How can B2B companies address the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation?
If you are a responsible email marketer, you shouldn’t even have to make any big adjustments to your company’s current opt-in policies to address the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). Exact Target did a good job of addressing some of the more pressing questions in their blog posts here and here. Since it is common practice to build business relationships through the exchange of handshakes and calling cards, compliance can get more complicated if you are a B2B company.
When does a business relationship start and end, and how can you change your business practices to reflect to address CASL? While I do not share steps for an actual implementation, and assuming a company is using a CRM, the following suggested fields can point companies in the right direction.
- Add fields for implicit consent – When and how was the contact entered into the system? This field will help establish the period when explicit consent can be acquired from a prospect.
- Add fields for explicit consent – The usual practice is to send out an email requesting for permission to send that contact communications. The actual consent will be recorded in this particular field, and should be considered the end goal.
- Add field for where the consent was recorded – Since this legislation covers both where consent was recorded, as well as where the email is coming from, this field will help companies determine their communication practices. What if opt-in was outside Canada, and the source of an email is also outside of Canada? These are things that need to be considered.
Though this is not part of the list above, and is probably something that cannot be done by companies internally, it would also be helpful if Outlook connectors are able to display the information above.
I decided to write this post since seems like CRMs have made a conscious effort to wash their hands of any responsibility in formulating a plan for CASL (in our case, Salesforce). While this is understandable because of the legal ramifications, there should have been a suggested plan from the very beginning. Tomorrow is actually the first day when the legislation takes effect, and I am curious to find out how companies will react.
While I advocate the intention of the Canada Anti-Spam Legislation, and consequently, CAN-SPAM, I am not a fan of how it has thrown a wrench into different companies’ marketing practices. It affects even those who adhere to sending out communications responsibly.
If people do not want to receive communications, the easiest action to take is to hit that unsubscribe button.