Even perfectly compliant email copy can become a non-compliant nightmare once it exchanges hands with an affiliate—and the company being promoted is the one held responsible for any violations, like CAN-SPAM.
For companies that rely on heavy seasonal promotion schedules, Q4 and Q1 can generally see exceptionally high volumes of marketing emails sent out to capture as much market share as possible.
With the stakes as high as they are during this busy season, the last thing a company needs is a compliance violation to deal with. In the spirit of the holiday season, in this blog, we’ll discuss ways to prevent you from earning a spot on the FTC’s naughty list.
Email Marketing in Q4 & Q1
Email marketing is a year-round activity, but for some of the more seasonal companies, Q4 and the start of Q1 represent the bulk of their business. This includes but isn’t limited to, organizations such as:
- Credit card companies: Spending in anticipation of the holidays can drive new sign-ups
- Tax companies: Tax preparation begins to ramp up in January
- Weight loss/supplements: The New Year’s resolution boom
- Debt consolidation: Increased financial strain after a holiday spending spree or wanting a fresh start in the new year
Most of these organizations utilize partners or affiliates to send marketing emails out on their behalf. These affiliate companies often have access to a broader or more targeted audience to sell products.
Unfortunately, affiliate email campaigns can be a compliance minefield, especially during peak seasons, if left unchecked.
The Price of Email Non-Compliance
When working with an affiliate, it’s not uncommon for fine details or specific content requests to be lost or changed during the handoff between the company and the affiliate.
It could be a missing disclosure, unclear opt-out language, or improper branding. Given the massive volume of emails being sent, many potential problems could result in non-compliance with CAN-SPAM laws.
And if a CAN-SPAM violation happens to be committed, the company being promoted is held responsible—not the affiliate.
With each email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act subject to penalties of up to $51,744, that could end up being a costly mistake!
And that’s not even to mention the potential reputational damage that could also follow.
For every marketing manager who needs to solve this visibility gap, LashBack’s proprietary software has the solution.
Using LashBack for Email Compliance
especially when it comes to compliance, both on the brand and legal sides. One way to solve this in the past has been for a marketing manager to physically sign up to receive emails from the affiliate and manually monitor all of the branded emails that are sent out.
This is an incredibly manual and time-consuming process, one that is prone to mistakes and oversights. In most cases, it is simply not an efficient, effective, or scalable solution.
LashBack bridges the visibility gap between companies and their affiliates by proactively finding, monitoring, and reporting on email affiliate activities. Potential brand or compliance issues are automatically surfaced within the emails found for your organization, and a way is provided to address violations proactively from within the platform.
This, in turn, helps reduce risk and ensure comprehensive compliance with legal requirements and corporate policies while keeping a record of everything in one place.
A Competitive Advantage
In a crowded industry, any competitive advantage can help an organization stand out from its counterparts. At the end of the year, it can take a lot to stand out in a virtual sea of email promotions.
In addition to compliance monitoring, LashBack also provides organizations with the tools to perform comprehensive competitive research and analysis. This is accomplished through LashBack’s searchable database of over 200 million recent email messages.
Are you curious about what subject line a competitor is using? How they’re messaging their product? What creatives they are using? Get access to the entire email to see how you stack up against them.
LashBack also pulls back the curtain on advanced delivery performance metrics. Identify which offers, agencies, networks, and publishers are achieving the highest delivery rates and use this information to optimize your campaigns.
Email Compliance Benefits
For industries with heavy seasonality, having a tool like LashBack can be an especially important secret weapon for:
- Credit Card Companies: Monitor email campaigns that drive holiday sign-ups and see what introductory offers competitors have.
- Tax Companies: Ensure emails comply with stringent regulations as tax season ramps up.
- Weight Loss Supplements: Prevent misleading or unsubstantiated claims and maintain brand trust during peak season.
- Debt Consolidation: Verify partners adhere to legal and ethical standards when launching potentially sensitive campaigns.
Don’t believe that violations could occur in your program? Our 2023 study found that over 34% of emails monitored by LashBack had compliance violations. Very few organizations can afford to have more than one-third of their emails failing to meet compliance standards.
Start the New Year Compliantly and Confidently
Can you afford to be non-compliant during your busiest season? LashBack simplifies the email compliance process for organizations aiming to kick off the new year successfully. It provides visibility into the actions of email partners and offers solutions to monitor competitor emails, giving organizations a significant competitive advantage during this critical time.
Interested in learning more? Request a demo of LashBack here!
