Permission-based email: what counts as permission
Permission-based email starts with a confirmed subscription: the person asks to hear from you, receives a confirmation message, and confirms it. A single opt-in, where they subscribe and never confirm, is not the same thing. A message the person never asked for is spam from their point of view, even if the sender thinks the content is useful.
What counts as permission?
A business card, a sign-up sheet at an event, or a verbal "send me something" is a lead, not permission to run a marketing campaign. Clean that list before any marketing send: remove duplicates, drop addresses that bounce, and ask the person to confirm or set a preference. Only a confirmed address belongs on the marketing list.
People often use a complaint button as an unsubscribe. A few complaints can be ordinary. A pattern of them can get a sending account limited. Do not use a mailbox you need for the business as the address that probes a dirty list. Watch unsubscribes, and do not mail people more often than they asked for.
What does the FTC's 2017 CAN-SPAM notice describe?
The FTC's June 28, 2017 Federal Register notice, 82 FR 29254, says the CAN-SPAM Act was enacted in 2003 and effective January 1, 2004, and that it regulates commercial email.
The notice's footnotes describe these statutory requirements: no false or misleading header or subject, a clear identification that the message is an advertisement, a clear notice of the chance to decline further commercial email, a valid physical postal address, a functioning opt-out mechanism, and no further commercial email more than ten business days after the person opts out.
That notice describes an opt-out rule. It does not say a business card is a confirmed subscription. This page is not a legal opinion and it does not restate the whole statute.
Does this page sell an email tool?
No. There is no email-platform package price here. Authentication of the sending domain is a separate guide: SPF, DKIM, and PTR.
Related reading
Key takeaways
- Permission-based email starts with a confirmed subscription.
- A business card, a sign-up sheet, or a verbal yes is a lead, not permission to run a marketing campaign.
- The FTC's 2017 CAN-SPAM notice describes an opt-out rule for commercial email, including a working opt-out and no further commercial email more than ten business days after the person opts out.
- This page does not sell an email tool and is not a legal opinion.
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