Cold emails are known as a type of email used many times in the world of marketing. They can be used by professional, or even private use. But are cold emails illegal? First of all, we must know exactly what a cold email is and how it is structured.
Generally, it’s a difficult email to make, because the audience isn’t exactly clear. This means that it is information, or an email, that you do not know what kind of person it will reach, or who will read it.
What is a cold email?
A cold email is one of the new methods of prospecting that knocks from door to door in an intrusive and universal way, without any personalization. That is, millions of people (no matter how different they are) will receive exactly the same mail. And they are mainly used to publicize some service, company or product.
However, there is a constant trade-off between whether a cold email is considered spam, or is not legal in the United States. But it’s worth mentioning, that SPAM is not necessarily illegal. And a cold email may not be considered SPAM.
Besides, more and more people are wondering if cold email is legal, because it usually disrupts a person’s wishes or their right to decide what kind of advertising to watch. Despite this, it is increasingly popular and common because it is a very economical marketing strategy.
The truth is, in the United States, these types of emails shouldn’t be considered illegal as long as they are written and sent under the CAN-SPAM laws. Otherwise, a person would be fully entitled to file any kind of complaint, legally correct.
What is the CAN-SPAM Law?
The CAN-SPAM Law came into force in 2003. Where all the requirements are established for a commercial email to be legal and accepted by people. In addition, this law gives the right to all recipients to request the permanent pause of these emails. It also details all kinds of sanctions and infractions that, if you commit, will be considered a crime.
Specifically, this law will apply to any email whose primary purpose is commercial advertising or promotion of a service or product. Therefore, if your focus is to grow your business through cold mail, make sure it follows the regulations and guidelines established within this law.
What is the opt-out method?
One of the most important requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act is that you are obliged to stop sending emails to any recipient who requests it. And if you continue to send cold emails, you will be penalized because you would be committing an infraction against the law.
In addition, addressee can now unsubscribe from any subscription, or avoid continuing to receive cold emails by simply clicking on the unsubscribe link. And in the same way, you are obliged to contact the addressee to propose various ways in which you can unsubscribe voluntarily.
On the other hand, in the event that an addressee decides to unsubscribe, such cancellations must be carried out within 10 days. That means that whoever decides not to continue receiving your messages, gives you a period of exactly 10 days to remove it from your email list.
In these cases, it is highly recommended to have some kind of automated sales marketing strategy, which allows you to track these casualties efficiently. Because from the eleventh day, if the addressee still continues to receive emails from you, it will be considered an infringement.
Misleading subject lines in cold emails
One of the main reasons why cold emails are frowned upon is because in their first moments, they began to be extremely misleading. Sellers, in order to increase the number of views, used fake subjects in their emails.
For example, any person could receive an email marked “URGENT: someone is injured”, just in order for the person to open the mail. However, these types of suspicious practices violate CAN-SPAM laws.
However, since such behaviors were highly rejected, systems such as Growbots have helped medium and large companies to grow properly. For example, subject messages can be customizable, friendly, or humorous. With the idea of attracting people’s attention in a way that is not misleading or worrying.
Is sending cold mail effective?
Keep in mind that even though this is one of the most widely used marketing tools, it is very cheap and therefore of very low quality. Generally, when you don’t take the time to prepare a database yourself, this type of information is usually very outdated.
Therefore, you risk sending cold emails to invalid email addresses. That is why cold email lists are very frowned upon by companies like Growbots, which focus on offering adequate services for the growth of your company.
In addition, considering how high rebound rates can be, which usually reach up to 25%, you make your company look very frowned upon. And not only that, but any person or company that uses a shared IP will be left with a very bad reputation.
However, there are certain ways to avoid having a very high bounce rate. The first thing is to have a reliable data provider, which uses email cleaning tools so that bounce rates are acceptable. The better data, contribution networks, external partners and human researchers you have, the greater the effectiveness of this famous marketing technique.
Finally, as long as you send your cold emails under the rules established by the CAM-SPAM law you will not be violating the law in the United States. In addition, applied in a proper way, it can be positive for your company.