SPAM is illegal and thus many people sometimes go to jail for sending spam emails. If you want to run an email marketing campaign and avoid spam complaints, you must follow the CAN-SPAM law. The first thing that you should know is that the CAN-SPAM Act is quite broad, setting the rules for commercial emails as well as the requirements for commercial messages, providing recipients the right to have certain organizations stop from emailing them and giving penalties for violations. Yet, this law is not complicated and the steps that you must follow are simple, logical and even helpful for your marketing campaigns.
CAN-SPAM law mainly requires you to be honest and not use false or misleading information. Apart from this, you must be authorized to promote a certain domain and it must be the domain that you say it is. Your subject lines are also highly important because they cause the email account owner to open the email and thus they have to be truthful, without misleading information. If you promote certain services/products through your emails, you have to mention somewhere in your email that it is an advertisement because the law requires you to be explicit. It is also very important to have a physical address as well as to tell people how to opt-out. Remember that the option of unsubscribing must be mentioned in all your emails.
However, this law has the purpose to identify you and your business in your emails and provide email account owners the possibility to choose whether or not they receive certain emails. If you consider an email marketing campaign, you must get familiar with this law and make sure you meet all its criteria.