If you read the past blog entry 3 Steps to Understand How the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) Applies to Your Charitable Organization, hopefully some of you had the opportunity to breath. In this blog entry I will highlight 3 key steps to embark on the CASL and your business. The CASL came into effect July 1st 2014 and the chatter in the digital space was that some start ups shared a collective concern in being able to comply by the date. I also noticed a few companies didn’t realize the legislation’s seriousness and importance. I’m an Interactive Media Manager, not a lawyer, so my paraphrasing of random items within the legislation is for the purposes of this blog only. I’m just telling a story and you take from it what you will.
My understanding of the legislation is that businesses need permission to send people spam mail (mass email) selling their wares, keeping customers abreast of company growth and information. The way businesses that operate in the digital space have operated over the course of years has been defined by the CRTC as commercial electronic messages (CEM). As an example, if your marketing firm releases a mass text message campaign asking to support a local DJ by voting for them at a particular website this may be a CEM.
For a good chunk of the larger companies I saw examples of well thought out campaigns combined with timing and execution while launching their consent campaigns, all to gain consent from the masses. Mail outs were happening a month in advance of the legislation coming into effect, which is the sign to me of a smart company that has trust that upper management all working together as a finely tuned machine. For some startups, there were challenges and roadblocks. For the most part these challenges and roadblocks from my opinion are self-generated. Within an era where business owners are consciously watching their purse strings, every step is generally prefaced with “is this going to cost me”. Well, I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and the fines associated with the CASL are rather significant if the legislation isn’t followed.
Other concerns that stick out to me is the general notion that it’s going to be one of the most challenging pieces of legislation to enforce, and as a startup your company will be fine. As noted before, the fines associated with the CASL are significant, why be the company that wants to challenge the machine? With legislation such as this it’s built to prevent the ill doings of people who choose to abuse the system. To put it into further perspective, years ago the CRTC came out with the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). This platform provides consumers with a choice about receiving telemarking calls. It also came out with a code of conduct called Telemarketers Responsibility. These rules are present to protect the consumer from the enormous amount of phone calls that would occur during dinnertime. The DNCL rules are enforced in using citations, violations and penalties. Businesses started getting reported and penalties were to be enforced 2009 and are still being reported to this date, decisions related to administrative monetary penalties are only known up to 2012.
Another aspect that I found interesting was the last minute start up scramble. This aspect was a little concerning for me when it came to startups. How many of us received an email requesting consent the week it was due? As a mature post grad student, I’ve been re-learning time management for myself.
The last minute scramble are signs your staff managing the implementation of your digital space didn’t get on the same page soon enough. It’s not anyone’s fault as startups live and learn, but if its your own your start up you should have had that sit down with your interactive manager to find out how much time would be needed from their end to carry out the process 2 to 3 months prior to the legislation being passed. As an eager intern, I brought it up to mine the day after I learnt about it in May 2014. As Interactive Media Managers we need time roll out campaigns. For example, if you work in the digital space and have an understanding of what it takes to roll out a campaign you know that sometimes it can take up to a week for an average sized (2500 to 5000 emails) mailing lists to be distributed. A fair assessment would be that we have 1.5 to 2 months total to provide a quantitative report. With at least a week for the mail outs to be sent from the vendor, a month for people to respond and 2 to 3 weeks to collect the user-generated data of the campaign. This is a crucial point in adhering to timelines for any campaign.
Whether you’re a start-up that felt like a deer in the headlights or haven’t complied thinking the law may not apply to you or your business did a quick fix thinking you could hide under the radar here are three key steps that I have that will provide you with what you need from an interactive Media Managers point of view:
STEP 1: TALK TO LEGAL COUNSEL
A lawyer that is knowledgeable of the laws in the digital space and an understanding of what your companies do in the digital space will be able to provide you with the proper advice to move forward. If you are an Interactive Media Manager and you work for a start up and they come straight to you to ask you to deal with it, this would still be my 1st recommendation if I were in your shoes. Only a lawyer who has become familiar with the laws of the digital space can find out how the law applies to you, what needs to be done and possibly provide you with what the key wording of the campaign needs to be. Legalese may confuse some people and the companies communication department can work with the lawyer in order simplify the wording.
STEP 2: BREATHE
If you are truly trying to do your due diligence and adhere to the legislation Step 1 should have been completed, successfully. Breathe again, now you should know, or have an idea of additional costs and manpower. It’s going to be okay, you will be able to recoup the additional costs. Focus on the fact you are leading the pack amongst your peers in a good way.
STEP 3: TRUST YOUR INTERACTIVE MEDIA MANAGER
Your Interactive Media Manager is the individual within your company that manages your online content. This individual may also be responsible for supervising the roll out of your online campaigns. This individual will be aware of how long it takes for a picture to be posted for your brand on Facebook or send out a mass email campaign to your customers in a timely manner. Trust in that information.