A marketers we write headlines all the time, whether it’s for a blog post, an article, an email, a sales letter or an ad. As you know, the better your headline, the more people will read your words and possibly take the action you seek.
Here are 15 ideas for headlines. Next time you’re stuck for what to write, simply refer back to this page. In fact, you might want to print it out and tack it up next to your desk.
15 Profitable Headline Ideas:
Give news using words such as “new,” “introduction” or “announcing.” “Introducing A Painless Way To Remove Skin Lesions Forever.”
Use numbers and statistics. “Unprecedented 88 Miles To The Gallon.”
Make a recommendation. “The 3 Niches You Must Be In NOW.”
Ask a question. “What Do Successful Marketers Have That You Lack?”
Tie in to current events. “How This Year’s Election Provides You With A Unique Investment Opportunity.”
Give the reader a command, telling him or her to do something. “Try This Weight Loss Snack And See If It Doesn’t Taste Exactly Like A Decadent Candy Bar.”
Use words that paint a picture. “How To Be As Muscular As Arnold Schwarzenegger In His Prime.”
Tell a story. “The Bully Laughed When I Fell To The Ground, But He Wasn’t Expecting What Happened Next…”
Create new terminology. “New Wixor Method Instantly Doubles The Conversion Rate On Your Website.”
Caution them. “How To Avoid The Costliest Mistake You Can Make In Building Your Online Business.”
State a startling benefit. “Get Your Own Virtual Assistant For Just $5 An Hour.”
Tell them your amazing offer. “Everything You Need To Make Your Own Beer For Just $29.”
Make a comparison. “Get Twice As Many Widgets For Half The Price Of Our Competition.”
Use a testimonial. “Before Taking This Course I Was Broke… Now I’m Debt Free And Financially Secure.”
Make a seemingly contradictory promise. “Eat As Much As You Want And Still Lose Weight.”
What’s the easiest way to make money online, without having to create a product or a sales page? Affiliate marketing, of course. 🙂
So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance (I’ll wager the number is closer to 98%, in fact.)
Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?
But guaranteed, there is someone else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.
Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?
There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.
And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.
1: Build a Relationship
I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.
If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.
This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.
Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and so forth.
Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mention that.
Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not give a resume.
And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.
But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your uncle’s barn into the manure pile.
And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnet, your emails, your other blog posts and so forth.
Always inject a little bit about yourself. Not so much that you bore people, of course, or make everything seem about you. But just enough to keep it real.
Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped in the mud puddle just before your big presentation?
Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers as well.
Post on your blog as often as possible, and we’re talking every day or two. Encourage your list to subscribe to Feedburner or the equivalent so they know when you add a new post.
Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5 minutes. And they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages.
2: Use Your Own Voice
How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – so rush right over and buy it now.”
Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.
There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers.
Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25 word email that basically says, “GO BUY THIS NOW!”
People are TIRED of getting these emails. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.
Same phrases, same message, same B.S.
If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting.
Instead, take 30 minutes and write your own promotional email in your own voice.
Forget hype. Be sincere. Be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people. And it’s on sale right now, too.”
I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do xyz.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want (fill in the blank.) It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.
But the point isn’t tricking them into buying; it’s to be honest. Because you know what? That latest, greatest product you’re promoting ISN’T what everyone on your list needs. Some of them, sure. The rest of them, no.
Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to open an email that says, “Here’s a new product, thought you might want to know, but please don’t buy it if you’re not going to use it.”
The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without even reading the sales letter. True story. I was just so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat, that I jumped at the chance to buy it.
Weird but true.
My point is, be you. Be honest. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends and you don’t want to lose your best friends by acting like a carnival barker who is here today and pulled up stakes (vanished) tomorrow with their money.
3: Email a LOT
This is the one where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.
You’ve heard over and over again that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?
After all, every time you email, there is the potential that a subscriber will hit the unsubscribe button.
Do you know what the potential is when you DON’T email? Nothing. No opens, no clicks, no sales… not even any relationship building.
Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY.
Here’s why:
First, almost no one will see every email you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the one and only email you send that lets them know, then they’ve missed out on the discount and you LOST a sale.
Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was VERY interested in the new membership he was selling, clicked the link and discovered it was no longer available.
What happened? This particular marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 a.m. my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the avalanche of mail I get before I wake up.
Third, if you’re sending email once a week or once a month, your readers are forgetting who the heck you are. And when you finally do send an email, they think it’s spam.
Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Don’t take my word on this, just do it for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more – a LOT more – money during that time period than during the previous month.
