The mere mention of “compliance” is scary to anyone, including marketers. However, there are a number of rules and regulations that you should pay attention to – especially when it comes to email marketing.
Since I’m admittedly an email nerd, I thought I’d break down the why, what, and how of the most important regulations that Marketers need to know.
The Why
It mostly comes down to operations:
- Your email service provider (ESP) will prevent you from sending out communications if you don’t adhere to the regulations.
- Your organization can also face steep penalties if you violate any of these policies.
- Last, you risk annoying and fatiguing your database, which can weaken the effectiveness of your campaigns.
On the other hand, using these regulations as a framework can vastly improve your program’s success. (I have some examples in a post coming up.)
Bottom line: whether you’re in B2B, B2C, or DTC, your email marketing rides on compliance.
The What (aka, the Compliance Regulations)
OK, so originally, I thought I could put everything into one post, but… There are a ton of overlapping data privacy regulations that overlap and basically need a whole post of their own.
The three core areas of email compliance are:
- Data Privacy
- Anti-Spam
- Email Authentication
Other information security regulations can (and sometimes do) overlap with email marketing, but these are the core areas that I’ll be exploring in coming posts.
The How
My next few posts will explore each of these compliance areas in-depth. Data privacy itself is a whole vibe and needs its own post.
I’ll wrap up the series with my own real-world examples of how these all affect your email marketing and best practices you can implement right away.
Next up
Stay tuned for everything you didn’t know that you wanted to know about Data Privacy!
Want more direct guidance on Email Marketing Compliance? I’m available for consulting and auditing – drop me a line!