What is email compliance?

Email compliance is the practice of adhering to regulations related to email marketing communications, such as:

The CAN-SPAM Act and CCPA in the U.S.
GDPR in Europe
CASL in Canada

Email compliance ensures that businesses respect recipients’ privacy and protect their data. Key areas of email compliance include:

Obtaining explicit consent
Providing clear opt-out options
Being clear about how you use audience data

How to ensure email compliance

Here are a few guidelines to help you stay compliant with regulations:

1. Build a solid legal foundation

Seek legal counsel to develop a comprehensive privacy policy that complies with relevant regulations. A skilled attorney can assess your email and data protection practices and provide guidance to make sure your business operates within legal boundaries.

Your privacy policy should clearly outline how you collect, use, share, and protect subscriber data, as well as provide easy-to-understand information about subscribers’ rights. Privacy policies must be made reasonably available and accessible to end customers, subscribers, and website visitors. They are typically found at the bottom of a website or in a legal tab

2. Safeguard subscriber data with security protocols

Here are some of the steps to take to safeguard subscribers’ data:

Authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC standards.
Encrypt email data when you store and transfer it.
Set up a robust permissions infrastructure to control and limit access to subscriber data.
Train employees on email compliance and risk mitigation practices.
Set up two-step authentication on employee email accounts.
Require passwords for email be changed periodically.
Ensure that all log-in information is properly stored.
Never share passwords or log-in information for data storage systems.
Put Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions in place.
Keep detailed and organized email records.
Conduct regular data backups.
Audit your email and security system on a quarterly basis.

3. Get explicit consent from subscribers

According to GDPR and CASL, it’s mandatory to obtain express consent before sending people email marketing messages. When collecting consent through sign-up forms, clearly communicate how you’ll use the requested data.

Remember that consent data must be stored with information on the method of consent collection (i.e., when, where, and how someone gave consent). It’s better to be over-protected than under-protected when it comes to collecting consent.

While some regions may permit implicit consent, relying on it can be risky. Obtaining explicit consent helps make sure that your audience is receiving expected and wanted messages. It also builds trust with your audience, protects your sender reputation, and avoids potential legal issues.

And since it’s mandatory to obtain consent, the act of purchasing a list is strongly discouraged.

4. Make it easy to unsubscribe

Add an unsubscribe link to every email so people can opt out or change their email preferences. Clean your email list regularly by removing:

Invalid email addresses
Unsubscribed profiles
Unengaged profiles
Bounced emails

5. Add your contact details

All regulations require clear sender details for compliance. Be clear about your sender identity by including your contact information as part of each email. Besides compliance, clear sender details build brand awareness, maintain a good sender reputation, and encourage engagement through positive relationship building.

Klaviyo makes it easy for brands to remain compliant with sign-up forms that are easy to set up and double opt-in messages that confirm subscriptions. And when recipients unsubscribe from an email, it’s automatic—so you’ll never need to worry that you’re not compliant.