And by the way, I’m not saying JUST send out a promotion in each email. Make sure you have some content in there as well, even if it’s just an amusing anecdote.
4: Think of affiliate marketing as a BUSINESS
This isn’t a hobby, nor is it an add-on for an additional income stream.
Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to send out an email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business that you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.
You don’t have many support issues, since the product owners handle this. You don’t have to worry about creating products, sales pages and so forth. You don’t have to drive traffic, unless it’s to build your list bigger.
With so much you don’t have to do, there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy into building relationships with your list and promoting to them every single day.
Affiliate marketing can be some of the easiest money you’ve ever made, if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.
You have the potential to achieve great things, and to do something extraordinary, whether it’s in your online business or something else.
And achieving the extraordinary is more possible than ever before, thanks to the technologies and knowledge we have today.
However, it’s also easier than ever before to get distracted, too.
So, how do you stay focused? And how do you ensure that you are making progress every single day?
By taking a lesson from other successful people who have reached their goals.
There is a common fallacy in our culture known as the ‘overnight success.’
Someone achieves something great, and because this person was previously an unknown, people say s/he achieved this success seemingly overnight, out of thin air.
But as you might expect, it actually takes years to become an overnight success.
If you ask any entrepreneur or actor who made it big, you’ll find they worked hard for years before achieving their goals.
Think about this: You’re an actor, going up for a major role. If you get it, this will be your big break.
But you’re up against another actor for that same role.
This actor has been taking acting classes for 10 years, taking part in local theater, auditioning for every part possible, and taking every job she’s offered.
You’ve been ‘acting’ for 10 years, too, but in that time you really haven’t done much.
You didn’t take any acting lessons.
You didn’t participate in local theater.
You didn’t audition for a part unless you ‘felt like it.’
Needless to say, it’s the other actor who gets the part and becomes an ‘overnight success,’ all because she’s been working hard for a decade to get ready for this exact moment.
I’m going to share something with you right now that is life-changing.
However, since you’ve probably heard this before, you’re also likely going to dismiss this.
That would be a grave mistake.
What I’m about to impart will make the difference in a life of mediocrity and stellar success, and it’s this:
Every single day, without fail, determine the ONE thing you need to accomplish to move forward on your goal, and DO IT.
If you can only get one thing done, what would it be?
Ask yourself this question every night before going to bed, and again the next morning.
If you get just ONE thing done, what should it be?
The key here is to focus on importance, not busy work.
Contacting ten possible new clients is a step forward. Clearing your desk is not. Yes, it might be important to have a tidy desk, but how does that advance your goals?
There is the story of the professor who holds up a glass beaker in front of the class. The professor fills the beaker with large rocks all the way to the top, and then he asks the class if the beaker is full.
“Yes!” the students reply.
Then the professor pours small pebbles into the beaker that fit all around the large rocks. Again, he asks the class if the beaker is full.
“Yes!” comes the reply.
Finally, the professor pours sand into the beaker, which fills in the gaps around the pebbles.
Now the beaker is full.
But what if the professor had put the sand in first, or the pebbles in first? Then the professor could not have fit the big rocks into the beaker.
The things you need to do to advance your goals are your big rocks. You’ve got to do these things first, or they will never get done. If you focus your efforts all day long on sand and pebbles, you will always be busy, but you won’t accomplish anything.
Choose one thing per day, the one BIG thing you can do to advance your goals, and do that thing first, no matter what.
Have you ever met someone who was an idea machine?
You give them a problem to solve, and in just a few minutes they’ve come up with half a dozen creative ideas.
In fact, you can ask them anything, and they’ll give you enough ideas to keep yourself busy for weeks.
But… wouldn’t you like to be that idea machine?
Just one idea – the right idea – can be worth millions. The problem is, in order to have that million dollar idea, you first need to have hundreds or thousands of ideas that aren’t as good.
Case in point: Imagine you never work out, and then one day you’ve got to lift a heavy object off of your own chest or you’ll die.
If you’re weak as water and can’t lift that thing, then you’re a goner.
But if you’ve been exercising your muscles, then you can throw that object across the room and go about your life.
Your brain works much the same way as a muscle.
If you use it daily, it’s sharp and ready to tackle whatever comes its way.
But if you just park your brain in front of the television all day long, it’s going to be weak as water, too.
And when you need it most, it’s going to fail you.
James Altucher says that when the gun is to your head, you either figure it out or you die.
Think of the times in your life when you hit bottom and you were forced to come up with ideas.
