put in their email. Pro tip here: put in a little disclaimer on your pop-up or opt-in form that says something like “By submitting your first name and email address into this form, you agree to receive marketing emails from X company. You may opt-out at any time.”

Additionally, if someone wants to unsubscribe to your email lists make sure you honor that request. The three main things that you need to remember for opt-outs is to

(1) make the unsubscribe button evident on every email

(2) ensure you have an email address or phone number listed for your business at the bottom of the email as an easy way to contact you to get off the email list or change an email address

and (3) honor the opt-outs promptly. Once a consumer unsubscribes that customer should no longer be receiving emails from your business. 

3. Email Collection Best Practices

It is important when you are growing your email list to collect emails in an ethical and legal way. Consumers must explicitly opt into your email list. This means that an Instagram DM with a consumer’s email is not enough. The same goes for someone who just emails you from your contact form. The only exception to this is if you have an express checkbox or “I agree” tab that the person clicks before officially submitting their inquiry to you on your contact page. Finally, don’t send out a slurry of emails all at once. This is ultra “spammy” and can be a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act if you send out too many emails all at once. Usually, sticking with 1-3 emails a day is sufficient and passes muster under the law. The best way to collect email addresses is through some type of lead capture software. This is usually done as an incentive for attendees to give you their email addresses in exchange for a special freebie or guide or discount code that they can use for their own personal/business benefit. The best way to do this legally is to send them to a link where they can enter their email address and opt-in (with the proper legal disclaimer), just as we discussed above.

Now that you have the fundamental knowledge for ensuring you are gathering consumers’ emails in a legal way, you can further enhance your business’s growth potential by implementing a robust email funnel in The Legal Paige’s Legally Growing Your Email List Guide. This comprehensive guide created by The Legal Paige provides valuable insights on further growing your email list while keeping your business legally legit.

🎙️If you are wanting to dive into past episodes of The Systems & Workflow Magic Podcast that features The Legal Paige click HERE to be taken to her past episode! (Or you can simply listen in to the podcast embedded player below) ⬇️

Now if you are ready to SPRING CLEAN the backend of your business (to better impact your own email marketing as well) check out The Legal Paige’s Spring Contract Shop Sale⬇️

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