The Fine Print: Demystifying Email Marketing Laws
Or, does your author newsletter comply with the rules? Ask yourself these 5 questions.
My dear writer,
Let’s keep talking about newsletters! For those of you with an author newsletter, I hope it was not affected by the new February 2024 requirements for validating domains, or if so, that you were able to resolve it.
Last month’s post got me thinking about other laws and regulations around email marketing and data privacy. Each of us is familiar with—at least on a subconscious level—what a marketing email looks like. I’m sure I’ve received at least ten new emails in the last hour while writing this article. But did you know certain criteria must be included in any marketing email? Where do these rules come from? And how do they apply to your author newsletter?
In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 is an important piece of legislation that outlines the laws around email marketing. Similarly, Canada has the CASL and the UK has the PECR. There are also aspects of the EU’s GDPR regulations that apply to email marketing. You should be familiar with all of them if your readership is reaching international levels because these rules kick in regardless of where you, the author, are located. Remember: these laws are to protect the email recipients, not you.
While this might seem intimidating, there is a lot of overlap between the different legislation, and you are likely following most of these laws already if you are using a proper email marketing platform (like Substack, Mailchimp, Brevo, Campaign Monitor, etc.) to send your newsletter. Even if your newsletter may be small today, with time and a little luck, your readership will grow! So it’s better to set things up right the first time.
I do recommend reading the fine print and further educating yourself using the links above. But I have put together the following questions—relevant to any author—to make sure the basics are covered. Some of these were surprising to me when I set up my first newsletter.
Does Your Author Newsletter Follow the Rules? Ask Yourself these 5 Questions.
Do you write under a pen name or business name?
This may seem obvious, but one of the first regulations for email marketing is to clearly identify the sender. In this case, my dear writer, that is you.
By what name does your mailing list know you? It should be the name on your book covers. If you write under your real name, then that needs to match the Sender name that shows up in your recipients’ inboxes. If you write under a pen name, the same thing applies. Don’t make the mistake of collecting emails under a pen name and then sending communications from your real name. You will confuse some readers, or worse, they’ll mark your content as Spam and hurt your credibility. Make sure to use different lists in your marketing platform to separate signups for your different pen names if you manage multiple newsletters.
Similarly, if your readership knows you by your business name, or if you’ve named your newsletter or your community something specific, be sure to include it. For example, if Dante is writing under the business name of Inferno Books, he can keep it simple and send all correspondence from “Inferno Books,” or he could make it a little more personal with “Dante Alighieri from Inferno Books.” Just make sure it’s obvious to the recipient who the sender is, based on where the user signed up for your newsletter.Do you have a clear place for interested readers to sign up for your newsletter?
Users must opt in to receive your newsletter. Yes, that includes your spouse or your grandma. You can’t just add your friends and family to your mailing list without their permission. And no sketchy darkweb tactics like buying lists of email addresses that you did not collect.
Keep in mind that there’s a difference between implied consent and explicit consent to send emails to recipients. Implied consent is when you purchase something from a store, use your email address to complete that purchase, and now your Inbox is full of marketing emails from that company. You implied your consent by submitting your email with your original transaction. This type of consent might not apply to many writers unless you are managing direct sales through an e-commerce platform. Amazon and other booksellers aren’t going to hand over the email addresses of people who purchased your book—those are their customers, not yours (sadly).
However, explicit consent is when a user deliberately submits their email address to you (usually in a web form), thereby permitting you to send emails to that address. This is something you can manage for yourself to grow your newsletter. A simple signup form on your website will suffice, or a link in your social media. Obviously, gaining explicit consent from a user to receive email is the best way to grow your email list and maintain a clean reputation.Do you have an office or business address?
If you’re just starting your author career and your “office” is one tiny desk shoved in the corner of your guest bedroom as you deal with your other full-time job and a house of other humans and critters to care for, then you might laugh at this question. You might be decades away from thinking you’ll need an office or business address for your “little writing hobby.”
However, I quickly realized I needed something set up when I began my newsletter last year. In fact, this one was a quick slap to the face—for some email campaign platforms like Mailchimp, you can’t even finish setting up an account before you must provide your business address. This is because of another rule in the CAN-SPAM Act, which says you must tell recipients where you are located:
“Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.”
Go look at any marketing email you’ve received recently—you can usually find the business address in the footer of the email. If you don’t want your home address displayed to your newsletter recipients, then consider getting a separate personal or business address (depending on your needs). One way you can do this is to set up a P.O. Box at your local post office. Virtual mailboxes through sites like Anytime Mailbox or iPostal1 are another cost-effective option.Do you have international readers / recipients?
If you’re lucky enough to get global readership, then make sure you are familiar with international email marketing laws that might be stricter than your home country’s policies. For example, if you have readers who live in countries covered under the EU’s GDPR regulations, know that GDPR requires express consent to let users opt in and a way to trace that consent being given. You might want to consider setting up double opt-in emails for onboarding new readers to your newsletter.Do you provide a way for users to opt out of receiving future correspondence?
As much as we hate to think that anyone would want to unsubscribe from our brilliant writing, the truth of the matter is that not everyone will want your content. It might not even be about you—we all receive too many emails these days. Some people might be clearing up the clutter.
There’s no room for hurt feelings here. You must provide a way for your newsletter recipients to opt out or unsubscribe at any time. Most companies provide an Unsubscribe link in the footer of each email, which is an accepted standard practice. If a user chooses to unsubscribe, you must honor this request promptly (the CAN-SPAM Act says within 10 business days) and you cannot put up barriers to delay this process:
“You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request.”
If applicable, you can present users with a menu of options from which to unsubscribe. Some users may just want to reduce the frequency (by choosing monthly emails instead of weekly) or reduce their subscription to a single mailing list for the topic they care about (if you have multiple mailing lists). This is a nice way to retain your users while allowing them to feel like they have more control. For authors writing in different genres or under different pen names, this is a good strategy to consider. However, you must still provide a way for them to unsubscribe from all content if desired.
There you have it! Does your newsletter check all the boxes?
While this is not intended to be a comprehensive run-down of each piece of legislation, I hope it’s a good starter guide to get you on the right track. Always read up on the latest articles from your email marketing platform because they will provide guidance on any new regulations. Campaign Monitor has a great article about Understanding Email Laws and Regulations if you want to read more (with a business slant).
My dear writer, do you have other questions about email marketing or how to set up your own newsletter? Do you want more content like this? How can I best help you in 2024? Feel free to hit reply or leave me a comment - I’d love to hear from you!
- - - Your Literary IT Support