The worse the situation you’re in, the more motivation you have to come up with some great ideas.
But if you haven’t been using your brain much, then it’s going to be difficult.
That’s why it’s important to exercise your brain right now, because ideas are the currency of life.
When you become an idea generating machine, you’ll be able to solve any problem (almost).
No matter what situation you’re in, you’ll have a ton of ideas. If you need to make money, you’ll come up with 50 different ideas, and so on.
Here’s a process the aforementioned Altucher recommends for turning yourself into an idea machine:
Get a waiter’s pad, or any pad that fits in your pocket.
Sit quietly – maybe in a café somewhere – and read an inspirational book for ten to twenty minutes.
Then start writing down ideas. Any ideas. All ideas.
You’ve got to write 10 ideas.
Yes, ten.
Pick a subject and come up with ten ideas. Maybe it’s 10 ideas for a book you want to write.
10 ideas on how to get a better job or get a raise.
10 business ideas.
10 ideas on how to meet women (or men.)
The first 5 will be easy. 6 is a little harder. 7 through 10 might feel like they’re going to break your brain.
But… what if you can’t come up with 10 ideas?
Then come up with 20.
If you can’t find 10 ideas, then you’re putting too much pressure on yourself to come up with PERFECT ideas.
Forget perfect.
Forget trying to top the ideas you already wrote down.
Focus on coming up with BAD ideas, and your brain will relax.
You’ll have fun.
Creativity will flow, and you’ll be surprised at what you think of.
Do this exercise every day.
EVERY day.v
At the end of one year, you’ll have 3,650 ideas.
Hopefully you’ve acted on a few of them.
The point is to exercise your brain so that no matter what happens in life, you can find the solution.
But how do you act on an idea?
By taking the first step.
Here’s Altucher’s favorite example of acting on an idea:
“Richard Branson didn’t like the service on some airline he was flying. So he had an idea: I’m going to start a new airline. How the heck can a magazine publisher start an airline from scratch with no money?
“His first step. He called Boeing to see if they had an airplane he could lease.
“No idea is so big you can’t take the first step. If the first step seems to hard, make it simpler. And don’t worry again if the idea is bad. This is all practice.”
The ten ideas exercise is my favorite brain exercise, but I encourage you to do other brain exercises as well.
Choose exercises that help with memory, increase creativity, or somehow enhance your cognitive skills.
Pick what works best for you, because it helps if you like what you’re doing.
If you dread something it will never be a daily habit, and the whole idea is to be consistent in striving to reach your goals.
This might be the most important word in the copywriter’s arsenal, ranking higher than even “free,” “new” and “savings.” Do you have any guesses as to what this word is?…
We’re talking about the word “you.”
Using the word “you” gets your prospect’s attention and keeps them reading. It’s vital that your reader regards herself as the target of your message, and there is perhaps no better way to begin that process than to use the word “you.”
Your goal is to build a relationship with your prospect, as in, “We.” But paradoxically, the best way to build the relationship is to talk about “You” a whole lot more than you refer to “we.”
Think of a conversation with someone new. If you allow them to do the talking while you listen attentively, they’re going to think you’re the greatest conversationalist in the world.
But if you talk about yourself, they’re not going to think nearly as well of you.
And this goes for anyone. Imagine meeting a world leader you respect, and they show interest in YOU. How great would that be?
But if they ramble on about themselves (as you would expect they might) you’ll be happy to have met them because it makes for a great story, but you won’t be walking away with the warm fuzzies. And that’s somebody well known and regarded.
When we come to our prospects, they often don’t know us from Adam, or they only know us from some emails and blog posts. Certainly, we’ve never sat down over a cup of tea and gotten to know each other.
That’s why, if your goal is to put prospects first, it’s best to have the “you’s” far exceed the “we’s.”
It’s the “you’s” that matter to prospects. They’re your workhorse for communicating your message and include all derivatives such as “your,” “yours,” “yourself,” “you’re,” and “you’ll.”
I wonder if I can use all 6 of these in a sentence or two…
“You will love seeing how happy your family is when you get this product for yourself. You’re simply going to be overjoyed at knowing from now on, the world is yours and you’ll be able to do anything you want.”
Okay, maybe it is possible to overdo the “you’s” and all the derivatives, but not by much. When you’ve written your copy, go back and see how many you’s there are.
Then add some more, changing “we” and “I” to “you” whenever possible.
Then read the copy out loud, and unless the amount of “you’s” seems crazy, you’ve probably got it about right.
