Skip to content
    ,

    Five CASL Compliant Ways to Add Subscribers to Your Email Database

    Five CASL Compliant Ways to Add Subscribers to Your Email Database

    Grow_your_email_list.jpgOn July 1st, 2014, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) came into effect. Essentially, CASL mandates that organizations that send commercial or promotional information via electronic message to customers and prospects must have consent to do so. Consent can be express (the person has given the organization explicit permission, written or recorded verbal, to contact them) or implicit (the person has given the organization implied permission, such as an existing business relationship, to contact them).

    Effective July 1, 2017, the CASL laws became tighter and implied consent is no longer enough – all organizations are now required to have express consent from everyone on their email contact list - and be able to prove it. 

    So how does an organization grow their email list when CASL compliancy seems so daunting? We, at The Mezzanine Group, put our heads together and came up with the following five CASL compliant ways to add subscribers to your email list and get your organization’s message across to the people who want to hear it most.

    1. Partnerships

    Do you partner with other organizations? Maybe resellers, sister companies, organizations that are in the same industry but offer different services? If so, joint initiatives, such as webinars and events, are a great way to grow your list. Just ask your partner organization to promote the content or event to their list and when someone downloads, signs-up or registers, make sure you give them an option to opt-in to your list.


    2. Gated Content

    When you work REALLY hard to create a piece of valuable content, like a whitepaper or a webinar, make sure you gate it with an email newsletter sign up form. People who are interested in your content will likely have no issues signing up to your list if you send them more, similarly useful, information.


    3. Free Giveaways

    Tempt people to opt-in to your list by offering them free stuff! Yes, this might seem a sneaky, but you’d be surprised at what a “Coffee on Us” campaign with a five dollar Starbucks gift card can accomplish.


    4. Tradeshows and Events

    Create a paper email opt-in form, print lots of copies and take it to your tradeshows and events. When a customer or potential customer approaches your booth and has a good conversation with you, ask them to opt-in to your list so that you can send them information that is relevant to their role. Giving away a small promo item, like a pen or a USB stick, also works as incentive.


    5. Forward to Friend

    Always include a ‘Forward to Friend’ and ‘Opt-In’ feature in your email communications to your list. If your content is valuable, this feature will make it easy for your contact to forward the info to their network and for others to easily opt-in to your list. It will also allow you to track, through your email management tool, who the email was forwarded to so that your potential customer will be on your radar.


    If you’d like to learn more CASL complaint ways to grow your email list, contact us. We’ve built targeted campaigns for our clients and have helped them achieve over 200% growth in their lists in just over a year.

     

    Disclaimer: Mezzanine B2B Growth Agents  is not a law firm and our website does not provide legal advice. None of our team members or employees are lawyers and we do not provide legal advice. Although we go to great lengths to make sure our information is accurate and useful, we recommend you consult a lawyer if you want legal advice on CASL compliancy. You can find more information about CASL on the Government of Canada’s website, here.