What you must know about pending laws affecting your marketing
- The CAN-SPAM Act has been in place for a few years and legitimate businesses have been diligent at adhering to its rules: valid email, valid postal address, opt-out function to name its major components.
That act was followed by the National Do Not Call Registry, affecting how businesses can or rather cannot, reach out to consumers in their homes.
But are you aware of some more recent bills which may very well become law, and that could greatly affect how you market your product or services: Do Not Mail Registry, Do Not Track and Mapping the Mobile Marketplace?
Do Not Mail Registry
Several states submitted bills in 2008 in favor of creating a Do Not Mail registry, making it illegal to send junk mail. Of course,the definition of junk mail is highly subjective, which is probably why none of these bills have been passed.
Do Not Track
This is really a big deal as the Consumer Federation of America and the Consumers Union petitioned the FTC in April 08 to create a Do Not Track list of consumers. Anyone using any type of web traffic analytics tools would have to obtain explicit consumer consent in order to continue collecting such data and would have to prevent the tracking of consumers under 18 (and how do you validate the age?), to name a few major requirements.
Mapping the Mobile Markeplace
This particular proposal (it's only in "discussion" within the FTC at the moment) would implement consumer protection of mobile commerce such as location-based services, coupons, etc.
The common threads among all these pending bills and proposals range from fraud protection, to privacy concerns, to targeting of underage persons to customer control.
Since these initiatives could start out as state laws, we recommend that you keep track of your state's legislative agenda.
To manage your campaigns efficiency, consider deploying the right tools, such as a sales and marketing automation solution. Check out our Guide to Selecting a CRM System here.