People care more about themselves than anything. This isn’t to put people down – not at all. It’s simply the way we’re wired for survival, and you can use that knowledge to get your prospect to pay attention to your message.
What else makes “you” so powerful? For one thing, it addresses your readers directly. In effect, it says “Hey you,” which is much harder to ignore than “Hey somebody.”
Say “Hey you” in a crowded room and a lot of heads will turn. Say “Hey somebody” and a few heads might turn.
Think about conversations you’ve had. When you say the word, “you,” doesn’t the other person pay closer attention? “What do YOU think?” “Are YOU going to that event?” “I hope you’ll enjoy this restaurant – what do you think of the decor?”
When people say these things to you, they get your attention and involvement. After all, they’re interested in your opinion. They’re interested in the things you do. They have something to tell you that will make you happy.
That’s the goal of you-oriented copy. Address your audience directly, personally and in terms of their interests. Be conversational and “you” will pop up in the copy naturally.
Newsweek used the exact same subscription solicitation letter for nearly two decades. This is the letter they sent out to cold prospects, asking them to subscribe.
If they used the same letter for nearly 20 years, then clearly it was effective – so effective that no control could beat it. Why did it work so well? Perhaps it’s because the word “you” was used nearly 30 times on the first page alone.
More than 100 million copies of the letter were mailed, a testament to its effectiveness.
When you write your sales copy, don’t forget things like benefits and having a great offer. All the “you’s” in the world won’t overcome a lack of a great offer and awesome benefits.
But if you have something to offer your reader that is truly beneficial, focusing your message on your prospect and using the word “you” can mean the difference between mediocre sales and a control sales letter that continues to make sales for a very long time to come.
If you don’t have time to write 6 or 7 emails each week to send to your email list, try this method instead: Pick out several evergreen products that you know and trust and can promote to your list for months and even years to come… For example, choose your favorite hosting service or autoresponder if you’re building in the online marketing niche.
Write 4 emails for each of these evergreen products. They can be stand alone emails or a sequence with each email building on the previous one, whichever you prefer. Put a link in each email to the product or service you are promoting.
Place these sequences into your autoresponder and schedule them to begin going out as soon as someone joins your list.
However, cue these emails so they only go out on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Monday and Wednesday are reserved for new emails you write, promoting new products.
No matter when a new lead signs up, they start on the email sequences you’ve programmed, but they never receive them on Monday or Wednesday because this is when you send out your new, live emails.
Now you’re only having to write two emails per week.
Once you get used to sourcing products to promote and writing the emails for them, you have a choice: You can either send more live emails and fewer autoresponder emails, or you can use some of your new emails as automated sequences (assuming the products stay relevant and available.)
This method is a great way to ease into emailing 6 days a week, and it’s perfect for the person who is currently working a full time job but looking to quit as soon as the online income is high enough.
It’s also perfect for the new marketer who takes a long time to write an email. No worries, you’ll get faster with time.
Try this method and see if it doesn’t take some of the email writing pressure off of you.
Okay, I’m not going to pass judgement – good or bad, on what I’m about to reveal.
Some would say this is 100% ethical, and I won’t argue. Others will say something that involves cuss words, and I won’t argue with that, either.
I would just like to point something out, and whether you use this information for your own protection or to increase your own sales is up to you.
Fair enough?
I was sent an email claiming that this person wanted to make my sales for me. In fact, the exact words were, “You will make sales for doing nothing, guaranteed!”
Yeah. Uh-huh.
So, I read the email (mostly for laughs, but… you know) and clicked the link.
Mind you, the person who sent this is no slouch. He’s been around. He’s probably made a boatload of money. And I’m sure this promotion alone is making him another boatload of money. But I digress.
I was sent to a page with a recording from a webinar (which I did not watch.) Beneath the webinar replay, after the usual, “We’ve already sold 15 and there are only 5 left” comments, it said:
“We’ll promote Bob’s top selling product for 7 days to our 200,000 subscribers using your affiliate link.”
“We will send at least 3 broadcast emails per day for 7 days using YOUR affiliate link promoting Bob’s best selling product. You will receive 100% of all sales made through your link.”
Ugghhh. Whenever I read something like this, I always think that if there’s sales to be made, then they sure as heck won’t be using someone else’s affiliate link to make the sales.
This emailing they want to do is a bonus for buying the product in the webinar. And I’m sure it’s an expensive product.
Let’s see… if they send out my affiliate link 3 times a day for 7 days to 200,000 subscribers, that’s a possible 4,200,000 exposures of my affiliate link to their readers. Right?
Nope.
Here’s where you need to read the fine print. Or in this case, the print that’s found way… Way… WAY… down at the bottom of the page.
Oh-oh, what’s this??
“Your affiliate link will be put in a rotation system with a maximum of 20 links for the entire 21 email campaign over the full week to our 200,000 subscribers, promoting your link.”
Forget the 4,200,000 exposures of your affiliate link. We’re now back to 210,000 exposures.
Big difference, wouldn’t you say?
I’ve no doubt they will make sales (of whatever is being promoted on the webinar) to people who think they’re going to have their link promoted 3 times a day for 7 days to 200,000 subscribers.
And yes, they did come clean later on the page. Is it deceptive? Like I said, I’m not judging, just providing information.
One last thing… do you think they’ll be sending out 3 emails per DAY promoting the same product for SEVEN days to their best, most active subscribers?
Or let me put it this way… would you?
Or would you send the emails out to the ‘dead wood’ on your list – those subscribers who haven’t opened an email in six months or a year?
I don’t know who they’re sending the emails to – yes, it could very well be their hottest, best subscribers.
And yes, they could have inadvertently ‘forgotten’ to let customers know up front that they would only be receiving 210,000 mailouts, not the 4,200,000 it’s made to look like. But it sure does make you wonder.
In my view, it’s best to be honest and up front. Tell your visitors what you’re going to give them, and what they can expect, and then deliver. In fact, over-deliver. Do this, and you’ll do just fine building a business online and anywhere else you setup shop.
This is a great approach for someone who is new in their niche and wants to build a reputation and list while still making really good money.
I met this guy who is fairly new to the internet marketing realm. He’s no expert or guru and yet he’s making about $12,000 a month from the start.
He realized that it’s a lot easier to sell a $1,000 product one time than to sell a $10 product 100 times. For one thing, the customer service for one person versus 100 people is like night and day. For another thing, it’s so easy to give stuff away rather than sell it. He’s sort of sneaking under people’s radar with this method.
He runs promotions, free WSO’s, advertises on Facebook, has a Facebook Group and so forth. And on all of these platforms, he’s giving away his stuff.
People opt in to his list just like you would expect, and then they’re presented with an upsell, again just like you would expect.
Except… here’s where it’s different – he even gives away his upsell.
I know, how crazy is that?
Then he gives his list tons of stuff for free, too. His subscribers open his emails (his open rate is INSANE) because they know he’s always giving them awesome content FOR FREE.
This builds trust like you would not believe. His list isn’t all that big yet, but it doesn’t matter because his subscribers LOVE him.
Then once a month he opens a limited number of slots to work directly with him on a one-to-one basis at different levels.
He offers email coaching, personal coaching over Skype once a week, and even a higher level of coaching. His prices run from about $250 to $3,000, depending on the package.
Like I said, this guy is new to the internet marketing realm – he just started about a year ago… Yet he’s bringing in about $12,000 a month with this model.
He never promotes affiliate products, only his own stuff. And he gives away everything but the expensive products.
Dan Kennedy tells the story of one of his clients who ran an introduction agency for divorced American men to meet foreign brides. (This was during the pre-internet days.)
Dan persuaded his client to raise his price from $395 to $3,995. (Not a typo – he multiplied his price by 10.)
Would you like to guess what happened to sales?
Believe it or not, they stayed THE SAME. But of course the owner made a LOT more money – ten times as much, to be exact.
Most marketers look at what their competition is charging, and they charge about the same. But what they don’t realize is their competitors probably did the same thing.
There’s a pizza place in a major city that has probably 100 competitors. Yet this pizza place outsells all of them, and does it without offering coupons or special deals, either.
How do they do it? Positioning. They claim to be a ‘gourmet’ establishment, and they charge more than any of their competitors.
Sometimes you just need to establish yourself as the premium option to set yourself apart. Other times you might need to add something to your product or service, such as personal involvement, to make it exclusive.
If you’re competing on price alone, you’re never going to do well. But if you can reposition your offer so that you can charge more – maybe even twice as much or five times as much – then you become the gold standard that people want.
The FTC rigorously enforces email compliance laws. Make sure that your strategy is aligned with the CAN-SPAM Act so that you’re not exposed to potential lawsuits.
Here are the rules that businesses must follow:
Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information — including the originating domain name and email address — must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address.
This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity.
Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.
You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request.
Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law.
Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.
